A New York man who does not have Alzheimer's, cancer or any other disease traditionally associated with aging continues to bewilder doctors as his 103rd birthday approaches.
Miguel Angel Cruz even had recent surgery to replace a narrowed heart valve, and still the 102-year-old shows no signs of wearing out, the New York Daily News reported in a profile on Cruz. The Puerto Rican-born centenarian also drives, plays pool and jogs in the hallways of his apartment.
"I didn't believe his age at first," Dr. Susheel Kodali, who performed Cruz's heart surgery, told the Daily News. "He is in better shape than many 70- and 80-year-olds we see."
Born Aug. 19, 1911, Cruz emigrated to the U.S., taking on multiple jobs including taxi driver, Spanish interpreter and bookkeeper before working as a housing assistant for the New York City Housing Authority for 25 years.
Cruz now has an apartment in New Jersey where his son and daughter live. But sometimes he rents a car and drives to his old church in Brooklyn, against the wishes of his son who fears he could have a heart attack.
"I have to like New Jersey now because my children are here and I need to live near them," Cruz, whose wife Consuelo died in 2011, told the Daily News. "But I'm a New Yorker. Greatest city in the world."
Cruz used to drink scotch and smoke Lucky Strike cigarettes in his 20s and 30s, two vices doctors say can prevent a person from reaching 80.
"Now, I eat oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and chicken or fish with wine for dinner," Cruz told the newspaper. "I love my glass of Merlot."
So why is Cruz still around after a hundred years? It's in his genes, doctors say.
"I don't think you can get to age 100 without extra help from biology and genetics," Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told the Daily News. "We age at different rates. You see people who look ten years younger or older than their age. Those who are 100 years old, their aging is slowed the most."
