No smoking If your parents lived a long and healthy life, or are still very much alive, it’s comforting to think you’ll do the same. After all, longevity is in your genes, right? Well, yes, say researchers, but how you live your life is more relevant than genes when it comes to your own life expectancy.
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg looked at data from a study called 1913 Men. The study began in 1963 on a group of 50-year-old men, all of whom lived in Gothenburg. The original study participants were examined again when they were 54, 60, 67, 75 and 80. Every ten years, a new group of 50-year-old men is called up to take part in the study. This has provided researchers with unique data allowing them to assess disease prevalence across generations as well as within specific age groups. Of the 855 men who took part in the study from the beginning, 13% were still alive at age 90.
The researchers looked at factors such as smoking, drinking coffee as well as socio-economic status, physical working capacity and cholesterol levels. What they found that those men who scored well in these areas (no smoking, moderate coffee consumption and so on) had the best chance of getting to 90 years old.
This, say the researchers, is good news for everyone because it shows that life expectancy isn’t strongly determined by something beyond our control – genes – it is something we can extend ourselves, by changing our habits. Although this study focused on men, women have been included in the long-term studies since 2003, so more data should be available in the future.
First published February 10, 2011