Your potential life span is written in your genes, according to a new study. You can lengthen it a bit with a healthy lifestyle. But if your genetic potential is to live to be 80, for example, it is unlikely that anything you do will push your age at death up to 100. That, at least, is the conclusion of a paper published Thursday in Science.
Uri Alon of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and other researchers drew the data for the study from three sets of data from pairs of Swedish twins, including one set of twins that was reared apart. To test how generalizable the results are, the group also examined data from a study of 2,092 siblings of 444 Americans who lived to be over 100. Their goal was to identify outside factors that can affect how long someone lives, like infections or accidents, separate from the intrinsic factor of genetics.
They report that aging is mostly hereditary, a conclusion that flies in the face of much conventional medical wisdom regarding dieting, exercising and healthy habits. These habits are important for the quality of a person’s life, but they run into another form of conventional wisdom: You can’t make someone into a centenarian, unless that person also has a genetic inheritance of longevity. “If you are trying to gauge your own chances of getting to 100, I would say look at the longevity in your family,” said Dr.
Thomas Perls, a geriatrician and the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University. His study’s published data on U. S. centenarians were used in the new analysis, although he was not associated with the study. “This paper has a pretty powerful message,” said S. Jay Olshansky, an emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who was not involved in the study. “You don’t have as much control as you think.
” “Some of us are driving a Mercedes and some are driving a Yugo,” he said, referring to the low cost, compact car from the former Yugoslavia. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Want all of The Times? .
Historical precedents indicate similar situations have led to significant changes. This development has drawn significant attention from industry observers and stakeholders alike. Analysts suggest this could have lasting implications for the sector moving forward.
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