New study: centenarians are not born but made

I think that if your grandparents lived 100 years, and you can? Here and there: a new study says that longevity is more than 90% dependent on lifestyle and only a small part of the DNA. The results were published in the journal Genetics.

“People who study the history of their family, usually doing it because they are interested in issues of longevity,” said Cathy ball, one of the authors of the study. They and several other scientists analyzed the pedigrees of nearly half a million people, including not only blood relatives, but relatives from the wife or husband. And found that genes explain 20% to 30% of life expectancy. Moreover, this rating is reduced below 15% for relatives of the opposite sex.

And experts have found that spouses are more likely to live approximately the same number of years than his brothers and sister. Apparently, this is because the couple usually are like life: they eat the same, walk together and play sports together, go through medical examinations.

Besides, we tend to choose as partners people with similar Outlook, values and even financial condition. While income had a large impact on life expectancy: at least they allow you to eat, get rest and take care of your health.

According to the authors, taking into account all these factors, we find that the importance of heredity is not so great. In fact, it explains no more than 7% of longevity, and perhaps even less. Genes will not save you from an early death if you do not even try to lead a healthy lifestyle and be screened regularly.

Exactly what you need to do to live to be 100? Actually, not so much is required of you. Tell everything in the article, “5 habits that will help you live longer”.