An interesting study delving into the reasons behind life’s longevity revealed that a good gene pattern is a major factor.
Right genes
take you a long way
The study posted on online journal Science reinforces the fact that apart from happier life, healthy lifestyle and environmental factors, heredity of better genes play an important role in the longevity of life.
Researchers have found a 'pattern of genes' that can accurately predict who might live 100 years or longer, even if they have other genes linked with disease.
The research, titled 'Genetic Signatures of Exceptional Longevity in Humans', was based on gene variants from more than 1,000 centenarians compared to 1,200 other people.
Gerontologists suggest that the link between genes and life span is unquestioned.
The simple observation that some species live longer than others -- humans live longer than dogs, tortoises longer than mice -- explains that genetic variations govern the age limit for different species.
Study stats
Several teams of researchers have identified genetic patterns linked with extreme old age, but the researchers led by Paola Sebastiani and Dr. Thomas Perls at Boston University say theirs provides the best accuracy yet.
In the study, researchers used a statistical method called genome-wide association.
The central focus of the research was what made elders live long and what kept them healthy and active until old age and so on.
Surprisingly, the longest-lived people had most of their genes linked with diseases similar to everyone else. Their old-age genes seemed to cancel out the effects of the disease-linked genes.
"A lot of people might ask, 'well who would want to live to 100 because they think they have every age-related disease under the sun and are on death's doorstep, and certainly have Alzheimer's', but this isn't true," Perls told reporters in brief.
"We have noted in previous work that 90 percent of centenarians are disability-free at the average age of 93,” he added.
The study also revealed that elder people above 100 might also be susceptible to common old age diseases such as dementia, heart failure, and cancer. However, it is remarkable that it would affect them much later than others.
Interestingly, current statistics suggest that about 1 in 6,000 people reach 100 and 1 in 7 million make it to 110.
The researchers denied the beliefs that certain populations in places such as Russia or Azerbaijan are more likely to have centenarians. “It is completely untrue,” they said.
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