Longevity comes naturally to centenarian offspring

New York, November 22: Centenarian offsprings are more likely to inherit longevity and live healthy with comparatively lower risk of heart disease, stroke or diabetes.

A study published in Journal of American Geriatrics Society's November issue indicates that people who live to 100 usually offer their children the best advantages of their "good genesdefine".

According to researcher Emily R. Adams and team at Boston University and Boston Medical Center, the U.S. study involving 600 older American citizens showed that, along with a reduced risk of stroke and diabetes, kids of centenarians live a long and healthy life and maintain a "cardiovascular advantage" in comparison to kids of people living an average lifespan.

The research team quoted in the journal that "These findings reinforce the notion that there may be physiological reasons that longevity runs in families and that centenarian offspring are more likely to age in better cardiovascular health and with a lower mortality than their peers."

Around 440 men and women with at least one centenarian parent and 192 adults with parents living an average lifespan were studied closely. Average age was 72 for both the groups at the time of commencement of the study.

Adams research team observed in the course of four years that centenarian offspring were 81 percent less prone to lead a short life and had an extended advantage over diabetes and heart ailments.

Amongst the centenarian group, 0.7 percent experienced heart attack, 1 percent had a stroke and 0.8 percent reported diabetic, while in the non-centenarian group 3.5 percent complained of heart attack, 6 percent of them had strokes and 5 percent of them were diagnosed with diabetes.

"The current findings suggest that centenarian offspring are following in their parent's footsteps, avoiding some of the vasculardefine morbidities afflicting their peers and, more importantly, being less likely to die over time," noted the research team.

Study co-author Dellara F. Terry said, "These advantages persisted over the several years of the study when they are compared to a similarly-aged group whose parents did not survive to very old age."

The longevity can be attributed to physiological and genetic factors, considering the survival rate of the participants.

The results of the study lay emphasis on better well-being which contributes to reduced cardiovascular ailments thereby elevating normal life expectancy of a person, say researchers.