Longevity - is it in the Food, in Our Gene's, or is it Something More?

Researchers are finding that the secret to a longer life may not be just in what you eat. Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University are finding that your gene's play an important role in how long you'll live too.

The elderly people in the study were asked about their lifestyles at age seventy. This is considered a good age to see how they lived their adult life. They were asked about everything...weight, height, body mass, drinking, smoking, etc. And the diet they had.

To compare these to the general population, the researchers used three-thousand people who were born about the same time as the centenarians. Overall, they found that those that lived longer did not have any more a healthy diet or lifestyle than the general population.

For example, 27% of the elderly women and the same amount from the general population ate a low-calorie diet. Among the men, 24% drank alcohol on a daily bases compared to the general population of 22% doing so. 43% of the men centenarians engaged in regular exercise while 57% in the general population of the same age.

In other studies of Centenarians before, they've identified the gene variants that give certain physiology effects, like having a higher level of the good cholesterol levels.. The study also finds that the centenarians might have more longevity gene's to help them deal with the harmful effects of an unhealthy lifestyle.

The research also suggested that overweight centurions tend to not be so obese as the general population of the same age. The centenarians do tend to be just as overweight as the general population.

The longevity gene's may help some people live longer, it's the healthy diet that remains crucial for the general population. The Census Bureau in 2010, estimated there are about 425,000 people 95 and older living in the U.S. compared to the forty million people of sixty-five and over.

When asked by the researchers what the people in the study thought was the reason why they lived so long, one-third said family history, while 20% said physical activity did. Other factors was a positive attitude , active lifestyle, less smoking, and others.

Source
Lifestyles of the Elderly