Want to live to be a hundred? Don’t ask today’s centenarians for advice. According to researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, many centenarians have a history of making poor health choices, and genes, not lifestyle, is the reason they have lived to a ripe old age.

In the study, researchers followed 477 Ashkenazi Jews between the ages of 95 and 112. They compared the lifestyles of this group with the lifestyles of a second group of people representing the general population, people who were born around the same time as the Ashkenazi Jews but have since died. The results?

Though both groups led similar lifestyles, lifestyles that included smoking, drinking, and obesity, the living centenarians were apparently not as susceptible to the effects of these poor health choices as the group of people who have since passed away. Why?

"Their genes protected them," said Nir Barzilai, lead researcher.

Researchers hope to use the findings of this study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, to locate the genes that help people live long lives.

“If researchers can figure out which genes work to slow aging and make ordinary people more resilient to chronic disease, we all will have a much better chance of reaching our 100th birthday — and have enough breath to blow out the candles,” Barzilai said.

MSNBC

Photo Credit: morgueFile

Tags: centenarians, genes, long life, how to live longer
Categories: Men's health