Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100
Can you live to be a hundred? Specific sections of your genes might provide the answer, a new study says.
(Get a genetics overview.)
These long-life gene variants, the authors speculate, may suppress genes associated with ailments often linked to aging, such as dementia and heart problems.
"This is just a genetic predisposition," cautioned study leader Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at the Boston University School of Public Health. "It doesn't mean that you're going to live to be a hundred. Many things can happen in life."
Naturally, lifestyle choices, environment, and plain good luck will always play major roles in determining life span—as they may have for the 23 percent of centenarian test subjects found to lack the telltale gene variants.
Maybe this minority "lived long simply because they had some tricks and avoided risk factors," Sebastiani said. "Perhaps they didn't
