100-year-olds report lifetime of lousy health choices

[eShirl]

"Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that many very old people — age 95 and older — could be poster children for bad health behaviorwith their smoking, drinking, poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise.

"The very old are, in fact, no more virtuous than the general population when it comes to shunning bad health habits, leaving researchers to conclude that their genes are mostly responsible for their remarkable longevity."

-snip-

"The living, old people in the study were remarkably ordinary in their lifestyles, Barzilai said. By and large, they weren't vegetarians, vitamin-pill-poppers or health freaks. Their profiles nearly matched that of the control group in terms of the percentage who were overweight, exercised (or didn't exercise), or smoked. One woman, at age 107, smoked for over 90 years.

"Whatever killed the control group — cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases clearly associated with lifestyle choices — somehow didn't kill them. "Their genes protected them," Barzilai said. "

-snip-

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43992058/ns/health-aging/#.TjlammFEOl0


:party: :toast: :smoke: :donut: :loveya:

[closeupready]

1. I heartily give this a K&R.

:rofl:

[jpak]

2. damn those telomere thingys!

:D

[OHdem10]

3. It is all in the genes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I know a fellow who is 94, but he's a former doctor and he still runs just about everyday.

[bbgrunt]

5. my mom is 97 and still smoking a pack/day.

[flamingdem]

6. That's it, no more tofu! nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. The hell of it is, the recognising of the genetic winners comes long

after they and the genetic losers have passed along their respective genes.

[eridani]

15. Longevity has no bearing whatsoever on reproductive success

In a Darwinian sense, they are not winners unless they have a lot of adult children living to reproductive age.

[kestrel91316]

8. All 4 of my grandparents smoked part or most all of their lives. One passed

away age 72, but the other 3 all lived into their late 80s.

We have that longevity gene on both sides of my family. In studying our genealogy, I have noted that unless somebody died of trauma or its complications, most my ancestors died in their 80s, with some living into their 90s or even over 100, and I am talking as far back as I can research them - 1600s, 1700s, and to a lesser extent 1800s. In the 20th century I actually see MORE early deaths - possibly due to greater lifetime exposure to toxic substances derived from petroleum.

[provis99]

9. yeah, my former neighbor Louie just turned 101.

He was the local town hellraiser. Smoked constantly, ate heavy German food and sausages his whole life, drank mega-gallons of beer like a proper German immigrant, swore like a sailor, and STILL chases the women in the old folks home (he likes 'em younger, in their 80s!).

On the other hand, my Uncle Ron is a non-smoker, non-drinker, vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventist who does physical farm work, and he looks like he's at death's door (bad cholesterol, losing weight, heart problems).

I guess it really is the genes.

[Philippine expat]

10. Anyone with common sense would have figured "its the genes"

out years ago

[truedelphi]

13. One of the more interesting stories out there

About genetics and living longer - Maybe you know of it?

A group of women in their late teens had jobs painting the numerals on clocks. The trend at this time was to use a radioactive paint, so the clock could be seen at night in the dark.

This was around the year 1920. Many aspects of the job were delightful - the factory was on the shore of the Atlantic ocean, the breezes kept the workers cool in the summer.

And people were not yet that aware of the dangers of radioactivity. To do the job properly, the young women would put the tip of the paint brush in their mouths, and that way they could ensure a sharp tip for their painting, so the numbers would be crisp and clean.

A researcher some two decades later went out and searched for these women. In 95% of the cases, the woman who was on his list was dead. Usually relatives would relate how the woman had died within six to eight years of having held that job.

But one woman was still alive. He got a hold of her address. When he arrived at the street where she lived, and approached her front yard, his geiger counter went wild.

And she was inside the home, alive and well and totally unconcerned about all the radioactivity that her body held. She was healthy, and IIRC, so were her kids.

[applegrove]

11. My grandmother ate lots of sweets. She lived to be 103.

[truedelphi]

12. One other thing about living to be much o0lder -

If you should develop diabetes, start maintaining a written recording of all your test results, at least once you hit the age of 60.

People who do that live a lot longer.

I think it has to do with the fact that as we age, we get forgetful. We double-take our meds. And something as powerful as insulin can really screw us up if we are doubling up on it. Also, a diabetic faces a lot of problems if they forget to test their sugar levels.

Written records can help us where our memories fail us.

[Buddyblazon]

14. We studied this in school oh so many years ago..

the one thing they found in common amongst centenarians was their amazing ability to deal with stress. They just seem to handle it better than most. Even the death of someone close. They say the death of a loved one can take seven years off your life. Centenarians have had to deal with the loss of many loved ones. But it was almost as if they TRULY believed that life goes on after the death of someone close. It may sound harsh or cruel. But centenarians just have the ability to deal with that stuff better.

And that was sort of the conclusion that was talked about in that section of that class: 100 year olds all have one thing in common about their behavior...the ability to better cope with stress.