Lifestyle Produces a Much Greater Contribution to Human Life Expectancy than a Genetic Risk Score

Since the advent of very large databases of combined human genetic and epidemiological information, the evidence has increasingly leaned to support only a modest effect of genetic variation on human life span variation. Setting aside small populations with rare mutations, lifestyle has a much greater effect on life expectancy than one's genes. Even cases of familial longevity might largely result from transmission of culture, and thus lifestyle choices, rather than transmission of genetic variants. Today's open access paper reports on data in which both genetic risk and lifestyle risk can be assessed. It is worth noting that the genetic risk is here limited to a consideration of only a few genes, but equally only a small number of genetic variants have been shown to robustly correlate with human life span. The thing to take away from the results is the degree to which the effects of a healthy lifestyle on life expectancy are similar for the high genetic risk and low genetic risk cohorts. In other words, the high genetic risk as assessed here isn't doing all that much to life expectancy when compared to the consequences of lifestyle choices. Healthy lifestyle in late-life, longevity genes, and life expectancy among older adults: a 20-year, population-based, prospective cohort study Lifestyle and longevity genes have different and important roles in the human lifespan; however, the association between a healthy lifestyle in late-life and life expectancy m...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs