Less Cancer in Long-Lived Families

Longevity is inherited to some degree, with the evidence suggesting that the contribution of your genes grows in importance in old age. Prior to that point, your lifestyle choices are far more significant to long-term health. Nonetheless, some genetic lineages are superior to others when it comes to tilting the odds in favor of a longer life. One of the objectives for longevity science is to make these differences irrelevant, swamping them in the benefits to health and longevity created by therapies capable of rejuvenation. For example, why would anyone care about inherited cancer risk if clinics could reliably cure or prevent all cancer? No-one cares about the genetic risks associated with influenza or smallpox, and that is exactly because these are controlled, cured conditions. [Researchers] analysed data from a series of interviews conducted with 9,764 people taking part in the Health and Retirement Study. The participants were based in America, and were followed up over 18 years, from 1992 to 2010. [The scientists] discovered that people who had a long-lived mother or father were 24% less likely to get cancer. The scientists compared the children of long-lived parents to children whose parents survived to average ages for their generation. The scientists classified long-lived mothers as those who survived past 91 years old, and compared them to those who reached average age spans of 77 to 91. Long-lived fathers lived past 87 years old, compared with the average of 65 t...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs