Recent studies suggest that a healthy lifestyle can offset the effects of “life shortening” genes by roughly 60%, potentially adding an extra five years to your lifespan.
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Some people live to be 100 years old or even older. Others aren't so lucky. What separates the two groups? Part of the answer is simply luck. We know that genes play a key role in determining how long we live. For some, this means they're predisposed to live a long life, but for others, it means they face an uphill battle.
But the good news is that your lifestyle choices — the everyday decisions you make about diet, exercise, and so on — also have an impact. In fact, a healthy lifestyle could offset the effects of “life-shortening” genes by about 60%, and extend your lifespan by five years. That's the finding of a large new study published in the British Medical Journal.
Big Data, Big Discoveries
To explore how lifestyle habits and genes interact to affect longevity, researchers collected relevant genetic, biological and health data from 353,742 participants, then tracked their health for approximately 13 years.
Based on their full genetic information, including the presence of protective or deleterious mutations, participants were placed into one of three longevity categories: those with genes that extend lifespan (20%), those with genes that suggest an intermediate lifespan (60%), or those with genes that confer a short lifespan (20%).
In addition to the genetic categories, the researchers also classified each participant into a lifestyle score category: favorable (23%), neutral (56%), or unfavorable (21%). A lifestyle “score” was calculated based on sleep habits, whether and how much alcohol or tobacco people drink, what foods they eat, and whether or not they are physically active. The optimal combination for longevity is not smoking, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and getting a good eight hours of sleep.
The findings reveal that people with genes that shorten lifespan are 21% more likely to die prematurely than those with favorable genes. This is true regardless of lifestyle choices. Still, people with genes that shorten lifespan can benefit greatly from leading a healthy lifestyle; they could offset the effects of their genes by more than 60% and extend their lifespan by up to five years.
Conversely, people with unhealthy lifestyle choices are 78% more likely to die prematurely, regardless of their genetic status. Even the most favorable genes cannot protect you from unhealthy lifestyle choices.
The combination of genes unfavorable to an unhealthy lifestyle produces the worst possible outcome of all, more than doubling the risk of premature death compared to people with a nutritional lifestyle and genes that protect longevity.
summary
While we don't have a say in the genes we're given, we do have the power to choose how we live. This research makes it clear that such lifestyle choices play a major role in shaping our lifespan. And while a lucky combination of genes may give you a head start, any advantage can easily be negated by a questionable lifestyle. Fortunately, the opposite is also true: living a healthy lifestyle can help counter the effects of unfavorable genes, which reduces your risk and increases your lifespan.
From a health system perspective, it is clear that we need to invest in policies that promote healthy living – as always, prevention is better than cure – but it also goes without saying that nothing happens in a vacuum.
Many people want to make healthy choices but are unable to do so because they live in food-poor areas, lack easy and affordable access to sports facilities, or lack health insurance. A long, healthy life is not something you can pay for. We need to start thinking of health and longevity as a societal issue, not purely an individual choice.
