Lifestyles of the Old and Healthy Defy
Expectations
Newswise, August 3, 2011-- People who live
to 95 or older are no more virtuous than the
rest of us in terms of their diet, exercise
routine or smoking and drinking habits,
according to researchers at Albert
Einstein College of Medicine of
Yeshiva University.
Their findings, published today in the
online edition of Journal of the American
Geriatrics Society, suggests that
“nature” (in the form of protective
longevity genes) may be more important than
“nurture” (lifestyle behaviors) when it
comes to living an exceptionally long life. Nir
Barzilai, M.D.,
the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of
Aging Research and director of the Institute
for Aging Research at Einstein, was the
senior author of the study.
Dr. Barzilai and his Einstein colleagues
interviewed 477 Ashkenazi Jews who were
living independently and were 95 and older
(95-112, 75 percent of them women).
They were enrolled in Einstein’s
Longevity Genes Project,
an ongoing study that seeks to understand
why centenarians live as long as they do.
(Descended from a small founder group,
Ashkenazi Jews are more genetically uniform
than other populations, making it easier to
spot gene differences that are present.)
The elderly participants were asked about
their lifestyles at age 70, considered
representative of the lifestyle they’d
followed for most of their adult lives. They
answered questions about their weight and
height so that their body mass index (BMI)
could be calculated. They also provided
information about their alcohol consumption,
smoking habits, physical activity, and
whether they ate a low-calorie, low-fat or
low-salt diet.
To compare these long-lived individuals with
the general population, the researchers used
data from 3,164 people who had been born
around the same time as the centenarians and
were examined between 1971 and 1975 while
participating in the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Overall, people with exceptional longevity
did not have healthier habits than the
comparison group in terms of BMI, smoking,
physical activity, or diet. For example, 27
percent of the elderly women and an equal
percentage of women in the general
population attempted to eat a low-calorie
diet.
Among long-living men, 24 percent
consumed alcohol daily, compared with 22
percent of the general population. And only
43 percent of male centenarians reported
engaging in regular exercise of moderate
intensity, compared with 57 percent of men
in the comparison group.
“In previous studies of our centenarians,
we’ve identified gene variants that exert
particular physiology effects, such as
causing significantly elevated levels of HDL
or ‘good’ cholesterol,” said Dr. Barzilai,
who is also professor of medicine and of
genetics at Einstein. “This study suggests
that centenarians may possess additional
longevity genes that help to buffer them
against the harmful effects of an unhealthy
lifestyle.”
The research did find, however, that
overweight centenarians tended to have lower
rates of obesity than the control group.
Although male and female centenarians were
just as likely to be overweight as their
counterparts in the general population, the
centenarians were significantly less likely
to become obese: only 4.5 percent of male
centenarians were obese vs. 12.1 percent of
controls; and for women, 9.6 percent of
centenarians were obese versus 16.2 percent
of controls. Both of these differences are
statistically significant.
While longevity genes may protect
centenarians from bad habits, healthy
lifestyle choices remain critical for the
vast majority of the population. The
U.S. Census Bureau estimates there
were nearly 425,000 people aged 95 and older
living in the U.S. in 2010 − a fraction
(.01) of the 40 million U.S. adults 65 and
over.
“Although this study demonstrates that
centenarians can be obese, smoke and avoid
exercise, those lifestyle habits are not
good choices for most of us who do not have
a family history of longevity,” said Dr.
Barzilai.
“We should watch our weight, avoid
smoking and be sure to exercise, since these
activities have been shown to have great
health benefits for the general population,
including a longer lifespan.”
Researchers also asked study participants
why they believed they had lived so long.
Most did not attribute their advanced age to
lifestyle factors. One-third reported a
history of family longevity, while 20
percent believed that physical activity also
played a role in their lifespan. Other
factors included positive attitude (19
percent), busy or active life (12 percent),
less smoking and drinking (15 percent), good
luck (8 percent), and religion or
spirituality (6 percent).
The paper is titled “Lifestyle Factors of
People with Exceptional Longevity.” Other
Einstein authors were Yingheng Liu, Ph.D.,
Orit Ben-David, Saritha Reddy, M.B.B.S., Gil
Atzmon, Ph.D.,
and Jill
Crandall, M.D. Swapnil
N. Rajpathak, M.B.B.S., Dr.PH., now at Merck
Pharmaceuticals, was the study’s lead
author. The research was supported by grants
from the National
Institute on Agingof
the National Institutes of Health.
