Long life depends on mother's genes, lifestyle

NEW DELHI: For the past 50 years, researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University Gothenburg, Sweden, have followed the health of 855 Gothenburg men born in 1913. Now that the study is being wrapped up, it turns out that ten of the subjects lived to 100 and conclusions can be drawn about the secrets of their longevity.

"The unique design has enabled us to identify the factors that influence survival after the age of 50," says Lars Wilhelmsen, who has been involved in the study for the past 50 years. "Our recommendation for people who aspire to centenarianism is to refrain from smoking, maintain healthy cholesterol levels and confine themselves to four cups of coffee a day."

It also helps if you paid a high rent for a flat or owing a house at age 50 (indicating good socio-econmic standard), enjoy robust working capacity at a bicycle test when you are 54 and have a mother who lived for a long time.

"Our findings that there is a correlation with maternal but not paternal longevity are fully consistent with a previous studies," Dr. Wilhelmsen says. "Given that the same associations have been demonstrated in Hawaii, the genetic factor appears to be a strong one."

But the researchers found that the "genetic factor" was weaker than the other factors. The study identified the following key factors for a long life based on the 7 cenenarians who were still part of the study (of the remaining three, two had dementia while one dropped out due to personal reasons):

Two lived at home and five in assisted living facilities None of them smoked All of them exhibited good temporal and spatial cognition All of them wore hearing aids Most of them wore glasses, were able to read and watch TV All of them were slim and had good postures All of them used walkers

"Normally we conducted the surveys at hospitals, but we visited the seven centenarians at home," Dr. Wilhelmsen says. All of them were clinically healthy, satisfied with their circumstances and pleased to be living where they were." A total of 27 per cent (232) of the original group lived to the age of 80 and 13 per cent (111) to 90. All in all, 1.1 per cent of the subjects made it to their 1 per cent to cancer, 6 per cent to pneumonia and 16 per cent to other causes.

A total of 23 per cent of the over-80 group were diagnosed with some type of dementia.

The study was originally published in Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal.