How long will a baby born today live? 100 years? 120 years? Scientists are studying genes that could mean long life for us all.
There are already many, many people who have passed the landmark age of 100. In fact, there are now so many healthy, elderly people that there's a name for them: the wellderly. These are people over the age of eighty who have no major illnesses, such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.
There are many scientific studies of communities where healthy old age is typical. These include places like Calabria in southern Italy and the island of Okinawa in Japan. In Calabria, the small village of Molochio has about 2,000 inhabitants. And of these, there are at least eight people over a hundred years old. When researchers ask people like this the secret of their long life, the answer is almost always about food and is almost always the same: 'I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.' 'I eat a little bit of everything.' ' I neither smoke nor drink.'
In the past, scientists looked at things such as diet and lifestyle for an explanation of long life, these days they are also looking at genetics. Researcher Eric Topol says that there must be genes that explain why people are protected from the effects of aging process. The new research into long life did scrutinize groups of people who have a genetic connection. One interesting group lives in Ecuador. In one area of the country there are a number of people with the same genetic condition. It's called Laron syndrome. These people don't grow very tall – just over one metre. But Laron syndrome also give them protection against cancer and diabetes. As a result, they live longer than other people in their families. Meanwhile, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, there's another group of long-lived men, Japanese-Americans. They have a similar gene to the Laron syndrome group.
Back in Calabria, researchers constructed the family trees of the 100-year-old people. They looked at family information from the 19th century to today. It is concluded that there are genetic factors that give health benefits to the men. This is a surprising result because generally in Europe, women live longer than men. So what really makes people live longer? It seems likely that it is an interaction of genes, the environment and probably a third factor – luck.
(Adapted from https://www.ngllife.com/long-and-healthy-life-0)