Posted on 07/02/2010 1:39:00 PM PDT by neverdem
Scientists studying aging have long been fascinated by those rare individuals who somehow manage not only to live at least 100 years but also remain relatively healthy and spry even in their final years.
What's their secret? Is it clean living? A positive attitude? Or is it something in their genes?
A federally funded study released Thursday took an important step toward trying to answer that question by scanning the genes of a large number of centenarians and identifying genetic signatures that appear linked with living a long, healthy life.
"This is groundbreaking research," said Winifred K. Rossi, deputy director of the National Institute on Aging's Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology, which funded the research. "It's an important steppingstone towards helping us understand the complex genetic and environmental factors that lead to a healthy, long life."
Rossi and others cautioned that a healthful lifestyle and other environmental factors are significant in determining a person's lifespan, and that much more research is needed to explore the new findings. But the research indicates for the first time that there are specific genetic variations that can endow a person with an unusually long life.
"Exceptional longevity is not this vacuous entity that no one can figure out," said Thomas T. Perls of the Boston University School of Medicine, who led the study, published in the journal Science. "We've..."
--snp--
"A lot of people might ask, 'Well, who would want to live to 100?', because they think they have every age-related disease under the sun and are on death's doorstep," Perls said. "But this isn't true. We have noted in previous work that 90 percent of centenarians are disability-free at the average age of 93."
They also noticed that longevity seemed to run in centenarians' families, indicating that genetics must play a role...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What the bloody hell is the government funding a study to help people live longer when we've already hit the wall on retirement and medical care for old folks? The Obama bunch is even trying to figure out ways to legally kill off oldsters so they won't be such a drag on younger folks who think they'll never be old. There is absolutely no intelligent life on Earth.
"Old people never seem to die, they just get in the way."
Obamascare! PELOSI has the solution. Palliative End of Life Optimum Serenity Initiative
“They also noticed that longevity seemed to run in centenarians’ families, indicating that genetics must play a role...”
Mental midgets and neophytes attempting to sound important while justifying their jobs or the money they just wasted!
Mental midgets and neophytes attempting to sound important while justifying their jobs or the money they just wasted!
What is common sense to someone that spent his whole life navel gazing, and cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. Government grant makes them feel so important.
Spokane Popcorn Lover Sues After Contracting Rare Disease (ODed on Popcorn)
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Scientifically... because if scientists identify the genes they can look at what the genes do that cause people to have a high quality of life and live a long time. It might bring insight to how to treat certain diseases and medical conditions.
Politically... does anything in politics make logical sense?
That's Racist!
But notice how the did not say what the "markers" for longevity are, or what groups they most often appear in. That's even more racist.
The story doesn't say they are trying to help people live longer, it says they are looking for the reasons, other than "healthy living" that make them do so. Then when they figure out the markers and who has them.... (Logans Run?)
If the gov't could use DNA to predict how long people will live, that would be good data to know.
Mr. X will live to 100, he can't retire until he's 85.
Mr Y is predisposed to expensive health problems, double his Obamacare premium.
Mr. Z will enjoy good health but will die early. Chances are he won't collect any SS. We like him...
Yes, the elites will probably enjoy very long, healthy lives after all the aging hoi polloi have been turned into soylent green. I forgot myself for a moment and was trying to think non-politically.
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Both my parents are in their 90s. It is going to be a long haul. It’s odd, but because we generally live so long, we traditionally don’t have children until we are in our 30s. Guess it balances out with the short livers who have kids at 18.
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