Longevity Genes Protect From Cancer, Research Reveals

Good news on the longevity front. Recent research has found that if you have a mother older than 91 and a father older than 87, they likely have passed on genes to you that could significantly reduce your chance of getting cancer and other common diseases associated with aging.

An international collaboration has discovered that people in the U.S. who had a long-lived mother or father were 24 percent less likely to get cancer.

The scientists classified long-lived mothers as those who survived past 91 years old, and compared them to those who reached average age spans of 77 to 91. Long-lived fathers lived past 87 years old, compared with the average of 65 to 87 years. The scientists studied 938 new cases of cancer that developed during the 18-year follow-up period.

Researchers found that overall mortality rates dropped by up to 19 percent for each decade that at least one of the parents lived past the age of 65.

In the study, published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A (The Oxford Journals), the scientists analyzed data from a series of interviews conducted with 9,764 people taking part in the Health and Retirement Study. The participants were based in America, and were followed up over 18 years, from 1992 to 2010.

“Previous studies have shown that the children of centenarians tend to live longer with less heart disease, but this is the first robust evidence that the children of longer-lived parents are also less likely to get cancer,” according to Professor William Henley, from the University of Exeter Medical School. “We also found that they are less prone to diabetes or suffering a stroke.”

Welcome research for you, but that still leaves the dilemma of how to care for your parents. It is possible for your mom and dad to continue to remain at home, with a little extra help. Learn more about at-home services for seniors by contacting your local Home Instead Senior Care^® office.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care^®, contact Home Instead Senior Care at 570-586-3135 or go to HomeInstead.com/nepa.

 

 For more about this study, go to http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/16/gerona.glt061.abstract.