11.05 -11.06

http://www.bcbs.com/news/wellness/longevity-it-s-in-your-genes.html

They may not have discovered the fountain of youth, but scientists are beginning to unravel some of the mysteries of living past 100 -- specifically, that it's in your genes
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(x)In the United States, where the average life expectancy is about 78 years, centenarians account for about 1 out of every 6,000 people. Supercentenarians, or people over the age of 110, are even rarer, at 1 out of 7 million.


(X) "It's kind of like winning the lottery," Perls said.

There are social reasons to avoid the game of prediction as well, including concerns about how it might affect health insurance premiums and whether people are equipped with guidelines to respond appropriately to the results, Perls said.

Researchers said the task now is to characterize the genes and biochemical pathways identified in the study. Down the line, such information could be used to develop drugs for age-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's, which occur at much lower rates in centenarians.

11.06
"This really opens the door to future research," Perls said.
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Calment's parents were also extremely long-lived. Her father died at 94 and her mother at 86, which would be considered healthy lives now but were remarkable for the time when they lived. Overall, 24% of her immediate relatives lived at least into their 80s, compared with 2% of the general population