You know-they found that French people who drank at least one glass of red wine a day had very long lives, and low rates of heart disease (in spite of all of that cheese, butter and eggs-that the classic French cuisine is full of).
I’ve improved on this-I drink at least 4 glasses of wine (or its scotch whiskey equivilent)-I plan to live to 130!
as I started ths thread, I thought I should a googling go to see what comes up. Fron the BBC Reith lectures http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2001/reith2_text2.shtml
"We have convincing evidence that life expectancy can be inherited. Twin research - that favourite tool of the human geneticist - has shown that monozygotic twins, with all of their genes in common, have life spans that are more similar than those of dizygotic twins, who share just 50% of their genes. Other kinds of study, like a recent report based on analysis of the entire population of Iceland, have come to similar conclusions. But these studies also reveal that life span is not inherited in as clear-cut a manner as blood groups or the colours of Gregor Mendel’s famous peas. The genetic studies show that the inheritance of human life span is not that strong. It appears that our genes account for about a quarter of what determines the lengths of our lives"
Other sites generally agree with the figure 1/4 for genetics. This would make inherited genes the single biggest factor . Evironmental factors also play a part, however no single issue would be as important in the western world as that. However, for a non-smoking non alcoholic good diet person like me, I have already cut out many of the environmental risk factors. So the genetic component to my life span is even higher
And yet there may be hope! www.arstechnica.com is today reporting on developments which may lead to an exercise pill.
Now my dream of becoming a full-time cyberathlete is one step closer!
Thanks, **SOFA KING **. My mother died at age 57 and my father not much older, from heart disease. I’m 64 and my doctor said I have the heart of a 17-year old. We know that longevity is hereditary. The evidence is overwhelming. I’m virtually certain that if I weren’t a runner, I’d have heart trouble by now, too.
But you believe what you want to believe. If you don’t want to exercise, you will find some rationalization for not doing so.
I hope that you were jesting. Yes, if you drink one or two glasses of any alcohol a day (the evidence for red wine over other alcohol is not that convincing in spite of the fact that red wine contains quercetin, an antioxidant that is supposed to be beneficial) you will raise your HDL cholesterol, which is heart healthy. If you drink at least 4 glasses of wine or scotch a day, you will eventually develop pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, ascites, and destroy your neurons.
If one quarter of my lifespan is determined by genetics (including both beneficial and detrimental inherited traits), three-quarters must be determined by my environment. Therefore, shouldn’t my environment have a greater impact on my life than my genetics? Which is a fortunate thing, because we have some control over our environment. Our control over our genes isn’t nearly as good, but getting better, as Sofa King pointed out.
A long time ago I saw a cartoon with two women standing by a grave site. One woman said to the other " once George found out that an asprin a day could protect him from a heat attack, thats when he ran out to the pharmacy to buy some, and thats when the pizza truck hit him". Red Skelton once said that he exercised by being a pall bearer for his friends that jog. Everyone needs some type of activity that tones their body and improves their circulation but I feel personally that extremes are more dangerous than moderation. Life is a crap shoot and heredity rules.
Insider, if you consider jogging an extreme activity you need to seriously consider getting out more.
To all you dopers who are claiming exercise is unnecessary, just remember that if your body starts failing on you, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. I wonder how amusing an anecdote about a friend of a friend who worked out every day, ate only organic foods, never smoked or drank, and was struck dead by lightning is to a person with premature osteoporosis, arthritis, or heart disease.
Nobody here is seriously saying exercise is “unnecessary” (although we could debate necessary for what). Exercise, with other things like healthy diet etc, increases the odds that you will live longer and, what is more important, what you do live you will live better. No question about that.
My point was that you can (sort of ) divide your risk factors into groups, e.g heridity, smoking , drinking, diet, exercise, work, stress, disease and many more. Of course, the risk factors aren’t additive, and these factors are interrelated but… Of those the heriditary seems to be the biggest factor, though smoking might be worse?