On New Years Day, we pause to remember those who died over the past year and then look to the future, making resolutions that, we believe, will enhance our health, happiness and success. Those of us who are middle-aged or older are apt to focus primarily on our mortality, placing emphasis on choices that might extend our time on this planet. In the end, our longevity is determined by three factors: our genes, our lifestyle choices and our luck.
Since we cannot choose our parents, our genetic traits are beyond our control but play a major role in the lifespan that we might anticipate; having parents who lived long, healthy lives portends a relatively high incidence of longevity. On the other hand, recessive traits, inherited from both parents, might put us at risk for certain diseases that neither of them faced. Fortunately, modern medicine offers therapy for an increasing number of genetic disorders, blocking the expression of pathologic genes or supplementing essential proteins, enzymes or cofactors that, due to defective genes, we are unable to produce.
For those fortunate to have inherited a good set of genes, longevity will be determined primarily by their lifestyle choices and their luck. Those who consume nutritious, well balanced meals, avoid excessive alcohol, abstain from the use of tobacco and illicit drugs, adhere to a regular schedule of aerobic exercise, monitor and treat risk factors such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia, wear seatbelts and avoid risky behavior, have a much better chance of living a long, healthy life than those who ignore these recommendations. Finally, our longevity also depends on luck, the good fortune to have avoided death due to accidents, murder, natural disasters and other events beyond our control. Unfortunately, the knowledge that life is fickle and that death is often random instills a degree of fatalism in many humans, diminishing their commitment to the healthy lifestyle choices enumerated above.
