Life Expectancy

The age calculator determined my life expectancy to be in the upper 80s, I felt it was probably a fairly accurate estimation.  I would find it interesting to how many of these predicted years would yield a good quality of life instead of purely living though.  One of the criteria I was most surprised by was that flossing daily can add a year to your life.  I found it interesting that there was a link between "the inflammation of gum disease and heart disease".  This must be a very significant link to affect an entire year of someone's life.  One factor I thought might be misleading was the question about sweets.  I feel I eat small amounts of sweets frequently, although the amount was not taken into account in the questionnaire.  I also feel that I am under more stress and put in more hours studying-which I considered my job than I hope to be under when I enter the work force.  I also wonder how this life expectancy calculator would have measured some of the centenarians discussed in class since we've talked about their longevity and bad habits.-just an interesting thought.

Centenarians-The Role of Genetics

I read the article Centenarians-The Role of Genetics, by Robert W. Griffith MD : http://www.healthandage.com/professional/Centenarians-The-Role-of-Genetics

As they studied centenarians they decided that lifestyle choices couldn’t be the cause because other people have made similar choices and lived an average life span.  They also found it difficult to believe that there were specific long life genes because they didn’t feel that the genes care about longevity they instead care about successful procreation.  They did seem to find evidence for what they called the Hayflick phenomenon.  This idea encapsulates the idea that cells have a limited number of times they can divide-called cell senescence.  They observed younger cell nuclei making more divisions before ceasing than older cell nuclei, supporting this conclusion.

They also found that many of the centenarians they studied had a high functioning sibling that was 90 or older.  However, they ran into problems including these siblings in their study since they were not centenarians at the time.  They did find, “a photo of a 108-year-old man blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. And right beside him, looking on, was his 103-year-old sister. … We rushed off to recruit the two healthy centenarians for the Sibling Pair Study... As we arranged to meet with him and his sister, he asked whether we might want to meet his other sister, who was 97. We were astonished...Imagine our reaction when they told us it was too bad we hadn't arrived two years earlier when their 101- and 102-year-old sisters were still alive.”

Although we are still unable to determine the specific genes that code for longevity, it is hard to deny that there is some genetic component.

I agree that there seems to be some genetic component with longevity, but I am still curious as to how all of the components fit together.  I think it is really interesting that they have moved to sibling studies and would be very interested in their findings.  This is especially due to the possibility of environmental similarities if they are all siblings.  However, in a sibling study it would be interesting to compare all of the different sets of siblings to each other because surely not all the sibling pairs would have the same environmental aspects.  I do think it is hard to deny that longevity runs in families.  I also thought the mention of the Hayflick phenomenon was interesting, we've definitely discussed that one in class.  I thought it was an interesting article, and I would be interested to see the conclusions of their study.