A new study found that these were the traits found in the children of people who lived to 100, and longevity is thought to run in families.

I’m not 100% sure where I found this information, but it’s well worth taking note.  I have often thought that people place too much emphasis on their inherited genes for which they have no control over and too little on what they can control i.e. attitude and lifestyle factors. Sure you might have a gene that makes you more susceptible to a certain disease but it’s not inevitable. The gene still has to express itself and it’s our lifestyle factors (diet, attitude, stress management, activity levels, exposure to toxins etc.) that will to a large degree determine this. Genetics is an  important factor in family history but there are too many commercial interests pushing this barrow and not enough significance is placed on the food preparation skills, dietary and other health habits and coping mechanisms that we LEARN from our family. These are the things that can be changed and improved for the better.  

“We have observed that these appear to be really important traits that set the children of centenarians apart from other people the same age who may not age as well,” said Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine. The study, which focuses on older people and their family members, has tracked the health of children of centenarians as they age, trying to uncover the common denominators of longevity.

The latest findings are published online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Because research had already found that longevity runs strongly in families, Perls and his colleagues decided to look at 246 offspring of those who lived to 100 to see if their children, now about age 75, had common personality traits. They evaluated levels of five personality traits — neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness — and compared them with published norms for each trait.

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