The Secret of Longevity

Nowadays, here is a hot topic that why do some people have such a long life span which has attracted people’s attention. Two geneticists visited a small village which had the distinction of four centenarians and four 99-year-olds to expose the secret of longevity. The centenarians said they were in a good health for they always had a good eating diet. But through a long period of investigation, the theory that a severely restricted diet which is connected to long life has fallen on hard scientific times.

Recently, scientists have turned their attention to the gene which is connected with people’s life span. They found a recessive mutation in a single gene which can cause a disease of impaired growth called Laron syndrome. Research carried out by the geneticist found that there was the absence of a hormone known as IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor in the patients’ blood. This kind of absence can protect people from being attacked by some diseases such as diabetes, cancer and so on. In addition, those who live into their 90s tend to possess a particular version, or allele.

Furthermore, another experiment shows that the Ashkenazi centenarians had exceptionally high levels of HDL. HDL is often called the good form of cholesterol. Scientists also found that there is a variant, a distinct genetic subtype, of a gene known as CETP .This kind of gene was more common in centenarians than in other people. Some researchers think one of the reasons that we have not found the gene we want is that we have protective sets of genes.

  However, genes alone are unlikely to explain all the secrets of longevity. In fact, there are a lot of other factors that are connected with longevity, such as environment, diet or something else, but the biggest factor for longevity must be the gene.



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