What’s the Key to Living to 100?

According to a new study, people live to 100 because of good genes and luck, not healthy living habits.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York interviewed 477 Ashkenazi Jews between the ages of 95 and 112 on their lifestyle choices. They found that this long-lived group was just about as likely to smoke, drink, eat poorly, be obese and shun exercise as a control group of about 3,000 people who had been born around the same time, but didn’t end up living as long.

However, Professor Nir Barzilai, who worked on the study, wants everybody to know this finding shouldn’t be used as an excuse for letting yourself go.

“Although this study demonstrates that centenarians can be obese, smoke and avoid exercise, those lifestyle habits are not good choices for most of us who do not have a family history of longevity,” he warned.

[The Telegraph]