A new study led by scientists from around the world suggests that how we live our lives might be more important than our genes when it comes to how long we live. The study looked at data from many long-term studies and found that having a healthy lifestyle can make a big difference in how long we live, even if we have genes that might make us live shorter lives.
Researchers used something called a polygenic risk score to look at people’s genetic risk of living shorter or longer lives. They also looked at lifestyle factors like smoking, drinking alcohol, eating habits, sleep, and how much physical activity people did.
The goal was to see how much living healthily could balance out the risk of having genes that might make us live shorter lives. They studied over 350,000 adults from the UK Biobank over many years, tracking their health until 2021. They divided people into groups based on their genetic risk of living shorter or longer lives. They also looked at how healthy their lifestyles were.
Over the years, about 24,000 people died. What they found was that people with genes that might make them live shorter lives were still 21% more likely to die early, even if they lived healthily.Those who didn’t live healthily had a much higher risk of dying early, no matter what their genes were like. In fact, people with unhealthy lifestyles had a 78% higher risk of dying early.
If people had both high genetic risk and an unhealthy lifestyle, they were twice as likely to die early compared to those with low genetic risk and a healthy lifestyle. Living healthily meant not smoking, being active, sleeping well, and eating a healthy diet. These habits seemed to help people live longer, even if they had genes that might have put them at risk.
The study suggests that living healthily could reduce the risk of living shorter lives because of genes by about 62%. This means that even if someone has genes that might make them live shorter lives, they could still live longer if they live healthily.
The researchers say that people with high genetic risk could potentially live about 5.5 years longer if they start living healthily when they’re 40 years old. This shows how important it is to start healthy habits early in life.
