That's Fit

A study which started back in 1981 is now discovering that living a long, healthy life may rely more on other factors than just genes and luck. After all, we've heard from all kinds of centenarians about how to stretch mortality. Everyone has an opinion about how to do it. But after following over 2,000 senior citizens aged 72 (way back twenty years ago), they have found five behaviors to improve men's odds of reaching 90 and beyond.

Abstaining from smoking, watching your weight, and controlling blood pressure were among the factors needed. Also included were regular exercise (no surprise there) and avoiding diabetes. As one of the researchers states, the takeaway here is that we do have control over our longevity.

This may be news to some people who believed reaching old age was more reliant on genetic makeup. The study weighed other variables and factors to discover how likely these behaviors would improve (or diminish) the men's chances of living past 90 years of age. Having diabetes, for example, increased the risk of death by 86 percent. Obesity alone increased this mortality rate by over 40 percent. So, in the end we have more control than many people think! Read on for more information if you're curious about the other factors.