A classic joke refers to a smoking and drinking centenarian – but a new study in Sweden has found that most long-living people do not use tobacco.
Researchers said they found some evidence that longevity is genetic – but that healthy lifestyle and environment is a bigger cause of long-life.
The project at the University of Gothenburg has been studying more than 800 men from the age of 50.
The first studies were done in 1963 and by 2013 just ten of the men were still alive and had reached their 100th birthdays.
Some 232 reached the age of 80 and 111 to the age of 90. Some 42% of deaths after the age of 80 were from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers report on seven of the centenarians in the Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal.
They found that all of them were slim and had good posture – but they all wore hearing aids and used walkers. Not one was a smoker.
Researcher Lars Wilhelmsen said: "Our recommendation for people who aspire to centenarianism is to refrain from smoking, maintain healthy cholesterol levels and confine themselves to four cups of coffee a day.
"Our findings that there is a correlation with maternal but not paternal longevity are fully consistent with a previous studies."
Men born in 1913 followed to age 100 years. Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal April 2015 [abstract]
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