Good Cholesterol May
Explain Why Some Live to 100

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While diet and exercise are key to most people's health, there have always been those lucky few who can do whatever they want and still live to 100. Now genetics research is showing why. A new study suggests that centenarians retain a naturally heart-healthy cholesterol level throughout their lives--and they pass the gift on to their children.

In general, high blood levels of HDL (''good'') cholesterol are believed to protect the heart from disease. ``But no one has shown it's important to longevity,'' Dr. Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, told Reuters Health.

Now Barzilai's study of 27 centenarians and their elderly children suggests that these long-lived individuals have a genetic mutation that keeps their HDL levels high, regardless of fatty diets, inactivity and smoking.

``They're really protected no matter what they do,'' said Barzilai--although, he noted, most had remained thin throughout life.

He and his colleagues report their findings in the January 12th issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The study also revealed a difference between the sexes: In order to live to a ripe old age, men may need high HDL levels and low levels of LDL (''bad'') cholesterol. Women, on the other hand, just need to have high HDL. This, according to Barzilai, could help explain why women are more likely to make it to 100--even in families in which longevity is par for the course.

In this study, Barzilai's team looked at a group of Ashkenazi Jews, a population that has been widely studied due to individuals' genetic similarity. The investigators measured blood cholesterol levels in 27 centenarians, 33 of their children, and 26 of their children's spouses. The researchers also compared these cholesterol levels with those from a ''control'' group of nearly 400 people in their 60s.

The study revealed that the centenarians' children had significantly better cholesterol levels than either their spouses or the control group. Among female children, only HDL levels were superior, while male children also had better LDL levels than controls did. What's more, the centenarians themselves had cholesterol levels comparable to those of the decades-younger controls.

Since high LDL and low HDL levels are heart-disease risk factors, Barzilai said he believes the naturally healthy levels the elderly study participants enjoy have protected them from the number-one cause of death in the US. If, he said, researchers pinpoint the gene that confers this cholesterol benefit, it may be possible to develop a drug that would dispense the luck of the few to the population at large.

Such a drug would not, however, be a ``fountain of youth,'' Barzilai noted.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2001;49.

Reference Source 89

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