The secrets to longevity lie in the genes

I remember the day my mother shared the news when one of her close friends (55) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was utterly baffled, as Sonja Otto-Terblanche is a South African long distance triathlon champion and has participated in six international ironman races. Surely when you live your life in a “textbook” healthy way, you can be assured of longevity. Or is it not that simple? 

Experts say that being an active runner adds several hours to your life. “Researchers calculated that a one-hour run may translate to seven hours added to someone’s life,” TIME magazine reported. 

Bettie Pienaar, a 93-year-old woman from Great Brak River in the Western Cape, agrees with TIME and says to live a long life one must “just never sit down”. According to her, she has lived this long because of her active habits. “I go for a walk every single day. When I couldn’t go during the Covid-19 lockdown, I made sure to walk at least 300 steps in my house daily,” she said. 

Dr Paul Takahashi, a geriatric specialist at the American Mayo Clinic, said in a video on the clinic’s YouTube, another key component to longevity is to satisfy the inherent human need for social connectivity. 

Pienaar agrees with Dr Takahashi and explains how her friends and family have carried her throughout her life. “I am so blessed with the people I have in my life. My advice for a long life would be to trust in God, be loyal to one another and love one another,” she said. 

Jeffrina Tiedt, a 100-year-old woman from Potchefstroom, agrees. “I make my choices according to the will of God, which is to be an example to our children and to love one another,” she said. 

Some of the factors that obviously influence longevity are healthy active habits, social connectivity, love and God’s hand. 

According to the US National Library of Medicine, “individuals who are non-smokers, are not obese, cope well with stress” and who apply the above healthy habits, are “less likely to develop chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes”.

How can one then explain the situation where an individual, who adheres to all of the above, is diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness like cancer?

Sonja Terblanche-Otto, the 55-year-old South African long distance triathlon champion and participant of six international ironman races, provides a reason for her cancer diagnosis that places the concept of longevity in a much more complex spectrum. “Genetics. My sister was diagnosed about a year before me, but also at a very early stage with melanoma on her tongue,” she said. 

The big word here, the “deciding factor” for longevity, is genetics. The US National Library of Medicine states that “scientists speculate for the first seven or eight decades of a person’s life, lifestyle is a stronger determinant of health and life span than genetics. Eating well, not drinking too much alcohol, avoiding tobacco, and staying physically active enable some individuals to attain a healthy old age. Genetics then appears to play a progressively important role in keeping individuals healthy as they age into their eighties and beyond.”

Genetics is therefore the reason why many 90 and 100-year-olds can avoid age-related diseases until the very last years of their lives. Longer life spans further tend to run in families, which suggests that both genetics and lifestyle play an important role in determining longevity.

However, one can still not exactly determine which genes influence longevity, as the study of longevity genes is a developing science and which genes, and how they contribute to longevity, are not well understood, according to the US National Library of Medicine. This mystery, however, is up to scientists to decipher. 

The utter bafflement I felt when hearing about Terblanche-Otto’s diagnosis can therefore finally be cleared up: When you live your life in a “textbook” healthy way, you are unfortunately not assured of longevity. There is no secret to longevity, but genetics, the most important determining factor, is out of your control. All you can do to live a long life is to be healthy, active, productive, love and connect with the special people in your life, do not stress too much and trust in your God.