Researchers analyzed 333 Italian centenarians and compared their genetic composition to 103 ancient genomes to investigate human longevity.
Why do people in Italy, specifically, live longer than most? Well, according to DNA samples, it’s their genetic ancestry.A recent study reached into the prehistoric past to uncover why people currently 100 or older are still living.
Previous studies identified specific genes related to a longer life span. However, the recent study in GeroScience ventured deeper into the subject by investigating whether ancient populations factor into the complex equation, where genetics, environment, and lifestyle all play a role in how long we live.The centenarians in Italy, as a country with the highest percentage of centenarians in the world, share a genetic link: they all descend from Western Hunter-Gatherers, the first inhabitants of Europe after the Ice Age.So, after the harshest conditions, the most inopportune circumstances, these prehistoric Europeans evolved to survive to the point of impacting time by passing down these genes that are enabling modern-day Italians to live past 100 years old.Europeans live longerIf you’ve ever gone through trials and tribulations, as they say, what doesn’t kill you might make you stronger — and everyone else down the line.Researchers analyzed 333 Italian centenarians and compared their genetic composition to 103 ancient genomes, according to the study, related to past European ancestries, “…to investigate whether, and to what extent, ancient ancestral populations may have contributed to the genetic basis of human longevity. Fortunately, today, researchers explained that recent advancements in paleogenomics have permitted this cross-examination between modern genomes and ancient DNA, Archaeology Mag reports.It might come as no surprise that the genes belonging to this group of centenarians varied. However, researchers did find a striking similarity between them. They had a stronger genetic link with Western Hunter-Gatherers, and that connection permeates the larger Italian population.“In fact, for every small increase in hunter-gatherer DNA, a person’s odds of becoming a centenarian rose by 38 percent,” according to Phys. And the potent effect even favors women.What doesn’t kill you makes you strongerIt had nothing to do with diet, it turns out, as one could joke about how Italians eat pasta and cheese and yet live until 100. Though lifestyle does factor into it, according to the researchers, it might just come down to the genes.Furthermore, as they penetrated the genes into the individual chromosomes, researchers found that it isn’t even related to the demographic but rather the mechanisms that developed, in their evolutionary process, as these groups exited the Ice Age, and it changed their genetics.These ancient groups had to evolve because they faced adversity. The human body had to strengthen its defense mechanisms and energy output, as per Archaeology Mag. And, as a result, they passed down these more robust genes to the future generations, perhaps inspiring, in considering that the toughest times that we might face could pass down a positive, rather than the trauma of the negative.”It is all about perspective and the almost unbelievable human ability to withstand the worst and prolong life for thousands of years. That’s quite an effect that the Ice Age had.Read the study in GeroScience.
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