Fitness in old age depends on genes

Fitness in old age depending on genes: vigorous retirement life genetically determined.

The Amish or „Amish people“ as they are called in America, are often very healthy and relatively fit until old age. However, this is not because of the values ​​of the faith community but in their genes, as William Scott from the University of Miami told Coral Gables and his colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Washington. Thus, although sports, healthy eating and adequate sleep are factors that can prolong life, the key to keeping many Amish in their old age alive is in their genes.

Many energetic pensioners among the Amish
That a lot of Amish people even at the age of 80 are still mentally fit and physically fit, US researchers have long been known. The reason for this was the researchers of the University of Miami in a comprehensive study of 263 Amish aged 80 years and older to find out. Where the researchers a third of the study participants as „successfully aging“ classified, that means those affected are mentally and mentally healthy, rarely get sick, are socially active, live independently and describe themselves as satisfied. The other two-thirds of the study participants served as a control group for the scientists.

Christian faith community with special values
The Amish People's Christian community lives in relatively simple conditions in the eastern United States and Canada, rejects much of the technological progress, attaches great importance to seclusion from the outside world and attaches particular importance to the family and religious community. In addition to the habits of life, the scientists mainly focused on the genetic factors in the study. They focused in their study mainly on the mitochondrial haplogroups, which include genetic variants that have been associated with successful aging for some time and are mainly transmitted to the child with the genome of the mother.

15 percent have haplogroup X on
The study found that 15 percent of the vigorous Amish aged over 80 had the mitochondrial haplogroup X, but only two percent of Europeans and only three percent of the control group had this genetic trait. The scientists had compared the haplogroups of the Amish with those spread in Europe, since the founders of the Christian denomination originally came from Europe. However, there were no parallels here. In addition, the researchers found that only five percent of the subjects carried the haplogroup J, which is associated with faster physical and mental decline in old age.

Mitochondria crucial in aging
In the opinion of the scientists around William Scott, the decisive factor is the effect of the genetic predisposition or haplogroups on the mitochondria. These are found in almost every human cell and act as tiny ones „Energy power plants“, which provide the cell with the high-energy molecule adenosine triphosphate. However, to clarify clearly how mitochondria function in relation to human aging, further research is needed, according to William Scott, which deals in detail with the relationship between the various haplogroups, mitochondria, and cell aging processes. (fp, 04.11.2010)

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Picture credits: Rainer Sturm