Good heart health of children with longer-lived parents

Study: Long-term parents indicate good health for the children
A study by British scientists shows that children of elderly parents also have a good chance of reaching old age. According to the researchers, the longevity of the parents is often associated with a better heart health of the offspring.

Influences on our life expectancy
It has long been known that genes have a very significant impact on our life expectancy. You control a long life. Lifestyle also plays an important role in increasing life expectancy. It is usually advised to exercise regularly, to avoid being overweight, to eat a balanced diet without too much fat, salt and sugar and to keep the hands of cigarettes and alcohol.

British scientists are now reporting another factor that can provide a longer life: long-living parents.

According to a new study, we will probably live longer the older our parents have become. The age of the parents also says something about our risk for cardiovascular disease. (Image: aletia2011 / fotolia.com)

Higher chances of survival by older parents
A new study by British scientists shows the impact that life expectancy can have on one's own health. "The longer our parents have lived, the more likely we will live ourselves and the more likely we will be to be healthy in our 60s and 70s," researchers at the University of Exeter write in a statement published on "EurekAlert!" has been.

The research showed that if one parent was older than 70, our chances of survival would be increased by 17 percent for each decade.

Predict your own risk for cardiovascular disease
The study, led by scientists from the University of Exeter, involved a team of academic institutes and colleges from England, the US, France and India. According to the experts, for the first time, evidence has been found that knowing the age of death helps parents predict their own risk for cardiovascular disease. The study results were recently published in the journal "Journal of the American College of Cardiology".

To get to their findings, the researchers analyzed data from a total of 186,000 participants from the United Kingdom who were between 55 and 73 years old. They found that in subjects whose parents lived longer, diseases such as heart disease, heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and atrial fibrillation occurred less frequently. Including factors such as smoking, high alcohol consumption, low physical activity and obesity, this was also true.

Take health in your own hands
First author Luke C. Pilling told Reuters: "These insights are important because they show us that knowing about the age of our parents also provides us with information about our own risk of death and disease." Of course, that does not mean that the offspring of parents who died early will also die young. You can improve your health.

"Current recommendations suggest that people can take their own health into their own hands by being physically active, eating well and not smoking," says Pilling. The cardiologist Dr. Nisha Parikh of the University of California said, "If you have a parent who died prematurely, that could be a reason to go to a doctor to check for and possibly treat cardiovascular risk factors. Ad