Lifestyle can compensate for genetics by 60% and offer five more years of life, study reveals

Having a healthy lifestyle can offset the impact of genetics by more than 60% and add another five years to your life, according to this study.

Some people are genetically predisposed to a shorter lifespan. Lifestyle factors, specifically smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity, can impact longevity.

Until now there has been no research to understand the extent to which a healthy lifestyle can counteract genetics.

Findings from several long-term studies suggest that a healthy lifestyle can offset the effects of life-shortening genes by 62% and add up to five years to your life. The results were published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

“This study elucidates the fundamental role of a healthy lifestyle in mitigating the impact of genetic factors in reducing life expectancy,” the researchers concluded. “Public health policies to improve healthy lifestyles would serve as potent complements to conventional health care and mitigate the influence of genetic factors on human life expectancy.”

The study involved 353,742 people from the UK Biobank and showed that those with a high genetic risk of a shorter lifespan have a 21% higher risk of early death compared to those with a low genetic risk, regardless of lifestyle.

Meanwhile, people with unhealthy lifestyles have a 78% greater chance of dying early, regardless of genetic risk, scientists from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China and the University of Edinburgh found.

The study added that having an unhealthy lifestyle and genes with a shorter life expectancy more than doubled the risk of early death compared to people with luckier genes and healthier lifestyles.

However, investigators found that people appeared to have a degree of control over what happened. The genetic risk of a shorter life expectancy or premature death can be offset by a favorable lifestyle by about 62%, they found.