It’s sometimes tempting to blame genetics for certain illnesses so we don’t have to look at our risky or unhealthy behaviors. But a healthy lifestyle would counter the effects of unfavorable genes. This was observed by Swedish scientists from the University of Stockholm, in a study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. For 25 years, they followed a cohort of 1,229 individuals aged 75 and over, in order to study the correlations between genetic variations, behavior and mortality. They focused on 14 genes and found that 4 of them, linked to cardiovascular disease and metabolism, could increase the likelihood of dying. Genes come in different versions, alleles. Those whose allele on these genes was unfavorable had a 62% increased risk of mortality compared to those with a more favorable version.
Lifestyle stronger than genetics
But lifestyle also has an influence: the mortality rate was 65% lower in healthy lifestyle participants, compared to those who included all behavioral risk factors (smoking, physical, social and intellectual inactivity, small social network). Regardless of the genetic profile, the risk of mortality is lower by 64% for people with a healthy lifestyle, compared to those whose lifestyle is more degraded, and who have at least one genetic risk factor. The influence of behavior on health is therefore not to be neglected and would make it possible to reduce the effects of “bad genes” at the start.
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