A common genetic mutation is linked to an increase in life span of about 10 years among men…The mutation, described in the journal Science Advances, did not seem to have any effect on women….
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Studies in the mid-2000s suggested that this mutation might make children short…The link between height and longevity led [Dr. Gil Atzmon, a geneticist at the University of Haifa in Israel] and his colleagues to wonder if it might also influence how long people lived.
The researchers sequenced the gene for growth hormone receptors in 567 Ashkenazi Jews over 60 and their children…The mutation, they found, was present in 12 percent of the men over age 100. That rate was about three times higher than in 70-year-old men.
In women, however, the mutation was present in roughly the same fraction in both age groups.
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They had expected that long-lived men with the mutation would be short. However, just the opposite turned out to be true: The mutation seemed to raise men’s height by about an inch.
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Men with a mutation in their growth hormone receptor may put more resources into repairing their bodies, thus slowing the aging process…[T]he new study[seems to] suggest that keeping growth hormone levels low may actually be a better strategy for living longer.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Scientists Discover a Key to a Longer Life in Male DNA
