Living Long and Aging Well: Are Lifestyle Factors the Epigenetic Link in the Longevity Phenotype

Societal and medical advances have extended life expectancy for people globally. Despite the significance of wellbeing for everyone, the challenge for medicine, society, and governments is to make the added years as healthy and productive as possible. People who age exceptionally well interest us. Current ninety-year-olds and centenarians are the survivors of their generation and are the fastest growing population group in Europe and the developed world. We want to know what gives them their determination to go forward; how have they remained healthy and escaped the dangers of illness and degenerative disease throughout their long lives? This chapter discusses some lifestyle and behavioral factors that associate with good quality longevity and describes links and evidence with known epigenetic mechanisms. It seems possible that exceptional ninety-year-olds and centenarians may have actively or intuitively adopted a range of behaviors and lifestyles that have contributed, through epigenetic mechanisms, to their aging-well-phenotype.