Want to know how long you’re going to live? Look no further than your family tree. A new study by the Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School proves that those with long-living relatives tend to live longer than the general population, according to Reuters Health. Among 444 families with at least one member who lived to be 100 or older, siblings of centenarians had a mortality rate about half as high as the national average throughout their lives. Scientists will continue to focus on these long-living families to find the genes that give them a survival advantage.
From the October 2002 issue of Family Tree Magazine
