I know this may sound like something I’m writing to excuse my own laziness and poor health habits, but I’m serious (at least sort of serious) about this: Fitness may be somewhat overrated as a predictor of whether you’ll live a long life.
Scientists published a recent study that says they are beginning to identify specific genes and combinations of genes in our fundamental makeup that lead to generally longer lives. Now, they aren’t saying that fitness and healthy eating, sleeping, and eating habits aren’t important. But they are suggesting that all the healthy living we do may ultimately not give us longer lives if our genetic makeup isn’t set up for it.
Does this mean we should live with wild abandon, eating and partying our way through life, knowing the length of our days on this globe are already determined by our genes and we can’t do anything about it? Should we tell all those expectant moms out there that the best prenatal vitamins in the world won’t influence the health of their new baby — but that the important thing has already been decided when mom and dad mixed their gene pools together?
That’s all pretty absurd, of course. No matter whether you have the “long life” genes or gene combinations — you still are going to live, barring an accident, long enough to want the best quality of life you can have in the years you have. So obviously, since we cannot control our genetic makeup and we aren’t really certain about what “long life genes” are or exactly how they work, we have an obligation to ourselves (and our families) to live as healthy as we possibly can.
Guess that means I’ll stick to the daily exercise and healthy diet routine — for a few more years at least. I hope.