What determine how long you live

How long you live depends mostly on 3 things:

• Behaviour and lifestyle: what you eat, exercise, smoke, drink, etc.
• Genetics: the biological resources you are born with
• Accidents and other elements beyond your control

You can make very healthy choices to promote a long life and try to avoid accidents. But your genetics also a very important part in it.

• Longevity genes: it's a large number of genes that act together in complex ways to determine your natural death age, without taking in consideration any of the other factors like behaviour and chance.
• Disease genes: the ones you inherit that cause certain diseases or make you more likely to develop them.

Genetic diseases:

• Huntington's disease
• Cystic fibrosis
• Sickle cell anaemia
• Haemophilia

Diseases that play a part in how susceptible you are:

• Breast cancer
• Colon cancer
• Heart disease

Often we hear that some diseases, such as cancers, run in the family. But it doesn't mean that you will get the disease, just that you are more likely to have it and so, you should be regularly checked for that disease and try to make the lifestyle choices that minimise your risk.