Jeanne Calment, the French doyenne believed to be oldest person in the world when she died at the extreme age of 122, was known for three things: her quick wit, her fondness for bicycling around the small city where she grew up — and the fact that she was a daily smoker.
Before her death in 1997, Calment was often asked the secret to her good health. She would respond with a laugh and describe how she would frequently consume two pounds of chocolate a week, drank generous amounts of port wine and became a smoker at age 21.
At a time when public health messages emphasise on how important it is to balance diets and fitness regimes in order to live long lives, Calment is a reminder of the fact that no matter what we do there may always be a part of our health that is beyond our control. In an intriguing study published this week, researchers delved into the genetic make-up of long-lived smokers like Calment and found that their survival may be due to an innate resilience they were born with.
It’s all in the genes
Morgan E. Levine, a post-doctoral fellow in human genetics and biostatistics at the University of California-Los Angeles, and Eileen Crimmins, a gerontology professor at the University of Southern California, discovered a set of genetic markers in these smokers that they believe may allow them to better withstand and mitigate environmental damage from stressors.
Smoking is known to be one of the worst things you can do to your body, with drastic consequences on life span and the progression of disease. On average, smokers’ life expectancy is 10 years less than non-smokers. The long-lived smokers are the exception and the researchers said that their findings suggest that they may be a “biologically distinct group” that is endowed with genetic variants that allow them to respond differently to exposure.
“There is evidence that these genes may facilitate lifespan extension by increasing cellular maintenance and repair,” Levine said.
The study, which was published in the Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences, compared 90 participants who were smokers and lived to past age 80, with 730 people who were smokers and lived to less than 70 years of age. They found that those in the age 80-plus group had similar physiological function as measured by inflammation, blood pressure and immune function as non-smokers in their age group. Smokers who died at a younger age had had worse physiological function than their same-age non-smoking counterparts at the time they were measured.
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