Charles Yogi is a veteran Hawaiian athlete who, at 85, is capable of beating much younger opponents in a race without losing his breath. According to a study with more than 8,000 male subjects published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , part of its enormous vital force is due to the FOXO3A gene.
Our genetic code, explains Dr. Bradley Willcox, is written with a chemical alphabet that includes four letters: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine), and G (guanine). Well, when the letter G appears in a certain position of the FOXO3A gene instead of the majority letter T, the possibility of reaching 90 years of age healthy increases considerably. And since we have two copies for each gene, if the G appears in both, the probability of turning 98 shoots up. There are even those with this genetic profile who reach more than 106 years .
Although there are certain habits that help us stay healthy later in life, such as diet or physical activity, scientists say that longevity depends on at least 50 percent hereditary genetic factors .
