Health

Living to 100? No problem!
by Zuzana Zelenakova

Most of us consider elderly people who manage to reach 100 as exceptional or even half-miracles and assume that it is limited to people without chronic illnesses But Dr. William Hall of University of Rochester believes that older adults who develop age-related chronic illnesses, such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes, can live to such an age too. In his study published in Archives of Internal medicine on Monday he wrote the key might be the doctors who would treat these patients without prejudices about their age. The researchers from Boston University contacted about 500 women and 200 men for the study. It was reported that almost two-thirds of them have avoided age-related diseases. The rest was not so fortunate developing them before reaching 85 years. In average, men were more able to take care of themselves meaning they could handle everyday-life activities like dressing or bathing better than women. It was suggested than men had to be in exceptionally good state to reach such a high age. "Women, on the other hand, may be better physically and socially adept at living with chronic and often disabling conditions," wrote Dr. Dellara Terry and her research colleagues. Another study which focused on men in their 70s revealed that they had better chance to live to their 90s when avoiding risk factors such as obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, idleness. 2,357 men were studied for 25 years. About 40 percent of them reached at least 90 and 24 percent of the survivors were troubled by none of the risk factors.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080211/ap_on_he_me/living_longer;_ylt=Akf77SEhNoWdiMRh7n41o5ys0NUE

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Blog TechSource @ 12:15 PM