Children of Centenarians Face Lower Heart Risks

But, Adams noted that the study found that children of centenarians do not, for example, experience significantly lower rates of arrhythmias, cancer, macular degeneration, dementia, depression, fractures, osteoporosis and thyroid disease.

"It's really with the vascular diseases that they fared better," she said.

Jay Olshansky, a senior research scientist at the University of Chicago's Center on Aging, said future work in this arena will focus on trying to isolate the mechanism behind genetic longevity.

"This study looked at outcomes and is directly in line with what you would expect," said Olshansky, who's also a professor with the university's school of public health. "But that is where this research is going next -- to find out how this very strong genetic component to living long plays out.

"But the bottom line," he added, "is that we already know that the genes that are associated with exceptional longevity already exist, and that they are concentrated in subgroups of the population. And the rest of us don't have those genes, or don't have all of them. Those who do have won the genetic lottery for making it out to exceptional old age. And, unfortunately, if you haven't won, there's no chance you can make it."

More information

To learn more about centenarians, visit the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

SOURCES: Emily R. Adams, third-year medical student, Boston University School of Medicine; S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., professor, school of public health, University of Illinois at Chicago, and senior research scientist, Center on Aging, University of Chicago; November 2008 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society