If you are planning on living a long life then the
New Scientist has some good news. The extra years people have been gaining are not necessarily beset by ill health. However, the downside is that you have to rely on your parents to provide you with good quality genes.
... the oldest old have very low rates of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and stroke. The trend is particularly apparent for cancer. The odds of developing it increase sharply as people age, but they fall from the age of 84, and plummet from 90 onwards. Only 4 per cent of centenarians die of cancer, compared with 40 per cent of people that die in their fifties and sixties.
