“How tall your parents are compared to the average height explains
80 to 90 percent of how tall you are compared to the average person,”
Dr. Vaupel said. But “only 3 percent of how long you live compared to
the average person can be explained by how long your parents lived.”“You
really learn very little about your own life span from your parents’
life spans,” Dr. Vaupel said. “That’s what the evidence shows. Even
twins, identical twins, die at different times.” On average, he said,
more than 10 years apart.
Here is the full story, which is interesting throughout. But of course the day is young, and I haven’t seen Bryan, Robin [Hanson], and Alex yet…
Interesting and counter-intuitive: thank you.
I don’t think it’s particularly counter-intuitive. Many diseases or conditions may be genetic, but no two lifestyles are the same.
I should add: because of the advances of medical technology over generational periods, even the impact of genetic conditions (or even learned negative habits) should be minimized.
Here is a very interesting presentation on the heritability of lifespan:
http://longevity-science.org/Gavrilova-Australia.ppt
The 3% figure seems way out of line; this presentation cites six different studies that are all around 10-30%. However, it gets much more interesting than that. Unlike most things that are influenced by genetics, the effect of genetics on lifespan is non-linear. Essentially, unusually long lifespans are heritable, but unusually short ones, not so much.
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