Question: Is there a way that people can find out how long there life span will be? if they lived without being ran over,shot, etc.

Sarah Martin answered on 21 Jun 2012:

Hi ciaralydon!

The short answer is no – because the causes of disease and death are so unpredictable! However scientist are trying to find out by doing so-called “longitudinal” studies, where they follow a group of people all their lives and collect data about them – blood samples, gene tests, food diaries, exercise habits, jobs, metical history etc – and then they check which genes or behaviours lead to people getting ill in that group and what is all linked. I worked on some samples a couple of years ago that were of people who were all IQ tested when they were 11 years old in 1947, and have kept detailed records ever since about how they’ve lived! Colleagues of mine have now found out that actually how clever you are when you’re 11 links directly to how well you’ll cope in old age and whether you’ll be forgetful or not!The same group of people, over one thousand of them, are still coming back to the labs for tea parties – they’re now 76!

It’s with large studies like that we can find out more about what makes us live longer, but if we only look at individual examples, it gets very confusing! Both my grans have passed away: my dad’s mum was healthy all her life but died suddenly at the age of 55 from a stroke, and my mum’s mum smoked 20 cigarettes a day from age 18, had half a lung removed, had breast cancer too, and still lived till she was 87!

So we’ll all just have to wait and find out, and look on both sides before crossing a road in the mean time.

🙂 Sarah