Increasing number of long-lived ancestors associates with up to a decade of healthspan extension and a healthy metabolomic profile in mid-life
Globally, the lifespan of populations increases but the healthspan is lagging behind. Previous research showed that survival into extreme ages (longevity) clusters in families as illustrated by the increasing lifespan of study participants with each additional long-lived family member. Here we investigate whether the healthspan in such families follows a similar quantitative pattern using three-generational data from two databases, LLS (Netherlands), and SEDD (Sweden). We study healthspan in 2,143 families containing index persons and two ancestral generations, comprising 17,539 persons with 25 follow-up years. Our results provide strong evidence that an increasing number of long-lived ancestors associates with up to a decade of healthspan extension. Further evidence indicates that members of long-lived families have a delayed onset of medication use, multimorbidity and, in mid-life, healthier metabolomic profiles than their partners. We conclude that in longevity families, both lifespan and healthspan are quantitatively linked to ancestral longevity, making such families highly suitable to identify protective mechanisms of multimorbidity.