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3d ago

Genes Account for About Half of Human Lifespan, New Analysis Finds

By excluding external causes of death in twin datasets, researchers isolate intrinsic longevity with an estimated heritability near 50–55%.

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Longevity has long been thought to be shaped largely by how and where people live, but a new study suggests that our genes play a larger role.
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Side view of a senior man spending his time in the park walking at sunset.

Overview

  • Published in Science on Jan. 29, the study reanalyzes twin and sibling records and reports lifespan heritability rising to roughly 55% once accidents, infections, and other extrinsic deaths are removed.
  • Researchers from the Weizmann Institute used mathematical models of mortality and validated predictions across Danish and Swedish twin cohorts, including twins raised apart, plus U.S. centenarian sibling data.
  • The estimate is context‑specific, reflecting modern, relatively safe populations, and it still leaves about half of lifespan variation to environment, lifestyle, healthcare access, and biological randomness.
  • A companion Perspective argues the stronger genetic signal justifies large-scale searches for longevity-associated variants, refinement of polygenic scores, and efforts to map pathways that regulate aging.
  • Experts caution that separating intrinsic from extrinsic causes is model‑dependent and can blur for infections, and reporting notes cause‑specific patterns with higher heritability for cardiovascular disease and dementia than for some cancers.