Several millennia ago we called ambrosia, and collocavamo on the table of the gods. Today, however, we tracked the elixir of long life within our cells: a team of researchers at Stanford University and the University of Bologna, in fact, he has identified five genes that guard the secret of longevity, allowing centenarians to live healthy. The lucky ones who have this genetic advantage, though, it can take full advantage only if they lead a healthy life and healthy. The study - not the first of its kind: already in November 2014, during the congress of the Gerontological Society of America was presented similar work - was published in the journal PLoS Genetics.

"Centenarians," says ANSA Claudio Franceschi of the University of Bologna, "have a favorable genetics, on this there is no doubt. We started from the obvious fact that to live very long need not have developed serious diseases associated with aging. From this, we decided to compare the genomes of centenarians not so much with healthy people, as we have done so far, but with people who have instead developed the disease. " To do this, the scientists used computer tools specifically for the analysis of big data, noting the common features of the DNA of healthy centenarians, a kind of genetic signature that somehow protects against the development of age-related diseases.

Of course, the scientists point out, this makes sense only if it is matched to the style of life right. Because if you smoke, eat badly and do little physical activity there is ambrosia that takes: "Having the right features," concludes Franceschi, "offers an advantage, but it certainly does not guarantee security to get a hundred. So as not to have such characteristics it does not mean that you will die first. The interactions between genetics and environment, in fact, are complex and the factors involved are many. "

From Wired