The secret of a long life is a family affair

摘要

Marry your cousin to have long-lived kids? Inbreeding is not usually mooted as the key to longevity, but Giuseppe Passarino of the University of Calabria in Rende, Italy, thinks it might be. "Everyone knows that inbreeding is bad - it increases your chances of catching a range of diseases," he says. "But on the other hand, our study suggests that if inbreds don't get those diseases when they're young, they might have a better chance of long life." Passarino and his colleagues used census data to identify a geographically isolated region of southern Italy with more than its fair share of male nonagerians.