A UC Irvine study has revealed that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee, and people who are overweight in their 70s, live longer than their skinny teetotalling counterparts.

Using data collected from 14,000 people in a 1981 Leisure World Cohort Study (LCWS), along with 1,600 participants who have enrolled in The 90+ Study launched in 2003, researchers from the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders set out to determine factors associated with longevity, such as;

What factors are common in people who live to age 90 and beyond?

What types of food, activities or lifestyles are associated with longevity?

How many people in their 90s or older have dementia or memory loss - and how does that affect the elderly?

Do the brains of people in their 90s show evidence of memory loss and dementia - and can people change their risk of dementia through diet, exercise or supplements?

Major findings:

Researchers from The 90+ Study have published many scientific papers in premier journals. Some of the major findings are:

People who drank moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee lived longer than those who abstained.

People who were overweight in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people did.

Over 40% of people aged 90 and older suffer from dementia while almost 80% are disabled. Both are more common in women than men.

About half of people with dementia over age 90 do not have sufficient neuropathology in their brain to explain their cognitive loss.

People aged 90 and older with an APOE2 gene are less likely to have clinical Alzheimer’s dementia, but are much more likely to have Alzheimer’s neuropathology in their brains.

Learn more about the study (or even participate in it) here.