Tonight I’m not up to leading, so I’m just going to follow up on a few things I’ve posted about this month.
The Honolulu Heart Program at Kuakini Medical Center, which is home to the longevity study that my dad is part of, has received additional funding. My mom tells me that she and my dad both went in last week for follow-up interviews. Out of the more than 5,800 middle-aged men who started in the study in 1965, about 800 are still alive today. The youngest is 89 and the oldest is 106. No word yet as to whether my dad has that longevity gene, or whether I inherited it from him.
Is it just me who is irritated by the media sources who are reporting that First Dog Bo Obama is on his fourth home? They count the breeder as #1, first owner as #2, trainer as #3, and White House as #4. Sorry. WRONG. You don’t count the breeder, and you don’t count trainers or handlers as homes either. Bo is on his SECOND home.
My family grows old gracefully. Or at least, they live a long time. With very few exceptions, my relatives who have passed on were well into their 80s or even 90s when they left us.
I was born in 1958. My mom was 35 and my dad was 40 when I was born. That would be pretty normal now, but back then it was rather ancient to be having a first child. I do not have children myself. That is mostly by choice, and partly because I didn’t meet my husband until I was well into my 30s. I just did not see myself having a first child at the same age my mom did. My parents gave me a good childhood and it’s not because of any real or imagined traumatic experience making me say “well, I’ll never do that.”
The only unfortunate side effect of delaying their family is that now that they are getting up there in years (my parents are both still alive and very healthy and independent at 85 and 90), I’m still nowhere near enough to retirement age to easily pick up and go back to Hawaii where I can be close enough to be more helpful to them. Yes, I know, priorities and all of that. If they need me, I will find a way to get back there.
My dad has been part of a longevity study researching healthy Japanese-American men in Hawaii since 1965. I had no idea he was participating in this study until a couple of years ago. The study ran from 1965 to 2005, and the results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006. Dad was in a video segment produced to accompany the article, which aired during the health segment of many local news programs in the fall of 2006. The segment described the findings of the Hawaii Lifespan Study, identifying mid-life risk factors that would predict longevity. The findings: avoid smoking, avoid excessive drinking, maintain healthy blood pressure, and maintain a healthy weight. Having a good education and being married appeared to also contribute to longevity.
The press release accompanying the video was printed in the health briefs of many newspapers as well, including the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. You can still see it in their archives:
But somehow I missed another interesting piece of news related to the longevity study. Here is one of the many articles that I missed back in September 2008:
Seems that they’ve identified a longevity gene. I wonder if my dad has this gene. I wonder if he knows whether or not he has it: did they let the study participants know? I wonder if my mom has it, too? Her side of the family has had some good long lifespans as well. If Dad has it, I might have it. I’m looking forward to following the developments on this.
