IF YOUR parents live to a ripe old age, you stand a good chance of doing the
same— especially if you are female and survive the rigours of youth, say
researchers in Lyon.
Amandine Cournil and colleagues at Claude Bernard University looked at 643
families in the Valserine Valley in France, whose birth and death records could
be traced back to 1745. Comparing the life expectancy of 55-year-old offspring,
they found that those whose parents had reached the greatest ages could look
forward to a longer life. The effect was pronounced in women, who could look
forward to, on average,…
