Want to live past 90? Gain weight and have a tipple!

IT’s the sort of health news most would toast with a cheeky tipple – but it may have health fanatics choking on their carrot juice.

Drinking a couple of glasses of wine or beer a night – while adding a few extra pounds in weight – could be the secret to living into your 90s, a major study has found. The research, which looked at people who had lived beyond 90, identified modest alcohol consumption as one of five key factors linked to a long life.

It found that those who drank around two alcoholic drinks daily, such as beer or wine, had an 18% reduced risk of premature death compared to those who were teetotal. Meanwhile, being slightly overweight – but not obese – also appeared to reduce the risk of early death, although only by around 3%.

Professor Claudia Kawas, of the University of California, tracked data on around 1,700 people who were in their 90s in 2003 – called the ‘90+ study’.

She also found that those who spent at least two hours a day on a hobby had a 21% lower risk of premature death; those who took between 15 and 45 minutes of moderate exercise a day had an 11% lower risk; and those who drank around two cups of coffee a day had a 10% lower chance of premature death.

Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Austin, Texas, Professor Kawas said: ‘I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity.’

On weight, Professor Kawas explained that human biology was geared to adding weight later in life, adding: ‘The best mortality experience is to gain between five and ten pounds per decade.

‘Underweight people had a 50% increase in mortality.

‘It’s not bad to be skinny when you’re young, but it’s very bad to be skinny when you’re old.’

The number of people over 90 in Ireland and globally is rapidly growing

But Professor Kawas warned: ‘Our data shows none of these lifestyle factors make any difference to the likelihood you will develop dementia.’