BETHESDA, Md., March 12 (UPI) -- People whose parents live past 85 are more likely to avoid high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other heart-disease risk factors, says a U.S. study.
The researchers examined 1,697 offspring, 30 and older, of parents from the Framingham Heart Study, a program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found the group of study participants whose parents survived past 85 had greatly fewer participants with high blood pressure or who smoked, compared with those groups in which one or both parents had died.
The children of parents who lived past 85 had greatly lower levels of blood pressure and blood cholesterol at middle age, according to the researchers.
However, parental longevity did not appear to affect body mass index, a common measure of body fat based on a person's weight and height.
