Drinking alcohol is the key to living into your 90s, a long-term study worth raising a glass to has discovered.
For over 14 years, University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas and her team have been exploring the effects of daily habits on longevity among 1,700 nonagenarians enrolled in the 90+ Study, The New York Daily News reported.
Participants were visited every six months by researchers who performed a series of neurological and neuropsychological tests to establish what the key was in maintaining a long, healthy life, and their findings were somewhat unexpected.
According to the study, people who drank moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee lived longer than those who abstained and people who were overweight in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people did.
"I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity," Kawas said of the findings, according to The Independent.
She also noted that, while it was not bad to be thin, it seemed to be "very bad to be skinny when you're old."
Tying in with the study's findings, it appeared that those who maintained some type of hobby were 21 percent less likely to die prematurely.
"These people are inspiring -- they drink wine, drink coffee, gain weight, but they exercise and use their brains," Kawas said, per Sci-Tech Today. "Maybe that can tell us something."
Further study is needed before any conclusion can be drawn on how certain habits impact longevity, The New York Daily News noted, however the findings could unlock new doors for researchers.
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