Lectures 1+2 (intro)

Question 1

Why is the gap between lifespan and healthy lifespan increasing?

Answer 1

CVD, diabetes, cancer, alzheimer’s + dementia

Question 2

In the NL, there is also a gap between..

Answer 2

• Dutch people with a low income + practical edu
• Dutch people with a high income + theoretical edu
  (7 yr gap lifespan, 15 yr gap health span)

Question 3

What are two policy movements towards prevention? Examples?

Answer 3

▪ National Prevention Agreement
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Alcohol abuse

▪ Coalition agreement
- Increased tax on sugar-containing beverages
- Protection of children against child-marketing
- Plans for sugar levy and 0% tax on fruit & vegetables

Question 4

Estimation of true heredity of lifespan?

Answer 4

● Max: 25%
● Most recent estimates: around 12%

Question 5

Many studies have explored associations between variations in the genome and longevity. Only …. gene locations have been identified: X and X

Answer 5

2
APOE
-> (cholesterol carrier in peripheral tissues and the brain, Associated with susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s disease)

FOXO3A
-> Trigger for apoptosis (programmed cell-death)

Question 6

ELS = ?

Answer 6

Essential Life Span:
● The period of survival of the body until reproduction, for which evolutionary forces and natural selection have resulted maintenance mechanisms protecting structural and functional designs of the
organism

Question 7

Ageing is result of presence/absence of natural selection pressures

Answer 7

absence

▪ After you have reproduced, there are no evolutionary pressures selecting genes
that promote lifespan and health at later age
▪ Alternatively, ageing can be the result of deleterious effects at later age of genes with
advantageous effects during development

Question 8

Menopause can either be adaptive or nonadaptive. Argument for adaptive vs nonadaptive?

Answer 8

1. Adaptive
   ● More energy into helping existing children instead of having more
2. Nonadaptive
   ● Artifact of the dramatic increase in human life expectancy
   ● Nonexistent in other mammals, except for whales

Question 9

What is the ‘grandmother hypothesis’?

Answer 9

A Canadian study showed that women with a living mother had more offspring than women with a diseased mother

Question 10

Lifespan …., gap with healthspan …..

decreases/increases

Answer 10

increases, increases