Relationships among Environment, Climate, and Longevity in China

Abstract

Human longevity is influenced by environment and nutrition. We considered environmental and nutritional factors relating to longevity in Chinese cities. We found higher 85+/65+ distribution ratios, indicating enhanced longevity, in the coastal and southern regions of China. These areas also featured higher humidity, low standard deviation of monthly temperature, higher levels of selenium (Se) distribution in soil, and greater sea fish consumption. Moderate climate is more conducive to longevity, however, there is no significant difference in longevity between different sub-climatic types within moderate climate; the relation between humidity and longevity is not always positive, the relation between altitude and longevity is not always negative. Nutritional factors like Se and omega-3 fatty acids contained in sea fish were crucial to longevity. In contrast, the consumption of meat and freshwater fish were less related to longevity. Taken together, humidity, altitude, and per capita sea fish consumption, when evaluated via geographically weighted regression, explained 66% and 68% of longevity among Chinese individuals in 2000 and 2010, respectively. Other factors require further discussion.

Impact on Longevity of Genetic Cardiovascular Risk and Lifestyle including Red Meat Consumption

“…Low red meat intake was, in the present work, also checked for longevity impact (Table 1). Our results agree with that observed by other authors suggesting that the highest CVR were associated with the highest frequencies of red meat consumptions [35,55,56]. Particularly, processed red meat is associated with a higher incidence of CV diseases such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke in addition to other pathologies [56].…”

“…The fact that the number of centenarians increases, according to the Demographic Statistics Unit of the Portuguese National Statistics Institute [3], corroborates the environmental influence in contributing to longevity, which is in line with other authors [6,55,62].…”

Understanding the Natural and Socioeconomic Factors behind Regional Longevity in Guangxi, China: Is the Centenarian Ratio a Good Enough Indicator for Assessing the Longevity Phenomenon?

“…The second finding has shown similar conclusions that elderly people are likely to be distributed in places where the environment and climatic condition are better [ 2 , 33 ]. In addition, there are studies that argue that better economic conditions can help maintain a relatively high proportion of old-age populations [ 6 , 19 ].…”

How does the environment affect human ageing? An interdisciplinary review

“…With rising temperature due to climate change, older adults with a low socioeconomic status -since owning air condition, hydrating, dressing in light clothes and having access to transportation and social contacts are associated with decreased mortality -and poorer health conditions are most at risk to suffer from heat stress 45 . Climate is therefore a tolerance factor relating to longevity with a moderate climate being more conducive to human longevity than extreme climate 46,47 . With the increasing number of older people on the one hand and the rapidly warming earth's climate on the other, further measurements in order to lower anthropogenic pollution leading to global warming and irreversible changes in ecosystems around the world are therefore much needed to allow human longevity.…”