A recent study on aging found that men who avoided smoking, limited alcohol use, and stayed thin in middle age were the most likely to live to age 85 or older, the Orlando Sentinel reported Nov. 28.

Maintaining low blood pressure and staying married through middle age also seemed to predict a long and healthy life, according to researchers who tracked a group of 5,820 Japanese-American men for four decades, starting when most of the group was in their 50s. "There appears to be a lot we can do about modifying our risk and increasing the odds for aging more healthfully," said researcher Bradley Willcox of the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu.

Researchers found that 58 percent of the men died before age 85, but that the 11 percent who reached 85 without any serious mental or physical health problems shared common characteristics in middle age.

The study appeared in the Nov. 15, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.