--- title: Why Amish People Stay So Healthy As They Get Older description: The Amish still have a significant edge in late-life health, with lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more. canonical: https://time.com/5159857/amish-people-stay-healthy-in-old-age-heres-their-secret/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-15T12:28:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:37.455Z article:section: Health og:title: Amish People Stay Healthy in Old Age. Here's Their Secret og:description: It all starts with their lifestyle og:url: https://time.com/5159857/amish-people-stay-healthy-in-old-age-heres-their-secret/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b517e4791aad2ba/698927a8ab6d7706e76b1c27/amish-longevity-pete-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: amish-longevity-pete-ryan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Amish People Stay Healthy in Old Age. Here's Their Secret twitter:description: It all starts with their lifestyle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b517e4791aad2ba/698927a8ab6d7706e76b1c27/amish-longevity-pete-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Amish People Stay Healthy in Old Age. Here's Their Secret > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: How CRISPR DNA-Editing Works [Watch (HLS stream): How CRISPR DNA-Editing Works](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xeP3Y87P.m3u8) (2:22)  _Published 2016-06-22. A brief guide to a ground-breaking new technology._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 15, 2018 12:28 PM UTC  Illustration by Pete Ryan for TIME  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 15, 2018 12:28 PM UTC Many people [think of the Amish](http://www.extracrispy.com/culture/1116/how-the-amish-do-breakfast) as living without. These [devout communities](http://time.com/3687995/why-amish-kids-are-happier-than-yours/), predominantly located in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, go without cars, TVs, computers, phones or even the electricity needed to run so much of 21st century gadgetry. But what researchers who have studied them have found is what the Amish have a surplus of: good health in late life. The average American life expectancy is currently just under 79 years. Back in 1900, it was only 47, but for early–20th century Amish it was already greater than 70\. Over the decades, most Americans have caught up in overall life expectancy, but the Amish still have a significant edge in late-life health, with lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more. So how do they do it? Start with lifestyle. Amish communities are agrarian, with no modern farm equipment, meaning all the work has to be done by hand. In 2004, the American College of Sports Medicine fitted Amish volunteers with pedometers to determine how much physical activity they performed. The results were dramatic. Amish men took 18,425 steps a day and women 14,196 steps, compared with non-Amish people who are encouraged by doctors to shoot for at least 10,000 steps–and typically fail. Including other forms of manual labor–lifting, chopping, sowing, planting–the Amish are six times as active as a random sample of people from 12 countries. One result of this is that only about 4% of Amish people are obese, compared with 36.5% of the overall U.S. population. Amish children are about one-third as likely as non-Amish to be obese, according to a 2012 study in PLOS One. This means 50% lower rates of Type 2 diabetes. The near absence of tobacco in the Amish community–some men do smoke cigars–results in a 63% lower rate of tobacco-related cancers, according to a 2004 study of Ohio’s Amish population. The Amish also had rates of all cancers that were 40% lower than the rest of the Ohio population. Cardiovascular disease is one area in which the Amish don’t have an edge, with blood-pressure and heart-disease rates slightly higher than those of other populations. Some of this might be attributable to the Amish diet, which is heavy on pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast; and meat, potatoes, gravy and bread for dinner. Working the farm can burn off those calories, but all the fat and salt and carbs still take a toll. The most powerful weapon in the Amish long-life arsenal, however, may be genes. The Amish population in the U.S. is about 318,000, descended from just 200 families that immigrated in the 1700s. They mostly marry within their own communities, which means the genes that existed when their ancestors got to America have remained. That can be a dangerous thing if bad genes are hidden in the mix but a good thing if the genes are sound. While no community is without genetic problems, the Amish seem to have gotten a lucky draw. In a study released last November, researchers at Northwestern University announced the discovery of a gene in an Amish community that seemed to be associated with an average life span 10% longer than that of people without the gene. The long-lived subjects also had 10% longer telomeres–the caps at the end of chromosomes that shorten over time and drive the aging process. The gene, known as PAI-1, is linked not only to slower aging but also to better insulin levels and better blood pressure and arterial flexibility. Not all Amish have the PAI-1 mutation; it has been found so far in just one community in Indiana. But those who do carry it have an additional edge over and above the one they have simply from being born Amish. While much of the Amish advantage is unique to the Amish themselves, there is one long-life lesson they can teach everyone else. Almost all elderly people in the Amish community are cared for at home, by relatives. This isn’t always realistic or possible in the non-Amish world, but when it is, it pays huge health dividends. The PLOS One study estimated that aging in place has the same longevity benefits as quitting smoking. In all communities, it seems, the power of family may trump the power of medicine. ## Transcript To understand CRISPR gene editing, let's start with what is DNA. Handed down from generation to generation, every cell in your body carries a copy of your genetic code called your genome. It's made up of DNA. It's like a book that describes A book made up of three billion letters arranged in different sequences that make up DNA words. These words can influence the traits that you take on, athletic, intelligent, gifted. Recently, computers have deciphered the entire human genos and have identified genetic mutations behind diseases that currently have no cure [ MUSIC ] With Crisper we can edit DNA. Crisper is a man- made molecule that can be programmed to find mutated or diseased DNA. [ MUSIC ] It's also equipped with a pair of molecular scissors. So once Crisper finds it's target DNA, it can snip that section from the genome. [ MUSIC ] Sometimes the body can repair itself. Other times, scientists can patch it with corrected letters. If this happens in eggs, sperm, or embryonic cells, the changes will be permanent and passed on to future generations. Crisper is already showing promise. It's being used to cut out the HIV virus. Eliminate Huntington's disease from the brain and even alter a mosquito's genome so it's less likely to spread malaria and zikka. Chrisper could lead to a new world of treatments, curing diseases and even eliminating them. So future generations won't ever have to suffer from them again. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5159857/amish-people-stay-healthy-in-old-age-heres-their-secret/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5159857/amish-people-stay-healthy-in-old-age-heres-their-secret/"},"headline":"Amish People Stay Healthy in Old Age. 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