True story: One recent spring day, while riding my bike from Frisco to Copper Mountain, I heard two obnoxious guys making kissing noises behind me. They puckered up and blew kisses as they passed on my left. I caught a glimpse of them before they blasted ahead and vanished around a curve.

They were both about 75 years old and perfect examples of what I like in my men; supremely athletic social imbeciles who are as desiccated as two dead frogs in a jar of formaldehyde. So, here's the good news and the bad news: If a recent study about health and longevity in the Colorado high country is right, those two lecherous cyclists will be tooling around the mountains heckling women for many years to come.

A fascinating study about health and aging released by the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine last spring in partnership with the Harvard School of Global Health revealed that 7 of top 10 counties in USA with the longest living people are located in Colorado. The seven counties are: Clear Creek, Eagle, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Park and Summit.

Coloradans who live in those counties have a life expectancy of 81.3 years. That translates to an advantage of 1.2-3.6 years for men and 0.5-2.5 years for women over the national average.

Study subjects lived at a mean elevation of 5,967 feet above sea level.

Why do Coloradans live longer, healthier lives than other Americans?

Benjamin Honigman, MD, professor of Emergency Medicine at the CU School of Medicine and director of the Altitude Medicine Clinic thinks the secret to a long healthy life has something to do with oxygen deprivation or hypoxia.

Lower oxygen levels turn on certain genes and we think those genes may change the way heart muscles function. They may also produce new blood vessels that create new highways for blood flow into the heart. Dr. Honigman says.

Dr. Andrew Subudhi of the Altitude Research Center concurs. He says that athletes training at 7,000-8500 feet above sea level gain a competitive advantage because they experience increased blood vessel production in the heart.

Increased blood vessel production may reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke in high altitude residents.

Continued here:
Gilchrist: Is the Secret to a Longer Life Right Here in the Mountains?