[capitainenemo]

I'm sure that's the case that there's a lot of poor record keeping, but just as an anecdote here, a family member who lived mostly independently and lucidly until the age of 102 was a regular wine drinker. When we celebrated his birthday it was with shots and multiple glasses. And there was definitely no error. His elderly children can attest to that, and he was born in a modern area with good record keeping.

He was no athlete but was tanned, slim and healthy, walked regularly. I do wonder if excessive athleticism can be a problem, maybe increasing the number of total heartbeats through constant strain, wearing out the heart early and overwhelming the benefits of exercise to the heart. Perhaps moderation is the key (that and getting lucky with the genes ofc ;) ).

[atleastoptimal]

If you exercise your resting heart rate will be lower, so athletic people have fewer total heart beats. However I'm not sure number of heart beats is a relevant metric to cardiovascular wear and tear.

[capitainenemo]

yeah, as the other comment noted, I wondered if it was related to that "meme" of total heartbeats. regular exercise reducing total resting heartrate, but excessive exercise overwhelming that gain with excessive stresses and high rates. dunno. just random speculation, I have no expertise in this...

[algo_trader]

> increasing the number of total heartbeats ... wearing out the heart early

this is a common meme [1]

[1] https://www.discovery.com/nature/almost-every-mammal-gets-ab...