What are the secrets to living a long and healthy life? Most people realise that to reach a healthy old age you need to do regular exercise, keep to a reasonable weight, get enough sleep and manage stress.
But you can now add to that list something much more surprising: get infected by the right viruses.
That, at least, was the conclusion of a recent study of centenarians from Japan and Sardinia.
The Japanese are famously long lived, while the small Italian island of Sardinia claims to have one of the highest proportions of people who live to 100 or beyond.
The assumption has always been that…