New research has shown that those who have moles on their skin are more likely to stay younger for longer.
The Twin Research Unit at King's College London found a high correlation bewtween those with a high number of moles on their skin and the biological ability to fight the signs of aging.
Moles develop in childhood but tend to disappear from middle age. However those who have a large number of moles, dark growths on the skin, have a higher chance of developing melanoma the most serious form of skin cancer.
Dr Veronique Bataille from the Twin Research Unit said: "The results are very exciting as they show, for the first time, that moley people who have a slightly increased risk of melanima may, on the other hand, have the benefit of a reduced rate of ageing.
"This could imply susceptibility to fewer age-related diseases such as heart disease or osteoporosis, for example. Further studies are needed."
The study compared more than 1,800 twins and discovered that those with a high number of moles, 100 or more, has longer telemeres, protective bundles of DNA whcih can be found at the end of chromosones, than those in the study who had 25 moles or less.
The difference discovered between the two groups equated to six or seven years of ageing.