We don't all start off with the same number of tickets in the lottery.
This metaphor, in a nutshell, goes some way towards explaining the chances of staying healthy as we age.
"The start you get in life is important to begin with," Hunter Medical Research Institute Professor Julie Byles said.
Professor Byles will speak at a virtual community seminar that HMRI will host online on Wednesday night.
The seminar, titled Healthy Ageing, will discuss research about living better, healthier lives.
As well as the lottery of birth, there's also our parents.
"You can't pick your parents," said Professor Byles, recounting an ageless phrase.
"If your parents had socio-economic advantages and were healthy, you're already off to a better start in life than the next person who might have had disadvantages."
The same goes for having a mum who didn't smoke or drink and followed proper nutrition while pregnant.
After a person is born, home life, education and nutrition in early life are important factors in ageing well.
Research in this area can produce intriguing facts.
"We asked a simple question of people in their 60s - how many books did you have in your home as a child?" she said.
The number of books, it turned out, was an indicator of "what your wellbeing will be like in your 60s".
In future, this question will probably relate to the type of internet use.
But it's not all about the early period of a person's life.
There is much that can be done during a life to improve health and wellbeing. These factors have become increasingly well known among the health-conscious, albeit in the age of obesity.
As people age, exercise, diet, social life, not smoking, low-to-moderate alcohol intake, having a purpose, belonging to a community, being family-focused and reducing stress are big parts of healthy ageing.
Physical activity is crucial.
There's a group of people dubbed "super-agers". These are people in their 60s, 70s and some say 80s, who have managed to avoid disease and disability.
Professor Byles, however, believes that most people who live into their 80s will have health challenges.
"If you live long enough, you'll probably get something," she said.
"Some people will be super-agers, but most people won't. Super-agers is probably the wrong term. The correct term is successful agers.
"In the 1980s, this term - successful ageing - was popularised. They are people who have become older without any disease or disability, they're cognitively intact and remain engaged with life," she said.
"It was a really important concept because, at the time, there was a lot of ageism. Anybody over 60 was considered to be past it."
The reasons why some people do better than others at ageing became fertile ground for researchers.
"It helped with research into how some people get to older age without having disease and disability and other problems that are quite common."
Professor Byles said managing health conditions was important to prevent further complications and disease progression.
"If you do get a chronic disease, whether it's arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure or asthma [for example], be active in managing it.
"Regardless of your levels of disease or disability, you want to be able to build and maintain the functional ability to do the things you have reason to value for as long as possible.
"It's being able to maintain a high quality of life as you're getting older."
Maintaining a healthy weight is another big factor in ageing well. In other words, don't get too fat. But don't get too thin, either.
"When you're younger, being overweight is not a good thing. But when you're older, being underweight is not a good thing," she said.
Being very overweight or obese, though, isn't good at any age.
"It reduces your healthy life expectancy," she said.
"Obesity is an inflammatory condition, so you'll get conditions that are related to that like arthritis. You'll get disabilities.
"If you're underweight when you're older, that actually reduces your life expectancy.
"Eating fruit and vegies and a good amount of protein to maintain muscle mass is important."
Professor Kichu Nair, a geriatrician, will also speak at the seminar.
The hour-long seminar will be streamed live on HMRI's Facebook page at 6pm.
