Factors That Contribute to Increase in Biological Age

Studies show that an increase in biological aging is caused due to factors like gender, BMI, smoking, and depression.

Scientists have developed many ways to determine our biological age – a) measuring telomere length (little caps on the end of chromosomes), b) chemical changes to our DNA (epigenetics), and c) changes to the proteins and metabolites in our bodies (proteomic and metabolomic measures).

While these individual measurements have been linked to physical and mental health by previous studies, it is still unknown whether they influence each other or have a cumulative effect on our overall well-being as we age.

This study is the first to show how individual biological age measurements link with mental and physical health.

Rick Jansen, lead author, explains that the study aimed to examine how biological aging indicators relate to each other and determinants of physical and mental health, and if a combined biological clock, made up of all age indicators is a better predictor of health.

Blood samples from nearly 3,000 people were obtained. Computer modeling was applied to create individual biological aging indicators based on five commonly used measurements – telomere length, epigenetics, gene levels, metabolites, and proteomics.

These indicators were then linked back to various factors like sex, lifestyle factors, and known physical and mental disorders.

Findings showed that only three biological indicators were found to significantly relate to each other, i.e., an increase in one hand also increased the other. Although other aging indicators and specific lifestyle factors or diseases had many overlapping and distinct links, being male, a high BM), smoking and having metabolic syndrome were most consistently linked with more advanced biological aging.

The research team also reported that depression, assessed by epigenetics, gene levels, and proteomics, was related to more advanced aging. This indicates that both mental and physical wellbeing are linked to biological aging.

When all five measurements were incorporated into a biological age composite score, this score had more significant associations with BMI, gender, smoking, the intensity of depression, and metabolic syndrome, demonstrating the interplay of cumulative biological aging between different systems.

“Our work suggests that biological aging indicators largely track distinct, but partially overlapping, aspects of the aging process,” concludes senior author Brenda Penninx.

She adds, “Taken together, our findings contribute to the understanding and identification of biological age determinants – important for the development of outcomes for clinical and population-based research.”

‘Studies show that an increase in biological aging is caused due to factors like gender, BMI, smoking, and depression.’
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