Lifestyle is More Powerful Than Genes in Aging
What you do is more important than what you are made of when it comes to your health.
Researchers from the University of Oxford have concluded lifestyle and environmental factors have more to do with health and aging than genetics.
by Staff Reports
The debate between nature and nurture continues for many areas of life, but nurture seems to be more powerful when it comes to aging. Researchers from the University of Oxford have concluded lifestyle and environmental factors have more to do with health and aging than genetics.
That's not to say that genetics don't play a part, but that a lot of genetic risk can be be mitigated by a healthy lifestyle.
Using data from nearly one half million participants in the UK Biobank, scientists looked at the influence of 164 environmental factors, as well as genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases on aging, age-related diseases, and premature death, and published their findings in the journal Nature Medicine.
What they found showed environmental factors such as smoking, exercise, socioeconomic status, and living conditions had the most impact on mortality and biological aging. Environmental factors explained 17 percent of the variation in risk of death, compared to less than 2 percent as a result of genetic predisposition.
Smoking was associated with 21 diseases, while socioeconomic factors like home ownership, household income and employment status were associated with 19 diseases. Lack of exercise or physical activity was associated with 17 diseases.
Modifiable factors had a greater impact on the rates of heart, lung and liver diseases, while genetics played a larger role in cognitive decline and some cancers.
"Our research demonstrates the profound health impact of exposures that can be changed either by individuals or through policies to improve socioeconomic conditions, reduce smoking, or promote physical activity," said Professor Cornelia van Duijn. "While genes play a key role in brain conditions and some cancers, our findings highlight opportunities to mitigate the risks of chronic diseases of the lung, heart and liver which are leading causes of disability and death globally.
"The early life exposures are particularly important as they show that environmental factors accelerate aging early in life but leave ample opportunity to prevent long-lasting diseases and early death."
The study authors used a unique measure of aging that used blood protein levels as a predictor of early mortality with biological aging.
"Our exposome approach allowed us to quantify the relative contributions of the environment and genetics to aging, providing the most comprehensive overview to date of the environmental and lifestyle factors driving aging and premature death," said Dr. Austin Argentieri. "These findings underscore the potential benefits of focusing interventions on our environments, socioeconomic contexts, and behaviors for the prevention of many age-related diseases and premature death."