How to slow down biological aging? It’s not just genetics that matter

The age of our body is often different from what we read on the identity card. Two people born in the same year can have two radically different health conditions and two aging processes. And among the many factors that can affect our biological age there are cardiovascular. L’obesity And high level of fat in the blood just like the sedentary lifestyle
accelerate the aging processwhile controlling these cardiometabolic risk factors and exercising has the opposite effect.

Environmental factors and DNA

In short, one healthy lifestyle it’s kind of one
youth elixir
which also works at the level of our DNA, as reported by a study recently published in the journal Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine. The authors studied the biological age of approximately 2,500 individuals through the epigenetic modificationsi.e. those chemical changes of DNA (particularly methylations) that affect the expression of genes and can in turn be affected by environmental factors such as diet, lifestyle and stress. “By applying the age method of DNA methylation, a kind of epigenetic aging clock developed in 2013 by biogerentologist and biostatistician Steve Horvath, the scientists evaluated on a molecular basis whether there was an accelerated age (more than five years compared to the chronological age) or delayed age (less than five years of chronological age) in the cellular samples examined,” he explains Giancarlo IsaiahProfessor of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the University of Turin and President of the Academy of Medicine of Turin.

Confirmed on a molecular basis what was already known in medicine

Well, cardiometabolic factors such as obesity and dyslipidemia have been linked to aepigenetic acceleration of age as well as reduced physical activity. In addition, measurements of DNA methylation performed one year apart in a subgroup of patients showed that other factors, such as high diastolic blood pressure (the “minimum”) and high blood sugar (blood sugar).), were associated with an acceleration of ageing. “That confirms, come on molecular basis a fact well known in the medical literature that has long underlined how numerous acquired (epigenetic) factors, largely linked to lifestyle, can interfere with health, especially cardiovascular disease, influence the genetic predisposition of subjects and their effects can modulate,” notes Isaiah. Not smoking, exercising regularly, following a controlled diet are all strategies for aging successfully and achieving a better quality of life».

The markers of aging

Scientists have long been studying possible markers of aging able to measure biological age and assess health status. One of the pioneers in this field is Steve Horvath of the University of California, who developed the eponymous “clock” to estimate the age of almost any part of the body. The scientist built his aging clock using DNA methylation data from 800 samples from 51 body tissues and cell types. The data, processed by an algorithm, allows you to predict the chronological age of a person based on a number of cells. In recent years, however, the epigenetic signature of the DNA methylation clock has increasingly been the subject of studies that use it to estimate susceptibility to aging-related diseases and risk of death, as well as a tool to promote preventive interventions against and to prolong longevity in good health.