A vulnerable state of mental health ages more than smoking, specifically adding 1.65 years to the biological age . This is the conclusion reached after conducting a study with 11,914 participants. In the experiment it was found that people who had suffered a stroke, some liver or lung disease or who smoked had a greater aging. Also those who felt desperate, alone and unhappy . In fact, this last condition weighed more on biological age than the fact of smoking itself.
Over time we accumulate molecular damage in our body that is related to aging and serious diseases. In some people these molecular processes are more intense than in others. This is what is known as accelerated aging.
Normally, when we think of trying to slow down aging, we think of improving our physical health. Now, this article published in Aging-US recommends paying attention to mental health too .
The research is led by the company Deep Longevity and has the participation of Chinese and American scientists, who have measured the effects of feeling lonely or unhappy and not sleeping well on the rate of aging. It turns out that the effects are significant.
The article presents a new aging clock trained and verified with blood and biometric data from 11,914 Chinese adults. This is the first aging watch trained exclusively with a Chinese cohort of such volume.
What the researchers saw was that people who had suffered a stroke, liver or lung disease, or smoked experienced a faster aging process. But not only them, but also those who presented a vulnerable mental state, who felt unhappy, alone or desperate. Interestingly, the latter accelerated biological age more than smoking. Other factors that were related to faster aging were being single and living in a rural area (due to the limited availability of medical services).
Based on the results, the researchers conclude that the psychological aspect of aging should be taken into account both in the research itself and in the treatments applied. “Mental and psychosocial states are some of the strongest predictors of health outcomes – and quality of life – and yet they have been largely ignored in modern health care,” said Manuel Faria, of the Stanford University.
Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, says the study offers a course of action to “slow down or even reverse psychological aging on a national scale.”
Biological age and chronological age
Biological age and chronological age are not the same. The chronological is the one that marks the calendar, that is, the years we have since we were born. Biological age, however, refers to the health of our body and can vary from chronological. In fact, it varies from one person to another because not all of us age at the same rate.
Biological age depends to a greater or lesser extent on genetic inheritance. However, not everything is out of our reach as external factors such as lifestyle, diet and sleep quality have a decisive influence on the development of our cells and, consequently, on the speed with which we age.
The new study now adds mental state to the list of factors that can play for or against our biological age.
Referencia: Galkin F, Kochetov K, Koldasbayeva D, Faria M, Fung HH, Chen AX, Zhavoronkov A. Psychological factors substantially contribute to biological aging: evidence from the aging rate in Chinese older adults. Aging (Albany NY). 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204264
