The environment affects aging and deaths more than genes

Research in magazines Nature Medicine Compare the influence of environmental factors and genetics on aging and early death. According to experts, human aging is a complex process, related to biological and subclinical changes starting from the middle -aged period, 40 to 60 years old. Many studies show that non -genetic environmental factors can accelerate the aging process and increase the risk of death twice as soon as possible.

“Exposome” is a combination of all environmental factors that affect an individual throughout life. Although previous studies on exposome have provided important knowledge about the impact of the environment on the aging rate, very few large -scale studies consider the potential independent link between exposome, the mortality rate at the population level and the incidence of age -related diseases. This is the first project to overcome these limitations.

Research from UK BiBank compares the impact of the genome and exposomes on early mortality rates as well as age -related diseases. The project was carried out over 436,000 British, another 55,600 people from Scotland and Wales. After an average tracking period of 12.5 years, experts recorded 31,716 deaths for all causes. Scientists use population -based data to identify environmental factors that may increase the risk of early death. After that, they perform phenotypic analysis, eliminating errors.

They found 176 environmental factors (also known as exposure factors) in both men and women, contributing to aging and early death. These factors include socio -economic status, smoking habits, the number of cars in the family, physical and ethnic activity time, living conditions with partners, sleep, mental and physical health. People with mothers smoking at the time of birth face the risk of death earlier. The height and body size at the age of 10 also partly affect the aging process.

Besides the environmental factors, the genome still plays a certain role. For example, some diseases such as dementia are due to degeneration of gold spots, Alzheimer and some cancers stemming from multiple genes. Meanwhile, diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ischemia and renal disease are more significantly affected by exposomes.

The study emphasizes the importance of biological data banks. They may provide an important understanding of the correlation between genetic factors, environment and aging, early death.