How long will you live? Novel evidence say it’s about your choices than genes

One of the most hard-wearing questions how long we live. Along with this, the question arises how much our lives shape our environment and choices, and how much our genes have been established in advance.

A study recently published in a prestigious journal Nature Medicine For the first time he tried to quantitatively determine the relative contribution of our environment and lifestyle compared to our genetics in the field of aging and how long we live.

The discoveries were striking, suggesting that our environment and lifestyle play a much greater role than our genes in determining our longevity.

What scientists did

This study used data from UK BiobankA huge database in Great Britain, which contains in -depth health and lifestyle data from about 500,000 people. Available data includes genetic information, medical documentation, imaging and lifestyle information.

A separate part of the study used data from the subset of over 45,000 participants whose blood samples have undergone something that is called “Profile profiling“.

Profile profiling is a relatively fresh technique that looks at how proteins change in the body in time to identify the age of a person at the molecular level. By using this method, scientists were able to estimate how quickly the body of the individual was getting venerable. This is called their biological age, as opposed to their chronological age (or the years experienced).

Scientists evaluated 164 environmental exhibitions, as well as the genetic markers of participants for diseases. Environmental exhibitions included lifestyle choices (e.g. smoking, physical activity), social factors (for example, living conditions, household income, employment status) and early life factors such as body weight in childhood.

Then they sought connections between genetics and the environment and 22 main age -related diseases (such as coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes), mortality and biological aging (according to proteo profiling).

These analyzes allowed researchers to estimate the relative share of environmental factors and genetics in aging and prematurely dying.

What did they find?

As for the mortality associated with the disease, as we could expect, age and gender explained a significant amount (about half) of the variability of how long people lived. The key discovery, however, was environmental factors together constituted about 17% of the variability of life, while genetic factors contributed to less than 2%.

This discovery very clearly decreases on the care side in the “nature versus care” debate. This suggests environmental factors affect health and longevity to a much greater extent than genetics.

Unexpectedly, the study showed a different mix of environmental and genetic influence for various diseases. Environmental factors had the greatest impact on lung, heart and liver disease, while genetics played the greatest role in determining the risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer and dementia.

Environmental factors that had the greatest impact on earlier death and biological aging included smoking, socio -economic status, the level of physical activity and living conditions.

Interestingly, it was found that being higher at the age of ten was associated with shorter life. Although this may seem surprising, and the reasons are not completely clear, it is consistent Previous research Finding higher people die more often earlier.

Wearing more weight at the age of ten and smoking of the mother (if your mother burned in slow pregnancy or when you were a newborn) they also shorten life.

Probably the most surprising discovery in this study was the lack of a relationship between diet and markers of biological aging, determined by proteo profiling. It flies in the face of an extensive set of evidence showing a key role diet patterns In the case of chronic disease and longevity.

But there are many likely explanations. The first may be the lack of statistical power in the part of the study, in which he analyzes biological aging. This means that the number of respondents may have been too tiny to allow researchers to see the real impact of the diet on aging.

Secondly, dietary data in this study, which was reported by themselves and measured only at one time point, were probably relatively low quality, limiting the ability of researchers to see connections. Thirdly, because the relationship between diet and longevity will probably be complicated, spilling dietary effects from other lifestyle factors can be tough.

Despite this discovery, it can still be safely said that the food we eat is one of the most crucial pillars of health and longevity.

What other restrictions do we need to consider?

The key exhibitions (such as diet) in this study were measured only in one point in time and did not follow time, introducing potential errors in the results.

In addition, because it was an observational examination, we cannot assume that connections representing causal compounds were found. For example, only because life with a partner correlated with a longer life, this does not mean that it caused a person to live longer. There may be other factors that explain this connection.

Finally, it is possible that the study may have underestimated the role of genetics in longevity. It is crucial to recognize genetics and the environment does not work in insulation. Rather, health results are shaped by their interaction, and this study may not fully capture the complexity of these interactions.

The future is (mainly) in your hands

It is worth noting that there are many factors, such as household income, home ownership and employment status related to aging diseases in this study, which are not necessarily under the control of a person. This emphasizes the key role in solving social health determinants to provide everyone with the best possible chance for a long and fit life.

At the same time, the results offer strengthening news that longevity is largely shaped by the choices made by us. This is great news, unless you have good genes and you hoped that they will make a tough lift.

Ultimately, the results of this study strengthen the view that although we can inherit some genetic risk, the way we eat, move and engage with the world, seem to be more crucial to determine how fit we are and how long we live.