RESEARCH SUGGESTS 8 HEALTH MEASURES THAT HELPS SLOW BIOLOGICAL AGEING

New research shows that following eight simple health measures can help in slowing down ageing. According to researchers, following the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 can help slow down biological ageing by six years.

These essential health measures are Eating Healthy, Exercising Regularly, Not Smoking and Getting Enough Sleep. The other four are, Maintaining Low Cholesterol Levels, Healthy Blood Pressure and Sugar Levels and Staying Slim.

Experts believe that these eight measures can improve good heart health, which eventually helps to slow the pace of biological ageing. Researchers at Columbia University in New York looked at data from more than 6,500 Americans, aged 47, on average. They determined their phenotypic age by using an experimental gauge of biological age, which relies on the outcomes of nine biomarkers. These biomarkers encompass measurements related to metabolism, inflammation, and organ function.

The scientists then assigned each participant a cardiovascular score—categorized as high, moderate, or low—depending on their adherence to the Life Essential 8 checklist.

Factors that could skew the results, income, education and ethnicity, were accounted for.

People who had high cardiovascular health were associated with a lower biological age. This means that such participants were younger than expected physiologically. For example, the average actual age of those with high cardiovascular health was 41, yet their average biological age was 36.

On the other hand, people who had low cardiovascular health had a positive phenotypic age acceleration. This meant that they were older than expected biologically. An example of this is, the average actual age of those with low cardiovascular health was 53, while their biological age was 57.

A further analysis showed that having the highest healthy score was linked to being six years younger, biologically.

Professor Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York and the study author said, “We found that higher cardiovascular health is associated with decelerated biological ageing, as measured by phenotypic age.

“We also found a dose-dependent association — as heart health goes up, biological ageing goes down. Greater adherence to all Life's Essential 8 metrics and improving your cardiovascular health can slow down your body's ageing process and have a lot of benefits down the line.

“Reduced biologic ageing is not just associated with lower risk of chronic disease such as heart disease, it is also associated with longer life and lower risk of death.”

Dr Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of the writing group for Life’s Essential 8 and former volunteer president of the American Heart Association, said, “These findings help us understand the link between chronological age and biological age and how following healthy lifestyle habits can help us live longer.

“Everyone wants to live longer, yet more importantly, we want to live healthier longer so we can really enjoy and have good quality of life for as many years as possible.”

The researchers acknowledged that the participant’s cardiovascular health was only measured once, which doesn't account for changes over time.

Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet.

2023-11-08T10:45:58Z dg43tfdfdgfd