IIt is impossible to predict when you are going to die. But if you are targeting a long and healthy life, it is worth worrying about your genes – which you cannot change anyway – and more on your lifestyle and your environment. This is the conclusion of a new study In Nature Medicine This throws a wide overview of the long-standing debate of the environment-herit, and takes place firmly in the environment camp.
The work was based on data of more than 490,000 people, which are all registered with the British BiobankA massive collection of detailed medical stories from participants, including sequencing genes; Mris; Samples of blood, urine and saliva; family health stories; And more. Researchers have used this rich data to study the influence of genetics and more than 100 environmental factors on the risk of 22 diseases that constitute most of the main causes of death.
To do this, they focused particularly closely on a subset of 45,000 people whose blood samples had been subject to what is called proteomic profiling: an analysis of thousands of proteins that help determine the physical age in relation to the age of the calendar.
“We can obtain an estimate of the speed or slowness that each participant is aging biologically compared to his chronological age,” explains the main author Austin Argentieri, researcher at the General Hospital of Massachusetts. “This is called” proteomic age gap “, because it is the gap between the years between the age predicted by proteins and chronological age. (IT) is a very strong predictor of mortality … (and) it is also strongly associated with many important aging traits such as fragility and cognitive function. »»
The simple fact of knowing that this age gap, of course, is only part of the image. The cause of this gap is just as important. To help determine this, the researchers have analyzed the many environmental and behavioral exhibitions of people who contribute to the disease and to the biological age. These factors include income, neighborhood, employment status, matrimonial state, education and diet, as well as if people smoke or regularly exercise.
To cover the genetic side, the researchers analyzed people’s genomes, looking for genetic markers associated with 22 key diseases. In addition, they noted which individuals had already developed one of these diseases.
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The results were striking. The environment and the lifestyle represented 17% of the risk linked to the disease of people to die, against only 2% for genetics. Among the various environmental exhibitions, smoking was the most risky behavior, linked to 21 diseases; Socioeconomic factors such as household income, district and employment status were associated with 19 diseases; And a lack of physical activity was linked to 17 diseases. Environmental exhibitions have had the greatest impact on lungs, heart and liver diseases, while genetics played the greatest role in determining the risk of breast, ovary and prostate cancers ‘A person, more dementia.
In a disturbing way, the study also revealed that the influence of the environment begins early in life. A high or low body weight as young as 10 years and maternal smoking around birth affected health and mortality several decades later.
Investigators examined not only the factors that increase the risk of dying of one of the chronic diseases, but also those that decrease it. Among these, living with a partner, being employed and being financially at ease had the greatest effect on the extension of the lifespan.
“Our research shows the deep impact of the health of exhibitions that can be modified either by individuals or by policies aimed at improving socio-economic conditions, reducing smoking or promoting physical activity,” said The main author Cornela Van Duijn, professor of epidemiology at Oxford Population Health, in Cornela, to a statement who accompanied the release of the newspaper.
Researchers do not see this study, for all its scanning, the end of their work. In the future, they recommend looking more closely to several factors, including a diet, exposure to new pathogens such as COVID-19 and bird flu, and environmental factors such as plastics and pesticides. All these elements are potentially powerful – but sub -studied – influences on lifespan.