Lifestyle and environmental factors have a far greater impact on how we age and our risk of early death than genetics, according to a groundbreaking study.
New findings published in Nature have revealed that our environment and lifestyle choices are almost ten times more important than our genes, with smoking and socioeconomic status showing the strongest influence over mortality.
Researchers analysed data from nearly half a million UK Biobank participants to determine which factors most influence biological ageing.
Scientists identified 25 lifestyle and environmental factors linked to mortality and biological ageing.
Modifiable risk factors for ageing include cheese consumption
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Of these, 23 are considered modifiable, offering hope for intervention. They include:
- Cheese consumption
- Ease of skin tanning
- Education years
- Employment status
- Ethnicity
- Frequency of feeling tired
- Gym use
- History of financial difficulties
- Household income
- Physical activity
- Sleeping hours
- Smoking status
- Type of housing (i.e. house, apartment, mobile home, etc.)
- Using an open fire for heating
- Weight and height at 10 years old
Smoking and socioeconomic status showed the strongest influence on ageing and disease risk, followed by physical activity, and living conditions.
Other factors include cheese consumption, education years, employment status, and frequency of feeling tired.
The first author of the study, Austin Argentieri, told Medical News Today: “This means that a few fundamental aspects of our environments and lives could possibly have a profound influence on whether we live a long healthy life.”
The researchers used a unique “ageing clock” to measure biological age based on molecular markers rather than chronological age.
The study attributed 17 per cent of mortality risk variation to environmental factors, compared to less than 2 per cent from a genetic predisposition for 22 major diseases.
Smoking alone was associated with 21 diseases, while socioeconomic factors and tiredness frequency were linked to 19 diseases.
Smoking had the largest effect on mortality
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Environmental exposures had greater effects on lung, heart, and liver diseases. Genetic risk remained dominant for dementia and breast cancer.
Dr Argentieri noted: “This demonstrates that our environments and lifestyle are almost 10 times more important in explaining mortality risk than our genetic predisposition for major diseases causes of death.”
“This research should give us all hope that ageing is not fully predetermined in our genes, but it is something that is shaped in our environments.”
He highlighted the potential for public health interventions targeting modifiable risk factors.