New study links poor physical and mental health to accelerated biological aging

A study published in February 2021 has demonstrated that physiological illnesses and mental health disorders aggravate biological age. Age may be defined in either chronological or biological terms. Chronological age refers to how old you are in years based on your date of birth. Biological age — on the other hand — measures how old your cells are based on factors such as genetics, lifestyle, nutrition, and health. Higher biological age is often associated with poor health, including physical ailments such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, diabetes, and psychological disturbances such as childhood trauma, stress, and depression. Scientists calculate biological age by creating an aging clock that measures cellular protein changes, molecular make-up, and DNA structures. But because this is a complex process, it is unlikely that a single clock would be able to fully capture the essence of biological aging. The new study combined the results of multiple clocks to better determine how physical and mental health factors affect biological aging. More than 3,000 participants were involved. These were well represented in terms of demographics, lifestyle factors, and health in order to improve the accuracy of the study. Researchers from the United States and the Netherlands took samples from each participant and tested them using 5 different biological clocks. The results from each clock were assessed to check for similarities. It was determined that each clock seemed to tell its own story. This supported the understanding that one biological clock cannot sufficiently capture the biological aging process and that not all clocks are under the control of one unitary aging process. The researchers were also keen to unearth biological aging indicators related to demographic factors such as sex and education, lifestyle factors such as BMI and smoking, as well as physical and mental disorders. Four out of the five clocks showed that sex was associated with advanced biological aging. Women were found to be biologically younger than men of the same (chronological) age. High BMI, smoking, and metabolic syndrome were consistently associated with more advanced levels of biological aging across at least four of the biological clocks used. Depression was also associated with more advanced levels of biological aging in at least three of the clocks. This led to the conclusion that both physical and mental disorders tend to increase biological age. Education status and physical activity were found to have no impact on biological age. The research conclusively demonstrated that the best way to reflect one’s biological age was by combining measures from multiple cellular factors. It is also deducible that biological aging can be de-escalated by maintaining optimal health and making requisite lifestyle changes (e.g., quit smoking and keep a healthy BMI).