Environmental factors, such as smoking and physical activity, have a greater impact on health and premature death than our own genes.
A study, which has analyzed the data of almost half a million participants of the BIOBANCO OF THE UNITED KINGDOMhas evaluated the influence of 164 environmental factors and genetic risk factors for 22 important diseases in aging, age -related diseases and premature death. The study is published in ‘Nature Medicine‘.
According to the study, environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in the risk of death, in contrast to less than 2% attributed to genetic predisposition (according to current knowledge).
Among the 25 independent environmental factors identified, smoking, socioeconomic level, physical activity and living conditions were the ones that had the greatest impact on mortality and biological aging.
In addition, the report shows that smoking was associated with 21 diseases; Socio -economic factors, such as family income, property of housing and employment, with 19 diseases; and physical activity, with 17 diseases.
The researchers underline that, of the identified factors, 23 are modifiable. Thus, it has been shown that exhibitions in early stages of life, such as body weight at 10 years and maternal smoking around birth, influence aging and risk of premature death up to 80 years later.
Environmental exhibitions had a greater impact on lung, cardiac and liver diseases, while genetic risk predominated in cases of dementia and breast cancer.
“Our research demonstrates the deep impact on the health of the exhibitions that can be changed either by individuals or through policies to improve socio -economic conditions, reduce smoking or promote physical activity,” he says Cornelia van DuijN, Epidemiology professor ST Cross at Oxford Population Health and main author of the article.
Early intervention
Van Duijin explains that because genes play a fundamental role in brain diseases and some types of cancer, “our findings highlight the opportunities to mitigate the risks of chronic diseases of the lungs, the heart and the liver, which are the main ones Causes of disability and death worldwide. Early exhibitions are particularly important, since they show that environmental factors accelerate early aging in lifebut they leave broad opportunities to prevent lasting diseases and premature death ».
The authors used a unique measure of aging (a new ‘clock of aging’) to monitor the speed with which people age through blood protein levels. Thanks to this valuation system, they were able to relate the environmental exposures that predict early mortality with biological aging. This measure had previously demonstrated that it detected age -related changes, not only in the Biobanco of the United Kingdom, but also in two other large -scale cohort studies carried out in China and Finland.
«Our approach of Exhibition It allowed us to quantify the relative contributions of the environment and genetics to aging, which provided us with the most complete general description until the date of environmental and lifestyle that promote aging and premature death, ”he says Austin Argentierimain author of the study.
For Bryan Williams, from the British Heart Foundation«Income, postal code and background should not determine the possibilities of living a long and healthy life. But this pioneering study confirms that this is the reality for too many people.
It is known that risk factors such as smoking affect heart and circulatory health, but this research highlights the great opportunity to reduce the risk of diseases, including cardiovascular, and premature death. It is urgent that the government take measures to eliminate barriers that hinder access to good health in the United Kingdom.
The study reveals that, although each individual exposure has a small impact, its cumulative effect throughout life (the exhibition) explains much of the variability in premature mortality. These findings allow developing Integrated strategies to reduce the risk of age -related diseases.
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