Being lonely and unhappy accelerates aging more than smoking

Molecular damage accumulates and contributes to the development of aging-related frailty and serious diseases. In some people these molecular processes are more intense than in others, a condition commonly referred to as accelerated aging. 

Fortunately, the increased pace of aging may be detected before its disastrous consequences manifest by using digital models of aging (aging clocks). Such models can also be used to derive anti-aging therapies on individual and population levels.  

According to the latest article published in Aging-US, any anti-aging therapy needs to focus on one’s mental health as much as on one’s physical health. An international collaboration led by Deep Longevity with US and Chinese scientists have measured the effects of being lonely, having restless sleep, or feeling unhappy on the pace of aging and found it to be significant. 

The article features a new aging clock trained and verified with blood and biometric data of 11,914 Chinese adults. This is the first aging clock to be trained exclusively on a Chinese cohort of such volume. 

Aging acceleration was detected in people with a history of stroke, liver and lung diseases, smokers, and most interestingly, people in a vulnerable mental state. In fact, feeling hopeless, unhappy, and lonely was shown to increase one’s biological age more than smoking. Other factors linked to aging acceleration include being single and living in a rural area (due to the low availability of medical services). 

The authors of the article conclude that the psychological aspect of aging should not be neglected either in research or in practical anti-aging applications. According to Manuel Faria from Stanford University:

“Mental and psychosocial states are some of the most robust predictors of health outcomes — and quality of life — yet they have largely been omitted from modern healthcare”. 

Alex Zhavoronkov, the CEO of Insilico Medicine, points out that the study provides a course of action to

“slow down or even reverse psychological aging on a national scale. 

Earlier this year, Deep Longevity released an AI-guided mental health web service FuturSelf.AI that is based on a preceding publication in Aging-US. The service offers a free psychological assessment that is processed by an AI and provides a comprehensive report on a user’s psychological age as well as current and future mental well-being. Deepankar Nayak, the CEO of Deep longevity affirms,

"FuturSelf.AI, in combination with the study of older Chinese adults, positions Deep Longevity at the forefront of biogerontological research".   

About Deep Longevity 

Deep Longevity developed the Longevity as a Service (LaaS)© solution to integrate multiple deep biomarkers of aging dubbed “deep aging clocks” to provide a universal multifactorial measure of human biological age. Deep Longevity is owned by Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed Endurance Longevity (SEHK:0575.HK). 

Low-carb vegan diet shows similar health benefits to vegetarian diet

A low-carb vegan diet has the same health effects as a vegetarian diet, but at a much lower cost to the environment, according to new research from St. Michael’s Hospital.

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that a low-carbohydrate vegan diet had a significantly lower potential carbon emission value than its high-carbohydrate vegetarian counterpart. Furthermore, the researchers found that the lower the potential carbon emission value of the diet, the larger the reduction in blood cholesterol.

At a time when people across the world are feeling the varying effects of climate change, the study shows the role of diet in both lowering carbon emissions and improving health outcomes.

“We showed that you actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a diet, that is effective, and that the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is related to the fall in LDL cholesterol – often called the ‘bad’ cholesterol,” says principal author Dr. David Jenkins, director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, and a scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital and a professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. “So as you reduce the impact of your diet on the environment, you also benefit by lowering your cholesterol.”

The researchers put people on two different types of plant-based diets: one was a low-carbohydrate vegan diet with no meat, dairy or eggs, supplemented with canola-oil enriched bread and high-protein vegan meat alternatives. This diet tried to reproduce the popular low carb diets that are traditionally high in meat and animal fats - but using plant ingredients. 

The second diet was a vegetarian version of the clinical standard diet for lowering blood pressure, known as the Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension diet or “DASH” diet, which included egg whites and low-fat dairy, but no meat. The diet is prescribed for the treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other cardiovascular diseases. The diet participants of this study followed differed from the one that is normally prescribed as it cut out cholesterol sources. 

The researchers then compared the effects of the diets on their subjects’ health as well as the carbon emission potential of each diet. They did so by using multiple different greenhouse gas emission databases, obtaining mean values for each food.

At the end of the three-month study period, they found that the two diets were similar in their effects on weight loss, reducing blood pressure, and blood cholesterol. Study participants on the vegan diet lost 5.9 kilos and those on the vegetarian diet lost 5.2 kilos.

Both groups also saw a reduction in hemoglobin A1c, a marker of glycemic control.

Jenkins says the study participants reduced their hemoglobin A1c by about one per cent, which is the type of reduction most drugs will produce. This means that the diets had a drug-like effect.

While the study was only over a three-month period, previous studies featuring participants with high cholesterol have shown that the participants have been able to maintain their weight loss after three months. This means that three months is a sufficient amount of time for metabolism to adapt to what the body is consuming.

Study participants were already healthy when the study began, which would have meant that further reductions in risk factors like blood cholesterol and blood pressure would be difficult. However, the study’s participants did see reductions in the risk factors on both the vegan and vegetarian diets.

“We have got to start changing the way we’re doing things in life,” says Dr. Jenkins. “This is just a small example that you can do it, it can be healthy. It is palatable. And you can reduce at least one risk factor, too.”

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

DOI

10.1093/ajcn/nqac203 

More older adults should be checking blood pressure at home

Only 48% of people age 50 to 80 who take blood pressure medications or have a health condition that’s affected by hypertension regularly check their blood pressure at home or other places, a new study finds. 

A somewhat higher number – but still only 62% -- say a health care provider encouraged them to perform such checks. Poll respondents whose providers had recommended they check their blood pressure at home were three and a half times more likely to do so than those who didn’t recall getting such a recommendation.

The findings underscore the importance of exploring the reasons why at-risk patients aren’t checking their blood pressure, and why providers aren’t recommending they check -- as well as finding ways to prompt more people with these health conditions to check their blood pressure regularly. This could play an important role in helping patients live longer and maintain heart and brain health, the study’s authors say.

Past research has shown that regular home monitoring can help with blood pressure control, and that better control can mean reduced risk of death; of cardiovascular events including strokes and heart attacks; and of cognitive impairment and dementia.

The findings are published in JAMA Network Open by a team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center. The data come from the National Poll on Healthy Aging and build on a report issued last year.

The poll, based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by Michigan Medicine and AARP, asked adults aged 50 to 80 about their chronic health conditions, blood pressure monitoring outside of clinic settings, and interactions with health providers about blood pressure. Study authors Mellanie V. Springer, M.D., M.S., of the Michigan Medicine Department of Neurology, and Deborah Levine, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Internal Medicine, worked with the NPHA team to develop the poll questions and analyze the findings.

The data in the new paper come from the 1,247 respondents who said they were either taking a medication to control their blood pressure or had a chronic health condition that requires blood pressure control – specifically, a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or hypertension. 

Of them, 55% said they own a blood pressure monitor, though some said they don’t ever use it. Among those who do use it, there was wide variation in how often they checked their pressure – and only about half said they share their readings with a health provider. But those who own a monitor were more than 10 times more likely to check their blood pressure outside of health care settings than those who don’t own one.

The authors note that blood pressure monitoring is associated with lower blood pressure and is cost-effective. They say that the results suggest that protocols should be developed to educate patients about the importance of self blood pressure monitoring and sharing readings with clinicians.

Healthy lifestyle linked to 90% lower risk of diabetes in susceptible women

Women with a history of diabetes in pregnancy can still reduce their chances of developing type 2 diabetes by adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as eating healthy, stopping smoking, exercising regularly, and not being overweight, finds a study in The BMJ today.

The results show that women who adhered to five key lifestyle factors - healthy weight, high-quality diet, regular physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, and not smoking - had a 90% lower risk of the disorder compared with women who did not adhere to any, even among those who were overweight or obese, or were at greater genetic risk of type 2 diabetes.

It’s widely known that a healthy lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in generally healthy middle-aged populations.

But less is known about whether this also applies to high-risk women with a history of diabetes in pregnancy (gestational diabetes), and if obesity status or genetic risk of type 2 diabetes influence this association.

To fill in these research gaps, researchers evaluated the associations of adherence to optimal levels of five modifiable risk factors - healthy body mass index, high-quality diet, regular physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, and not smoking, with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes among these women at high risk.

Their findings are based on data for 4,275 women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus from the Nurses’ Health Study II with repeated measurements of weight and lifestyle factors over 28 years of follow-up.

The researchers also assessed whether these associations changed according to obesity status or underlying genetic susceptibility for type 2 diabetes.

Over an average 28 years of follow-up, 924 women developed type 2 diabetes. 

After taking account of other major diabetes risk factors, the researchers found that participants who had optimal levels of all five modifiable factors after the index pregnancy had a more than 90% lower risk for developing type 2 diabetes compared with those who did not have any.

Each additional optimal modifiable factor was associated with an incrementally lower risk of type 2 diabetes. For example, women with one, two, three, four, and five optimal levels of modifiable factors compared with none had a 6%, 39%, 68%, 85%, and 92% lower risk, respectively.

And these beneficial associations were consistently seen, even among women who were overweight or obese or who had higher genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes.

This is an observational study, so it can’t establish cause, and the researchers acknowledge that the data relied on personal reports, which may have affected accuracy. What’s more, the study included predominantly healthcare professionals of European ancestry, so the results may not apply to individuals of other racial or ethnic groups or socioeconomic groups.

However, strengths include use of data from a large study with repeated measurements of health related and behavioural risk factors, which helps to better capture long term lifestyle habits and reduce measurement error and misclassification.

As such, the researchers say their study “highlights the important public health opportunity for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in this high-risk population.”

 

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JOURNAL

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2022-070312 

Researcher calls for tailoring colorectal cancer screening for 45-to-49-year-olds

 

 It’s been a year since national recommendations issued by the American Cancer Society and the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force called for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening to be lowered to include individuals ages 45 to 49 at average risk for the disease. In an editorial in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Thomas Imperiale, M.D., issues a clarion call for individuals, clinicians and healthcare systems to be good stewards of available colonoscopy resources and encourages average risk members of this age group to consider non-invasive screening alternatives.

“The importance of colorectal cancer screening cannot be overstated," said Dr. Imperiale, a highly respected researcher and practicing gastroenterologist. "But we should tailor screening to the individual -- not every 45-to-49-year-old requires colonoscopy for screening. At home, annual FIT [fecal immunochemical test] testing, which looks for blood in the stool and is inexpensive, or stool multi-target DNA and blood testing every three years, are efficient ways to screen those at the low-risk end of the average risk population, which is where most 45-to-49-year-olds fall. Using FIT and stool DNA tests doesn’t simply benefit the individual, it benefits others who need more invasive screening resources. There are only so many colonoscopies that can be performed well in this country every year.”

Roughly seven or eight out of 10 individuals who fall within the range of those for whom colorectal cancer screening is recommended by national guidelines are considered to be at average risk of the disease.

“It’s still too early to know who, in this younger age range, is getting screened. Is it the lower-risk end of average risk individuals who exercise regularly, have a healthful diet -- by eating fruits, vegetables and grains and limiting consumption of red meat -- and see screening as another personal health responsibility, or is it those at higher risk who smoke or have diabetes or are overweight?,” queries Dr. Imperiale. “It could well be that a larger number of younger individuals will get screened if we encourage non-invasive, easy-to-use home screening tests rather than colonoscopy for “average-risk” asymptomatic individuals until they get to age 50 or perhaps age 55.”

The editorial, “Uptake of Colorectal Cancer Screening Colonoscopy in 45-to-49-year-olds: An Early-Inning View from the Endoscopy Suite,” notes that lowering the age at which to commence average-risk colorectal cancer screening by five years (from 50 to 45) has increased the number of people in the U.S. requiring screening by approximately 20 million. Dr. Imperiale supports a “hybrid” strategy of non-invasive screening for younger individuals at average risk followed by colonoscopy screening for older individuals at average risk.

A healthy lifestyle may help former smokers lower their risk of death from all causes

Former smokers who stick to a healthy lifestyle have a lower risk of dying from all causes than those who don’t engage in healthy habits, according to a new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The reduced risk of dying was observed for specific causes, including cancer and heart and lung diseases. Lifestyle interventions have not been robustly studied in former smokers, and these new findings could have important implications for the 52 million former smokers in the United States.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle—defined as doing things such as being physically active and having a healthy diet—was associated with a 27% reduction in the risk of death over the 19-year follow-up period, compared with not maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The findings, which appeared Sept. 22, 2022, in JAMA Network Open, come from an analysis of a large group of former smokers who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

“I was surprised to see the robust associations [with lifestyle],” said Maki Inoue-Choi, Ph.D., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at NCI, lead author of the paper. “Former smokers who adhered to evidence-based recommendations for body weight, diet, physical activity, and alcohol intake had a lower risk of mortality than former smokers who didn't adhere to these recommendations.”

Quitting smoking is well known to have many health benefits, but former smokers still have a higher risk of disease and premature death than people who have never smoked.

Past studies have suggested that people who follow healthy lifestyle recommendations, such as maintaining a healthy body weight, being physically active, eating a healthy diet, and limiting alcohol consumption, may have a lower risk of disease and death. However, few studies have looked at the benefit of such adherence among former smokers.

The current analysis included 159,937 former smokers who had completed questionnaires asking about lifestyle, demographics, and other health-related information between 1995 and 1996 when they joined the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. The participants, whose average age at study entry was 62.6 years, were followed for approximately 19 years. During the follow-up period, which extended through 2019, 86,127 participants died. Death information, including cause of death, came from the National Death Index.

For each participant, the researchers calculated a total adherence score ranging from no adherence to full adherence. The total adherence score incorporated individual scores for body mass index, based on guidelines from the World Health Organization; for dietary quality, based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010-2015; for physical activity, based on the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans; and for alcohol use, based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.

Former smokers who had the highest total adherence scores had a 27% lower risk of death from any cause than those with the lowest scores. In addition, participants with the highest scores had a 24% reduction in risk of death from cancer, 28% reduction in risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and 30% reduction in risk of death from respiratory disease. The reductions in risk of death were observed regardless of health status, other health conditions, how many cigarettes participants used to smoke per day, years since they quit, and age they began smoking.

The researchers also evaluated the benefit from adherence for individual lifestyle recommendations. In each case, people with the highest score had a lower risk of death than those with the lowest score: 17% lower for physical activity, 14% lower for body weight, 9% lower for diet quality, and 4% lower for alcohol intake.

“To have the greatest benefit, it is better to adhere to many lifestyle recommendations,” Dr. Inoue-Choi noted. “But even those who adopted just a single lifestyle recommendation experienced benefits.”

The researchers cautioned that studies based on self-reported data can only show associations, not establish cause and effect. Although the researchers controlled for many factors that could have confounded the associations, they said they cannot rule out the possibility that other factors may have affected the associations they observed.

The researchers also noted that more studies are needed to explore the associations between adhering to lifestyle recommendations and risk of death among former smokers in more diverse populations.

“The NIH-AARP study is a predominantly White population with relatively high socioeconomic status,” Dr. Inoue-Choi said. “These research questions need to be extended to other populations.”

Wearing a pedometer — even if you don't look at it — may boost step counts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

IMAGE: PEOPLE WEARING STEP TRACKERS WALK MORE, EVEN IF THEY DON'T LOOK AT THEIR DEVICE. view more 

CREDIT: JAREN WILKEY/BYU PHOTO

Almost half of American adults don’t meet recommended weekly physical activity levels, but new research from Brigham Young University suggests a surprisingly simple way to help increase exercise time: just strap on an activity monitor.

The study found that those wearing a pedometer walked an average of 318 more steps per day than those without a tracker, even if the walkers had no specific fitness goals or incentives, and even when they couldn’t see the step count the pedometer kept.

“Humans are hardwired to respond to what is being measured because if it’s being measured, it feels like it matters,” said BYU Marriott School of Business professor Bill Tayler, an author of the paper. “When people go get an Apple Watch or a Fitbit, of course it’s going to affect their behavior; they obtained the device with the goal of walking more. But it’s helpful for individuals to know that even without trying, just being aware that something is tracking your steps increases your activity.”

Since modest increases in physical activity have cumulative benefits, the study’s findings may also be useful to those in healthcare or businesses that have a vested interest in public health.

“If I were an insurance executive, I’d be interested to know that you can hand out basic fitness trackers to people, and as long as they put them on, they’re going to walk more,” Tayler said.

To determine how being monitored affected people’s step counts, the research team came up with an ingenious experiment design.

“We wanted to find out, absent goals and incentives, does simply tracking fitness change behavior? Until this study, no one had convincingly shown what we’ve shown — from an academic point of view, it turns out this is a super hard question to answer,” Tayler said.

That’s because to prove that people walk more with a pedometer, researchers need to know either 1) how much people walk before they put on the pedometer or 2) how much they walk compared to another group of randomly selected people who are not wearing a pedometer — baseline measurements that both require a pedometer.

The team’s workaround was to use the iPhone’s default step tracking feature, which few people were aware existed when the researchers began gathering data. “It was a bit of a sneaky way to get the data we needed,” Tayler said.

At the start of the study, the team asked all 90 participants’ permission to pull information generally from their phones, without telling them that their step counts from the weeks prior were being recorded. This provided the elusive baseline measure of how much participants walked when they weren’t being actively monitored.

The team then gave some of the participants a pedometer without a display, while keeping the rest of the participants in the dark about the study’s purpose. After another two weeks, the researchers again accessed step count data from the subjects’ iPhones and saw that wearing a pedometer was associated with higher step counts.

“Measurement and tracking precede improvement,” said BYU graduate Christian Tadje, who spearheaded the research as a student working with the Healthcare Industry Research Collaborative. “If you want something to improve — for example, a key performance indicator in the workplace or a personal health goal — our study shows that you should consider tracking your progress.”

The paper was published in the American Journal of Health Behavior and additionally coauthored by BYU professors James LeCheminant and Joe Price.