A Short Review of Effects of Lifestyle Choice on Epigenetic Age
Researchers have found evidence suggesting that lifestyle choices correlated with longer life expectancy also lead to lower measures of biological age. This includes epigenetic clocks and physiological measures like phenotypic age. It is unsurprising that practices like exercise, known to improve health and life expectancy, also impact biological age.
Biological age involves bio-physiological parameters to assess individual variations in aging processes and predict age-related conditions. While healthy lifestyle behaviors reduce mortality risk and chronic diseases, their impact on biological aging pace is still under study. This review examines how lifestyle factors such as diet, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption influence biological age markers like DNA methylation, phenotypic age, and telomere length.
Individuals adopting a healthy lifestyle tend to experience slower biological aging, reflected in their DNA methylation profile and biomarkers indicating lower mortality and disease risks. However, most studies are observational, making causation hard to establish. Additionally, research on lifestyle and biological aging is often limited to specific US cohorts like NHANES, highlighting the need for more diverse population studies.
