A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that when it comes to longevity, your lifestyle and environment matter more than your genes.
The research, led by researchers from Oxford Population Health, looked at extensive data from over 490,000 people in the UK Biobank, including their detailed medical histories and gene sequencing, as well as their environmental exposures.
Through the research, “We can get an estimation of how quickly or slowly each participant is aging biologically compared to their chronological age,” said lead author Austin Argentieri, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“This is referred to as the ‘proteomic age gap,’ since it’s the gap in years between protein-predicted age and chronological age,” Argentieri continued. “[It] is a very strong predictor of mortality … [and] it is also associated strongly with many important aging traits like frailty and cognitive function.”
“Environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in risk of death, compared to less than 2% explained by genetic predisposition,” the press release reads.
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