Lifestyle and environmental factors influence health and aging more than our genes, research is found

A study led by researchers from the Oxford Population Health has shown that a series of environmental factors, including lifestyle (smoking and physical activity), and living conditions, have a greater impact on health and premature death than our genes.

The researchers used data from nearly half a million UK Biobank participants to assess the influence of 164 environmental factors and genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases in aging, age-related diseases and premature death. The study was published in Nature Medicine.

Important findings

• Environmental factors stated 17% of the variation in the risk of death, compared to less than 2% by genetic predisposition (as we are currently understanding);
• Of the 25 independent environmental factors identified, smoking, socio -economic status, physical activity and living conditions had the most impact on mortality and biological aging;
• Smoking was associated with 21 diseases; Social -economic factors such as family income, home ownership and employment status were associated with 19 diseases; And physical activity was associated with 17 diseases;
• 23 of the identified factors are adjustable;
• Early life expansions, including body weight after 10 years and smoking mothers around birth, were found to influence the aging and the risk of premature death 30-80 years later;
• Exposure to the environment had a greater effect on lung diseases, the heart and liver, while genetic risk was dominated for dementies and breast cancer.

Professor Cornelia van Duijn, St Cross Professor of Epidemiology at the Oxford population Heath and senior author of the Paper, said: “Our research shows the in -depth health effects of expansions that can be changed by individuals or by policy to improve socio -economic conditions, Reduce smoking, or promote physical activity.

“Although genes play a key role in brain disorders and some cancers, our findings emphasize opportunities to reduce the risks of chronic diseases of the lung, heart and liver that are the worldwide main causes of disability and death.

“The exposure to early life is especially important because they show that environmental factors accelerate aging in life early, but leave sufficient opportunity to prevent long -term diseases and early death.”

The authors used a unique measure for aging (a new “aging clock”) to check how quickly people get older using blood protein levels. This enabled them to link environmental binds that predict early mortality with biological aging.

It was previously shown that this measure detects age -related changes, not only in the British biobank, but also in two other large cohort studies from China and Finland.

Dr. Austin Argentieri, main author of the study of the Oxford population Health and Research Fellow of the Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “Our exposome approach enables us to quantify the relative contributions of the environment and genetics in aging, making the most comprehensive Overview to date is the environmental and lifestyle factors stimulating aging and premature death.

“These findings underline the potential benefits of focusing interventions on our environments, socio -economic contexts and behavior for preventing many age -related diseases and premature death.”

Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, added: “Your income, zip code and background should not determine your chances of lending a long and healthy life. But this groundbreaking study reinforces that this is the Reality is too many people for far.

“We have known for a long time that risk factors such as smoking influence our hearts and health of blood circulation, but this new research emphasizes how great is the chance of developing health problems, including cardiovascular disease, and Die prematurely.

“We need urgently daring action by the government to focus on the victory barriers for good health with which too many people are confronted in the UK.”

The research shows that although many of the identified individual exposures played a small role in early death, the combined effect of these multiple exposures together during the life course (referred to as the exposome), a large part of the premature mortality variation explained.

The insights from this study set the way for integrated strategies to improve the health of aging populations by identifying important combinations of environmental factors that pose the risk of premature death and common age -related diseases at the same time.

Professor Van Duijn said: “Studies on the health of the environment tend to concentrate on individual exposures based on a specific hypothesis. Although this approach has seen many successes, the method has not always produced reproducible and reliable findings.

“Instead, we have followed a ‘hypothesis -free’ exposome approach and studied all available exposures to find the most important factors of illness and death.

“We have made a big leap forward to understand how accurate evidence can provide evidence of the causes and consequences of age -related diseases by combining new computer methods with clinical and epidemiological knowledge to explore the interplay between multiple exposures.

“In an ever -changing environment, it is crucial that we combine these techniques with new progress in smart technology to control lifestyle and environment, as well as with biological data, to understand the impact of the environment over time.

“There are still many questions to answer with regard to nutrition, lifestyle and exposure to new pathogens (such as bird flu and COVID-19) and chemicals (such as pesticides and plastics), and the impact of environmental and genetic factors in different populations. “

The study was led by researchers from the Oxford Population Health in collaboration with researchers from the departments of psychiatry and anthropology at the University of Oxford; Massachusetts General Hospital, and the broad Institute, Boston; The University of Amsterdam; Erasmus University, Rotterdam; and the University of Montpellier.