Besides diet (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/12/07/slowing-epigenetic-aging-with-diet/), are there other factors that may impact epigenetic aging? First, let’s have a look at clinically relevant variables, including inflammation, the lipid profile, kidney function, blood pressure, and body size/dimensions (Liu et al. 2019):

One of the strongest correlations for the clinical variables with epigenetic aging (AgeAccelGrim) is found for C-reactive protein (CRP), with higher CRP being associated with an older epigenetic age. This data supports the hypothesis that CRP levels as low as possible may be representative of biological youth, which I’ve previously written about (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/10/19/optimizing-biological-age-crp/). Similarly, higher values for insulin, glucose, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, BMI, and the waist/hip ratio were correlated with an older epigenetic age, whereas higher HDL was correlated with a younger epigenetic age. Significant correlations were not identified for total or LDL cholesterol, creatinine, or diastolic blood pressure.

Investigating further, the strongest correlation for epigenetic aging was found for smoking, as current smokers had an older epigenetic age. In contrast, those who exercised, drank alcohol, and that had higher levels of education and income had younger epigenetic ages (Liu et al. 2019):

References

Lu AT, Quach A, Wilson JG, Reiner AP, Aviv A, Raj K, Hou L, Baccarelli AA, Li Y, Stewart JD, Whitsel EA, Assimes TL, Ferrucci L, Horvath S. DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. Aging (Albany NY). 2019 Jan 21;11(2):303-327. doi: 10.18632/aging.101684.

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