A New Year’s resolution to eat healthier or exercise more may have an additional benefit beyond improving health or losing weight: A series of studies published over the past year suggest that certain diet and exercise regimens could help reduce ‘biological age’ of a person.
That term refers to indicators of a person’s physiological health, rather than how many birthdays they have had. Although the measurement cannot predict how long a person will live, the idea is to assess where a person’s body is in the aging process based on factors such as cell damage, organ function, or cholesterol and blood pressure levels. .
Recent research offers additional evidence that certain habits already known to be healthy (such as eating a plant-based diet, staying active throughout the day, and doing weekly strength training) may prevent some negative health effects associated with aging. .
However, biological aging is a complex process and experts warn that stress, chronic diseases, smoking and a person’s genetics complicate the picture. Additionally, there are many reasons to exercise regularly and eat a nutrient-dense diet beyond the biological clock.
However, here is what five studies published last year have found of the links of diet, exercise and aging:
Eat more plants and less ‘junk’ food
There is growing evidence to suggest that plant-based diets can help slow biological aging.
A study published in October looked at the effects of a vegan diet on 22 pairs of identical twins. The researchers assigned one twin in each pair to a vegan eating plan, while the other ate an omnivorous diet that included meat, eggs and dairy products, as well as plants.
After eight weeks, they measured the biological ages of the twins based on their telomeres, protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with age. That shortening can prevent cells from dividing, increasing the risk of disease or death. The study also measured changes in participants’ DNA methylation, a method used by cells to control gene expression that is strongly correlated with aging.
The results indicated that the vegan diet twins showed significant decreases in their biological age relative to the omnivore group. Christopher Gardner, one of the authors, said vegan diets contained more nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, beans and grains, and less saturated fat. But it’s unclear what aspect of the diet slowed the aging process, he said, or how long the benefits might last.
“It doesn’t mean you can do this for 8 weeks and suddenly be younger,” said Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford Medicine.
Plus, not all vegan diets are equally healthy (chips and soda are technically vegan), so Gardner suggested a simple rule of thumb: eat more plants and less junk food.
A July study found that higher consumption of foods rich in antioxidants or anti-inflammatory foods, such as vegetables, olive oil, whole grains and seafood, was associated with a younger biological age, while higher sugar intake was associated with an older age. most advanced biology.
Another study noted the benefits of a plant-based diet with calorie restriction only part of the time. Of a group of 100 adult participants, the researchers asked some to follow a strict diet for five consecutive days a month for three months, while eating as they normally would for the rest of the time. On diet days, caloric intake was limited to between 700 and 1,100 calories daily, and all foods were pre-prepared and provided to participants. The kits contained items such as vegetable soup, nut bars and herbal tea. The other study participants continued their normal patterns for the entire three months.
The researchers assessed people’s biological ages based on several measures, such as cholesterol and blood pressure. They found that the group that had incorporated a plant-based diet into their monthly routines had a biological age that was two and a half years younger than when they started, regardless of whether they lost weight in the study period.
“Every doctor should have this in their arsenal,” said Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute and one of the study’s authors.
Longo said his research suggests that the special five-day diet he studied can help generate new, healthy cells and reduce insulin resistance, which in turn can lower blood sugar. Such a regimen is likely to make the biggest difference for people who have diabetes, obesity or are overweight, he added.
Daily walk and weekly strength training
Although exercise has long been known to improve brain health, a study published in October found that even a small amount of physical activity could reduce a person’s “cognitive age,” that is, how young a person is based on of his mental acuity.
The study enrolled more than 200 middle-aged New Yorkers, who were asked several times a day by a smartphone app to record their physical activity over the past three and a half hours. Immediately afterward, they were asked to play “mental games” that measured their cognitive function, such as matching tiles with various symbols. The speed of the participants in solving the games was used as a measure of their brain age.
“We generally become cognitively slower as we age,” said Jonathan Hakun, an author of the study and a professor of neurology at Pennsylvania State University. “At some point in midlife, around the sixth or seventh decade, we start to see a slightly more rapid change in our ability to solve these problems quickly.”
The study found that those who had recently engaged in physical activity showed mental speed associated with a brain age four years lower than that shown after periods of inactivity. The activity could have been as simple as walking the dog, doing housework, or playing with children.
Hakun said the findings could be a result of physical activity exciting the central nervous system: “The physical activity that we would do in our daily lives could put us in a state to be more prepared or ready to respond to a problem.”
Other research also found links between a particular type of exercise and a reduction in biological age. A study published in October found that 90 minutes of strength training a week (such as weights to strengthen muscles) was associated with a nearly four-year reduction in biological age.
The findings were based on 4,800 responses to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Adults who said they regularly engaged in strength training had significantly longer telomeres than adults who did not, suggesting a younger biological age.
However, Hakun emphasized that the benefits of exercise extend far beyond the cognitive, as regular physical activity is also known to reduce blood sugar and heart disease risk factors, among many other effects.
“People have considered physical activity to be a key behavior for all dimensions of health,” he said, “I have very rarely, if ever, come across a project that says physical activity has a negative impact.” .
