Eight Measures that may Increase Your Longevity by about Six Years

Aging can be Chronological, and Biological. Chronological
age is the age in years, as one grows older after birth. Biological aging is
the aging at cellular and molecular level. Chronological age and Biological age
can be well different depending on the different habits (food, physical
activity, and accompanied diseases etc.).    

Aging is accompanied
by gradual changes in most body systems. Research on the biology of aging
focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular processes underlying these
changes as well as those accompanying the onset of age-related diseases.

Gradual loss of the length of Telomeres, the highly
repetitive DNA sequences located at the end of chromosomes, is associated with
cell aging (biological aging). As cells divide, telomere length gets
progressively shorter until eventually, proliferation stops entirely. Such
cells, which have ceased dividing, are called senescent.

New
research shows that the following eight simple health measures can
help in slowing down ageing. According to researchers, following the American
Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 can help slow down biological ageing by
six years.

The
identified health measures are

1.     
Eating Healthy,

2.     
Exercising Regularly,

3.     
Not Smoking,  

4.     
Getting Enough Sleep,

5.     
Maintaining Low Cholesterol Levels,

6.     
Healthy Blood Pressure,

7.     
Healthy Sugar Levels and

8.     
Staying Slim.

Experts believe that
these eight measures can improve good heart health, which eventually helps to
slow the pace of biological ageing. Researchers at Columbia University in New
York looked at data from more than 6,500 Americans, aged 47, on average. They
determined their phenotypic age by using an experimental gauge of biological
age, which relies on the outcomes of nine biomarkers. These biomarkers
encompass measurements related to metabolism, inflammation, and organ function.

The scientists then assigned each participant a
cardiovascular score—categorized as high, moderate, or low—depending on their
adherence to the Life Essential 8 checklist.

Factors
that could skew the results, income, education and ethnicity, were accounted
for.

People
who had high cardiovascular health were associated with a lower biological age.
This means that such participants were younger than expected physiologically.
For example, the average actual age of those with high cardiovascular health
was 41, yet their average biological age was 36.

On the other hand, people who had low
cardiovascular health had a positive phenotypic age acceleration. This meant
that they were older than expected biologically. An example of this is, the
average actual age of those with low cardiovascular health was 53, while their
biological age was 57.

A
further analysis showed that having the highest healthy score was linked to
being six years younger, biologically.

The
researchers found that higher cardiovascular health is associated with
decelerated biological ageing, as measured by phenotypic age. They also found a
dose-dependent association — as heart health goes up, biological ageing goes
down. That means the greater the adherence to all Life’s Essential 8 metrics the
more slow down body’s ageing process and a lot of benefits down the line.

“Reduced biologic ageing is not just associated
with lower risk of chronic disease such as heart disease; it is also associated
with longer life and lower risk of death.”

 “Everyone wants to live longer, yet more
importantly, we want to live healthier longer so we can really enjoy and have
good quality of life for as many years as possible.”

The original publication can be accessed
here.  

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http://dlvr.it/SydnYz