Mental Health & Pace of Aging

Recent advances have enabled us to identify those sustaining an increased pace of aging. These biomarkers serve as 1) a predictor of future demise, 2) an indicator of “anti-aging” intervention effectiveness, and 3) a metric to assess the impact of exposures on the rate of aging. For a more thorough explanation of biological age please check out 1Pager #1.?

Previously, most of the research has focused on the impact of environmental exposures on the rate of biological aging (pollution, infections, toxins, etc.). A recent article published in Aging-US, however, suggests we should also be investigating social exposures.?

In a collaboration with the US and Chinese scientists, Deep Longevity has measured the effects of loneliness, restless sleep, and feeling unhappy on the pace of aging. According to the study, a new aging “clock” has been developed and verified using advanced AI algorithms harnessing biometric and blood data from 11,914 Chinese adults. It is the first time an aging clock has been developed solely from data gathered from a large Chinese cohort.?

Consistent with previous research, participants with accelerated aging were more likely to have a history of smoking and/or organ-specific disease (stroke, liver failure, COPD, etc.). But what was novel about this study was that participants who reported experiencing prolonged vulnerable psychological states also exhibited accelerated aging of about 1-2 years greater than their chronological age.

?In fact, feeling hopeless, unhappy, and lonely was shown to increase one’s biological age more than smoking.?

?Singleness and living in a rural area are also associated with the acceleration of aging - both of which increase the risk for isolation.?

?These findings are in-line with other recent studies examining the role of our social circles and mental states in the pace of aging which has identified discrimination, to also accelerate aging. Many suggest that this may underlie the unexplained discrepancies in life expectancy in minority groups even after controlling for confounding factors that may influence life expectancy (i.e. access to healthcare, socioeconomic status, etc.).?

?At present we can only speculate as to why these changes occur. Some suggest a direct root role in chronic stress which may lead to smoldering systemic inflammation while others speculate only an indirect role considering poor mental states has been associated with fewer health-promoting habits such as physical activity and healthy eating. Still many others suggest explanations ranging in-between.?

Future experiments will be needed to parse out these findings into actionable insights such as if and to what extent behavioral, cognitive and other therapy types may buffer or reverse the “revved up” pace of aging.?

?Nonetheless - the authors Fedor Galkin , Kirill Karlin, MD , Diana Koldasbayeva, Manuel Faria , Helene Fung, Amber Chen?and Alex Zhavoronkov have translated these findings to an actionable online survey that is available at https://futurself.ai/ . The results provide personalized recommendations aimed to maximize users’ future mental well-being. Demo results can be found here.