Prevent Rapid Cell Aging with Heart Healthy Habits: New Study Reveals Surprising Benefits | American Heart Association Journal

“Our study findings indicate that individuals with higher scores for heart-healthy lifestyle factors may experience benefits related to the aging of the body and its cells,” said the lead author of the study.

Researchers have found that adopting heart-healthy habits and keeping risk factors for heart disease in check can lead to a younger biological age and a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and overall mortality, regardless of your chronological age. Jiantao Ma, Ph.D., senior study author and assistant professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, explained that the study looked into how DNA methylation, a process that controls gene expression, could be a potential mechanism for this correlation.Cardiovascular health plays a significant role in determining cell aging and the risk of death. DNA methylation levels are seen as a promising marker for estimating biological age. While genetic makeup plays a part in determining biological age, lifestyle factors and stress also have an impact.

A study of 5,682 adults (with an average age of 56 years, and 56% of them being women) enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study, which aims to identify heart disease risk factors, looked at their health data. Through interviews, physical exams, and lab tests, researchers evaluated all participants.The American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 tool evaluates cardiovascular health on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the best score. This is determined by combining four behavioral measures (dietary intake, physical activity, hours of sleep per night, and smoking status) with four clinical measurements (body mass index, cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure). In addition to this, each participant also underwent assessment using four tools that predict biological age based on DNA methylation, as well as a fifth tool that evaluates a person’s genetic predisposition to accelerated biological aging. The participants were then monitored for 11-14 years to determine if they developed new-onset cardiovascular disease.vascular death or death from any cause.

The analysis found:

• For every 13-point increase in an individual’s Life’s Essential 8 score, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease for the first time was lowered by approximately 35%, death from cardiovascular disease was decreased by 36%, and death from any cause was reduced by 29%.
• In study participants with a genetic risk profile that made them more likely to experience an accelerated biological age, the Life’s Essential 8 score had a more significant impact on outcomes, possibly due to DNA methylation. This means that DNA methylation accounted for a 39%, 39%, and 78% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease.Cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death, and all-cause death, respectively.”
• Overall, approximately 20% of the connection between Life’s Essential 8 scores and cardiovascular results was estimated to be due to the influence of cardiovascular health factors on DNA methylation; in contrast, for participants at a higher genetic risk, the connection was nearly 40%.”

“While there are a few DNA methylation-based, biological age calculators commercially available, we don’t have a good recommendation regarding whether people need to know their epigenetic age,” Ma said. “Our message is that everyone should be mindful of the eight heart disease and st rnrnstroke health factors: consuming nutritious foods; increasing physical activity; quitting smoking; getting sufficient sleep; managing weight; and maintaining healthy cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure levels.”

Randi Foraker, Ph.D., M.A., FAHA, co-author of the Life’s Essential 8: Updating and Enhancing the American Heart Association’s Construct of Cardiovascular Health, stated that the results are in line with previous research.

“We are aware that modifiable risk factors and DNA methylation are independently linked to cardiovascular disease. What this study adds is that DNA methylation may act as an intermediary between risk factors rnrn”The research suggests a significant connection between cardiovascular health and biological aging,” stated Foraker, a professor of medicine at the Institute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics, as well as the director of the Center for Population Health Informatics, both at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. “This study emphasizes the impact of cardiovascular health on aging and its potential implications for promoting healthy aging and preventing cardiovascular disease, and possibly other health conditions.”

Details of the study, its background, and its design:

• The research examined health data for a specific subset of participants who took part in the Framingham Heart Study exams.The study followed two groups: the children of original participants from 2005 to 2008 and the grandchildren from 2008 to 2011. Participants were monitored for an average of 14 years for the original participants’ children and 11 years for the grandchildren. The study looked at health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease (including coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, or heart failure), death from any cardiovascular disease, and death from any cause. The results were adjusted for sex, age, and alcohol use, and for all-cause death, the results were adjusted for the presence of cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) or heart disease during the study period.Enrollment. Individuals who had already been diagnosed with heart disease at the time of their participation in the study were not included in the analysis of new-onset cardiovascular disease. The study used four different tools to calculate DNA methylation-based epigenetic age scores, which were based on established algorithms for DunedinPACE Score, PhenoAge, DNAmTL, and GrimAge. A fifth tool, GrimAge PGS, was used to assess genetic predisposition to accelerated biological aging.Because this study analyzed previously collected health data, it is unable to prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship between cardiovascular health risk factors and DNA methylation. Additionally, the study found that DNA methylation measures were  restricted by its reliance on a single time point, which impacts the accuracy of the mediation effect. Additionally, the study’s outcomes are constrained due to the majority of participants being of European descent. This means that the interactions of Life’s Essential 8 and genetic aging identified in the study may not apply to individuals of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.”We are currently broadening our research to encompass individuals from diverse racial and ethnic groups, in order to further examine the correlation between cardiovascular risk factors and DNA methylation,” Ma explained.As per the American Heart Association’s 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, heart disease and strokIn 2021, e was responsible for more deaths in the U.S. than cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined, and also caused about 19.91 million deaths worldwide.