According to one recent study, today’s adults are aging faster than generations before. The discovery was made by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who originally went to find out why cancer is becoming increasingly common in younger populations. In search of answers, they found accelerated aging to be a possible driving force.
As most know, cancer risk increases with age. However, the last couple of decades saw a rise in cancer rates in those 55 years and younger. Current estimates are that cancer rates in younger adults have risen by 80% in the last three decades. Reasons for this alarming trend include poor diets, insufficient physical activity and environmental pollution — all of which are making people age faster.
But despite these unsettling findings, there is hope. Knowing more about what could be aging us faster paves the way for effective solutions. These findings can help in the development of strategies for screening those at risk and in the development of medications that slow down aging.
Here’s what to know about these findings and what they mean for you.
Understanding Biological Aging
You’ve probably heard the saying, “You’re only as old as you feel.” Well, one reason peers can feel different is due to differences in biological age.
While your chronological age is simply how long you’ve been alive, your biological age is how old your cells are based on certain biomarkers. Biomarkers of aging are measurable indicators of your actual age, like epigenetic changes and changes in gene expression. In other words, biological aging is how old you are on a cellular level.
While chronological aging is something you can’t control, biological aging can be influenced with lifestyle and medical interventions. Factors we know influence biological aging include diet, physical activity, sleep quality, stress levels and environmental toxins. These can damage your cells’ DNA prematurely, leading to visible signs of aging, poor health and low well-being.
What the Research Found
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine found that people born after 1965 were 17% more likely to show accelerated aging than those born in the 1950s. They also found that this risk was associated with greater odds of getting a cancer diagnosis at a younger age.
More specifically, those showing signs of accelerated aging had a 4% greater risk of getting lung cancer early, 20% greater risk of gastrointestinal cancer and a 35% greater risk of uterine cancer. These numbers were even higher in those with the highest level of accelerated aging. For example, women who scored highest in accelerated aging were 80% more likely to be diagnosed with uterine cancer at a younger age.
These findings came after examining data from the UK Biobank databases of 148,724 individuals between 37 and 54 years of age. The researchers looked for nine biomarkers in the blood, which were then added to an algorithm called PhenoAge to calculate each subject’s biological age. Those whose biological age was higher than their chronological age were said to have accelerated aging.
The researchers then checked cancer registries to see how many subjects had been diagnosed with early-onset cancer, which they defined as occurring before 55 years of age. They found that over 3.000 cancers had been diagnosed in this group.
Why Today’s Adults Seem to Be Aging Faster
The study was not designed to answer the whys. However, the researchers have come up with theories on this phenomenon:
- Technological advances have made our lives more efficient but also much more stressful. Chronic stress can speed up the aging process as much as environmental toxins.
- Our diets, lifestyles and the environment have become less healthy overall. With ultra-processed foods, office work, sedentary living and pollution becoming our new normal, it’s not surprising that our longevity may be taking a hit.
While these theories offer intriguing possibilities, they are just speculations. The abrupt shift in aging patterns between those born before and after 1965 invites further investigation, as there may be additional, as-yet-unidentified factors at play.
What This Means for Your Health and Well-Being
The main takeaway of this research is that accelerated aging is affecting more and more adults and putting them at a greater risk of an early cancer diagnosis. This is problematic for several reasons.
The first and most obvious is that cancer can be deadly or debilitating. Secondly, younger people are normally not routinely screened for cancer, which can lead to them receiving a late diagnosis when the cancer is already at an advanced stage. Third, younger people may consider themselves too busy to seek help and often brush off their symptoms.
Additionally, younger adults may also be at risk of developing other age-related conditions early, such as:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetes
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Osteoporosis
- Osteoarthritis
Your hormonal, metabolic, sexual and mental health can become affected as well. You may experience problems with productivity and day-to-day functioning. Or you may become unhappy with your appearance and unsatisfied in your sex life. All these changes can negatively affect your quality of life, which is why we firmly believe they need to be taken seriously.
The Study’s Limitations
While this is one of the first studies to find a link between growing cancer rates and aging, more research is needed before making definite conclusions.
The researchers leading this study have acknowledged that their study does have limitations, a major one being that all of its participants were from the UK, limiting the generalizability of the results. Another problem is that it’s not clear whether the method used to determine biological age is accurate.
How to Slow Down Accelerated Aging
Avoiding lifestyle and environmental factors that are proven to speed up the aging process can help. Examples include not smoking, limiting alcohol, being physically active, stress management and sticking to a balanced diet. However, there are factors outside personal control that can complicate matters. Air pollution, traffic noise and microplastics are some examples.
That’s why to slow down and reverse aging at a cellular level, technologies and medications have been developed that are helping us tackle this problem more efficiently. At Balanced Medical Solutions, we offer cutting-edge treatments that offer anti-aging benefits on a cellular level. These include:
These therapies work by addressing hormonal imbalances or changing the expression of certain genes involved in aging. Unlike cosmetic treatments, these provide more than surface-level anti-aging.
A Word From Balanced Medical Solutions
Whether you’re concerned about the negative health consequences of accelerated aging or want to improve your quality of life through anti-aging solutions, Balanced Medical Solutions has you covered. We’re dedicated to helping our patients in the San Francisco Bay Area lead healthier and happier lives, which is why we address aging on a cellular level through cutting-edge treatments.
Current research suggests that we’re now aging faster than previous generations. While conservative measures can help tackle this problem, it may not be enough to truly reverse and slow down aging. With novel medical solutions offered at our offices, you can look and feel years younger starting today! Contact our office here to learn more.
