Mental Health & Aging

Researchers were interested in the impact of physical and mental health on aging.  Aging clock research is important to the development of longevity interventions and medications. 

Aging clocks are statistical models that allow researchers to determine the impacts of physical and mental health issues on biological age, as compared to chronological age.  Chronological age is determined by date of birth, but biological age is influenced by factors that negatively accelerate or positively manipulate the aging process. 

Based on the pace of aging, people can be categorized as slow, normal, or fast agers.  Rapid agers have an increased risk of infection, disease, and early death.

The literature review in this study summarizes the research demonstrating that stress accelerates aging: lifetime accumulated stress can accelerate aging by up to 3.6 years, and stressors such as childhood trauma and PTSD can accelerate aging by up to 10 years.  The damage is believed to be caused by exposure to stress hormones. 

In this study, researchers developed an aging clock based on blood test data from 4,846 participants in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, all older than 45 years.  By analyzing the blood panels of the participants, researchers discovered that:

• Aging is accelerated in people with heart, liver, and lung health conditions;

• Aging is also accelerated in people who are lonely or unhappy; and

• The detrimental impact of poor psychological well-being “is of the same magnitude as serious diseases and smoking.”

Takeaway: Caring for your mental health, including stress management, is a potential anti-aging intervention. 

FutureSelf is a free mental health application that provides personalized mental well-being guidance.  You can take a short assessment, and FuturSelf uses AI to create a psychological profile, and determine your psychological age.  You will receive scores and tips on Positive Relations with Others, Purpose in Life, Personal Growth, Self-Acceptance, Autonomy, and Environmental Mastery.

Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix

Source

Fedor Galkin, et al., Psychological Factors Substantially Contribute to Biological Aging: Evidence from the Aging Rate in Chinese Older Adults, Vol. 14 Advance, Aging 2022, Sept. 27, 2022, pdf (aging-us.com).