Eight healthy habits that can slow aging

Following eight healthy behaviors can shave years off your biological age, which can help keep you in good health for longer.

The Lifes Essential 8 checklist was created by the American Heart Association (AHA) to help people improve their cardiovascular health. Their recommendations include getting at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, eating a balanced diet full of vegetables, nuts and lean proteins, and not smoking.

The other recommendations are to sleep between seven and nine hours a night, maintain a healthy weight and keep cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure under control.

Now, in a study that will be presented at the AHA Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 12, Nour Makarem of Columbia University in New York and her colleagues have found that adhering to this checklist not only improves heart health, but can also slow down the biological aging process.

Researchers assessed the extent to which more than 6,500 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) followed the checklist. This was based on self-reporting their adherence to diet, exercise, smoking and sleep recommendations, while their weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure were measured.

The team also calculated their phenotypic ages, an indication of biological age that is determined by measuring levels of chemicals in the body that are involved in metabolism, inflammation, and organ function, such as glucose and creatinine.

[Phenotypic age] provides a more comprehensive picture of how a person is aging internally, whereas chronological age is based solely on the number of years a person has lived, says Emma Stanmore of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.

The team found that those who reported better adherence to the checklist had a biological age on average six years younger than their chronological age. Those with the worst adherence, however, had an average biological age four years older than their chronological age.

Following the checklist can slow the body’s aging process, which has many benefits, says Makarem, including extending the number of disease-free years and reducing the risk of premature death.

People can’t change their lifestyle overnight, but progress is better than perfection, she says. Even gradual changes can have a significant impact on heart health and slowing the biological aging process.

With more research, doctors could monitor someone’s adherence to this checklist to assess the rate of biological aging as well as heart health, thus encouraging early intervention and prevention, says Stanmore.

She adds, however, that the NHANES dataset only captures a snapshot of information about people’s health. Longitudinal data [gathered by measuring the same people repeatedly over an extended period] would provide more insights into trends and changes over time, she says.