Does Anxiety Affect Longevity?
Consumer epigenetic data links anxiety to faster aging – and having specific genes may hasten the effect. DNA analysis firm Muhdo has conducted thousands of biological age and epigenetic health tests, and the company has been mining this data to develop better algorithms. The company has told us that a recent algorithm development trial revealed people with anxiety displayed accelerated biological aging compared with those that did not. Muhdo also found that people with certain genes seemed to be more susceptible to this increased aging than others.
Longevity. Technology: While high stress levels and anxiety have long been linked to shorter lifespan, this data is interesting in that it shows a potential link between certain genes and their impact on rate of aging. These findings clearly require more research, but it’s fascinating to see a commercial company like Muhdo starting to study its own data to find connections with other aspects of longevity in this way. To learn more, we spoke to Chris Collins, Muhdo’s head of physiology.
“Our main focus is to look at biological aging as a whole, but within that we also consider a whole range of lifestyle related issues like anxiety and psychological stress,” says Collins. “Our epigenetic consumers complete a questionnaire of about 80 questions, and so, in addition to their chronological and biological ages, we have all these other metrics, and we’ve been exploring potential correlations between them.”
Excerpted from First Longevity
