A new study shows having good cardiovascular health may decrease the pace of biological aging.
Using Life’s Essential 8 (diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, BMI, cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure) to measure biological age, researchers discovered those who had the highest score had a biological age that was on average six years younger than their actual age.
Aiming to maintain a high Essential 8 score may not only lower your biological age but will boost your overall health.
To explore the connection between cardiovascular health and biological aging, researchers used the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 checklistTrusted Source along with measuring phenotypic age — determined by your chronological age and biomarkers that include metabolism, inflammation, and organ function.
The higher your phenotypic age, the faster you are biologically aging.
Results showed that participants with good cardiovascular health had a negative phenotypic age acceleration. In other words, they had a younger biological age (the health of their cells) compared to their chronological age (the number of years they have lived).
Conversely, participants with poor cardiovascular health had a positive phenotypic age acceleration, indicating they had an older biological age than their actual age.