Healthy Heart Habits Can Reverse Rapid Cell Aging

Heart health benefits may be due to the positive influence of healthy lifestyle factors on biological aging (the age of the body and its cells), according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association .

“Our results show that, regardless of your actual age, healthy heart habits and managing cardiovascular risk factors are associated with younger biological age and a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality.” any reason," said Jiangtao Ma, Ph.D., senior author of the study and assistant professor of nutritional epidemiology and data science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.

This study analyzed a chemical modification process known as DNA methylation, which regulates gene expression and may be one of the mechanisms by which cardiovascular health factors influence cell aging and risk of death. DNA methylation levels are the most promising biomarker for assessing biological age. To a certain extent, biological age is determined by genetic makeup, but it can also be influenced by lifestyle factors and stress.

Researchers examined the health data of 5,682 adults (average age 56 years; 56% women) who participated in the Framingham Heart Study, a large, multigenerational project aimed at identifying risk factors for heart disease.

Using interviews, physical examinations and laboratory tests, all participants were assessed using the American Heart Association's "Vital 8" tool. This tool assesses cardiovascular health on a scale of 0 to 100 (with 100 being the best), using a composite of four behavioral measures (diet, physical activity, hours of sleep per day, and smoking status) and four clinical measures (mass index). Body, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure).

Each participant was also assessed using four tools that assess biological age based on DNA methylation and a fifth tool that assesses genetic susceptibility to accelerated biological aging. Participants were followed for 11 to 14 years to identify new cases of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality, or death from any cause.

The analysis showed:

• For every 13-point increase in the Vital 8 score, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease for the first time decreased by about 35%, cardiovascular mortality by 36%, and all-cause mortality by 29%. li>
• In participants with a genetic predisposition to accelerated biological aging, the Vital 8 score had a greater impact on outcomes, potentially through DNA methylation. DNA methylation explained 39%, 39%, and 78% of the reductions in the risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality, respectively.
• Overall, about 20% of the association between Vital 8 scores and cardiovascular outcomes was explained by the influence of cardiovascular health factors on DNA methylation. For participants with higher genetic risk, the association was almost 40%.

“Although several biological age calculators based on DNA methylation are currently commercially available, we do not have clear recommendations on whether people need to know their epigenetic age,” Ma said. "Our message is that everyone should pay attention to the eight factors of heart health and stroke: eat healthy foods, get more active, quit smoking, sleep well, control your weight and maintain normal levels of cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure."

Randy Foraker, PhD, MS, FAHA, co-author of "The Vital 8: Updating and Improving the American Heart Association's Framework for Cardiovascular Health," said that The results are consistent with previous studies.

“We know that modifiable risk factors and DNA methylation are independently associated with cardiovascular disease. This study adds that DNA methylation may serve as a mediator between risk factors and cardiovascular disease,” said Foraker, who is a professor of medicine at the Institute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics and director of the Center for Population Health Informatics at Washington University of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

“The study highlights how cardiovascular health may influence biological aging, and has important implications for healthy aging and the prevention of cardiovascular disease and possibly other diseases.”

Research details, background and design:

• The study analyzed health data from a subset of participants who completed screenings in the Framingham Heart Study in the offspring group from 2005 to 2008 and in the third generation group from 2008 to 2011.
• Participants were followed for an average of 14 years for the children of the original participants and 11 years for the grandchildren.
• Outcomes for analysis included incident cardiovascular disease (coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure), death from cardiovascular disease, or death from any cause.
• The results were adjusted for gender, age and alcohol consumption. Results for all-cause mortality were adjusted for presence of cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) or cardiovascular disease at study enrollment. Participants already diagnosed with CVD at the time of study enrollment were excluded from the analysis of new CVD events.
• The four DNA methylation-based epigenetic age measurement tools were based on established scoring algorithms DunedinPACE, PhenoAge, DNAmTL and GrimAge. The fifth tool, GrimAge PGS, assessed genetic susceptibility to accelerated biological aging.
• Because the study is an analysis of previously collected health data, it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between cardiovascular disease risk factors and DNA methylation. In addition, DNA methylation measurements were taken at a single time point, which limits the validity of the mediation effect. The study's findings are also limited in that the participants were primarily of European descent, so the Vital 8 and genetic aging interaction found in this study may not be generalizable to people of other races or ethnicities.

“We are currently expanding our study to include people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds to further explore the relationship between cardiovascular disease risk factors and DNA methylation,” Ma said.

Heart disease and stroke killed more people in the U.S. In 2021 than all cancers and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined, and were also responsible for about 19.91 million deaths worldwide, according to the American Heart Association’s 2024 Statistics.