scholarly journals Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah N Forrester ◽  
Keith E Whitfield ◽  
Catarina I Kiefe ◽  
Roland J Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Accelerated Aging ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Physiological Dysregulation

Abstract Objectives Black persons in the US are more likely to suffer from social inequality. Chronic stress caused by social inequality and racial discrimination results in weathering of the body that causes physiological dysregulation and biological age being higher than chronological age (accelerated aging). Depression has been linked to both racial discrimination and accelerated aging and accelerated aging has been demonstrated to be higher in Black than White persons, on average. However, we know little about accelerated aging across the life course in Black Americans. Methods We used mixed effects growth models to measure biological age acceleration, measured with cardiometabolic markers, over a 20-year period in Black participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA) who were aged 27 - 42 years at analytic baseline. We included an interaction between depressive symptoms and time to determine whether risk of depression was associated with a faster rate of biological aging. Results We found that the rate of biological aging increased over a 20-year span and that those at risk for depression had a faster rate of biological aging than those not at risk. We also found that various social factors were associated with biological age acceleration over time. Discussion Given the known association between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms, we provide a novel instance of the long-term effects of social inequality. Specifically, biological age acceleration, a marker of physiological dysregulation, is associated with time among Black persons and more strongly associated among those with depressive symptoms.

scholarly journals COVID-19 severity is predicted by earlier evidence of accelerated aging

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Ling Kuo ◽  
Luke C. Pilling ◽  
Janice L Atkins ◽  
Jane AH Masoli ◽  
João Delgado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Chemistry ◽  
Accelerated Aging ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Uk

AbstractWith no known treatments or vaccine, COVID-19 presents a major threat, particularly to older adults, who account for the majority of severe illness and deaths. The age-related susceptibility is partly explained by increased comorbidities including dementia and type II diabetes [1]. While it is unclear why these diseases predispose risk, we hypothesize that increased biological age, rather than chronological age, may be driving disease-related trends in COVID-19 severity with age. To test this hypothesis, we applied our previously validated biological age measure (PhenoAge) [2] composed of chronological age and nine clinical chemistry biomarkers to data of 347,751 participants from a large community cohort in the United Kingdom (UK Biobank), recruited between 2006 and 2010. Other data included disease diagnoses (to 2017), mortality data (to 2020), and the UK national COVID-19 test results (to May 31, 2020) [3]. Accelerated aging 10-14 years prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with test positivity (OR=1.15 per 5-year acceleration, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.21, p=3.2×10−6) and all-cause mortality with test-confirmed COVID-19 (OR=1.25, per 5-year acceleration, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.44, p=0.002) after adjustment for demographics including current chronological age and pre-existing diseases or conditions. The corresponding areas under the curves were 0.669 and 0.803, respectively. Biological aging, as captured by PhenoAge, is a better predictor of COVID-19 severity than chronological age, and may inform risk stratification initiatives, while also elucidating possible underlying mechanisms, particularly those related to inflammaging.

scholarly journals Personal life strategies and their correlation with biological age

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nikolaevna Berezina
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Large City ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Work Orientation ◽  
Unhealthy Lifestyle ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Life Path

The goal of this research is to examine the ways of organization of life used by modern men and women, and to determine personal characteristics that are associated with biological age of a person and reduce personal aging markers. The object of this research is the personality and life path, while the subject is the correlation between life organization strategies and rate of biological aging. The following methods were applied in the course of research: life path survey, self-assessment, determination of biological age. The study involved 987 respondents (575 women) aged 35 to 70, from different regions of the Russian Federation. Independent variable implies relative biological aging of the body (biological age –proper biological age); dependent variable– characteristics of life path. The scientific novelty consists in description of the ways of organization of life used by modern men and women. For men is typical: career building, work orientation, unhealthy lifestyle orientation towards family, self-fulfillment; while for women: career building, being a role model, work orientation, unhealthy lifestyle, choice between children and work. It is also proven that biological aging is delayed by the indicators included in most strategies: types of professions “Man – Nature”, “Man-Man”, “Man-Artistic Image”, “Man – Technology”, “Man – Symbol”, and style of cooperation. Biological aging can be accelerated by such indicators as: aggressiveness, overeating, smoking, living in a large city, career. The conclusion is made that personality traits that correlate with biological do not depend on just one life path strategy, however by one or two suit for most of them.

scholarly journals Hallmarks of senescence and aging

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slavica Dodig ◽  
Ivana Čepelak ◽  
Ivan Pavić
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Cell Transformation ◽  
Malignant Cell ◽  
Cellular Aging ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Cell Cycles ◽  
Cycle Arrest ◽  
Complex Process

The complex process of biological aging, as an intrinsic feature of living beings, is the result of genetic and, to a greater extent, environmental factors and time. For many of the changes taking place in the body during aging, three factors are important: inflammation, immune aging and senescence (cellular aging, biological aging). Senescence is an irreversible form of long-term cell-cycle arrest, caused by excessive intracellular or extracellular stress or damage. The purpose of this cell-cycles arrest is to limit the proliferation of damaged cells, to eliminate accumulated harmful factors and to disable potential malignant cell transformation. As the biological age does not have to be in accordance with the chronological age, it is important to find specific hallmarks and biomarkers that could objectively determine the rate of age of a person. These biomarkers might be a valuable measure of physiological, i.e. biological age. Biomarkers should meet several criteria. For example, they have to predict the rate of aging, monitor a basic process that underlies the aging process, be able to be tested repeatedly without harming the person. In addition, biomarkers have to be indicators of biological processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to therapeutic intervention. It is considered that the telomere length is the weak biomarker (with poor predictive accuracy), and there is currently no reliable biomarker that meets all the necessary criteria.

scholarly journals Aging Clocks

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 818-819
Author(s):  
Morgan Levine
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
Disease Onset ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Biomarkers Of Aging ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract While chronological age is arguably the strongest risk factor for death, disease, and disability, same-aged individuals remain heterogeneous in their susceptibilities to these various outcomes. One explanation is that chronological age is an imperfect proxy of the degree of biological aging an individual has undergone. Thus, defining measurable estimates of ‘biological age’ (in contrast to chronological age) has become a major initiative in Geroscience research. Such biomarkers of aging, or ‘aging clocks’ will 1) help identify underlying mechanisms of aging, 2) enable identification of at-risk individuals prior to disease onset, and 3) provide outcomes to assess efficacy of interventions. In this session, I will describe the various aging clocks, how they were developed, and what they track. I will also describe how aging clocks can facilitate research both within and outside of the biological sciences.

scholarly journals Parity predicts biological age acceleration in post-menopausal, but not pre-menopausal, women

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Talia N. Shirazi ◽  
Waylon J. Hastings ◽  
Asher Y. Rosinger ◽  
Calen P. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Reproductive Function ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Costs Of Reproduction ◽  
Live Births ◽  
System Integrity ◽  
Physiological Dysregulation ◽  
Menopausal Women ◽  
Post Menopausal

AbstractUnderstanding factors contributing to variation in ‘biological age’ is essential to understanding variation in susceptibility to disease and functional decline. One factor that could accelerate biological aging in women is reproduction. Pregnancy is characterized by extensive, energetically-costly changes across numerous physiological systems. These ‘costs of reproduction’ may accumulate with each pregnancy, accelerating biological aging. Despite evidence for costs of reproduction using molecular and demographic measures, it is unknown whether parity is linked to commonly-used clinical measures of biological aging. We use data collected between 1999 and 2010 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 4418) to test whether parity (number of live births) predicted four previously-validated composite measures of biological age and system integrity: Levine Method, homeostatic dysregulation, Klemera–Doubal method biological age, and allostatic load. Parity exhibited a U-shaped relationship with accelerated biological aging when controlling for chronological age, lifestyle, health-related, and demographic factors in post-menopausal, but not pre-menopausal, women, with biological age acceleration being lowest among post-menopausal women reporting between three and four live births. Our findings suggest a link between reproductive function and physiological dysregulation, and allude to possible compensatory mechanisms that buffer the effects of reproductive function on physiological dysregulation during a woman’s reproductive lifespan. Future work should continue to investigate links between parity, menopausal status, and biological age using targeted physiological measures and longitudinal studies.

scholarly journals Role of sleep quality in the acceleration of biological aging and its potential for preventive interaction on air pollution insults: findings from the UK Biobank cohort

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Gao ◽  
Ninghao Huang ◽  
Tao Huang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Accelerated Aging ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Unit Increase ◽  
Sleep Behaviors ◽  
The Uk

Background: Sleep has been associated with aging and relevant health outcomes, but their causal relationship remains inconclusive. Methods: In this study, we investigated the associations of sleep behaviors with biological ages (BAs) among 363,886 middle and elderly-aged adults from UK Biobank. Sleep index (0 [worst]-6 [best]) of each participant was retrieved from six sleep behaviors: snoring, chronotype, daytime sleepiness, sleep duration, insomnia, and difficulties in getting up. Two BAs, the KDM-biological age and PhenoAge, were estimated by corresponding algorithms based on clinical traits, and their discrepancies with chronological age were defined as the age accelerations (AAs). Results: We first observed negative associations between the sleep index and the two AAs, and demonstrated that the change of AAs could be the consequence of sleep quality using Mendelian randomization with genetic risk scores of sleep index and BAs. Particularly, one unit increase in sleep index was associated with 0.105- and 0.125-year decreases in KDM-biological age acceleration and PhenoAge acceleration, respectively. Furthermore, we observed significant independent and joint effects of sleep and air pollution (i.e. PM2.5 and NO2), another key driver of aging, on BAs. Sleep quality also showed modifying effect on the associations of elevated PM2.5 and NO2 levels with accelerated aging. For instance, an interquartile range increase in PM2.5 level was associated with 0.011-, 0.047-, and 0.078-year increase in PhenoAge acceleration among people with high (5-6), medium (3-4), and low (0-2) sleep index, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings elucidate that better sleep quality could lessen accelerated biological aging resulting from exogenous exposures including air pollution.

Biological age and rates of aging of patients with vibration disease and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss

2020 ◽  
pp. 624-624
Author(s):  
S. I. Ereniev ◽  
O. V. Plotnikova
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing Loss ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Vibration Disease ◽  
Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Biological age and rates of aging of patients with vibration disease and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were studied. The biological age of patients exceeded the calendar age by an average of 7.36±0.36 years and the proper biological age by 10.79±0.72 years. The rate of biological aging of the examined patients was 1.14±0.08 times higher than the rate of aging of their healthy peers.

Examining Racial Discrimination’s Association With Depressive Symptoms Through Metadehumanization Among African Americans: Does Racial Identity Matter?

2020 ◽  
pp. 009579842098366
Author(s):  
Yara Mekawi ◽  
Natalie N. Watson-Singleton
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Though considerable empirical work has documented the ways in which African Americans are dehumanized by other racial groups, there is no research examining how perceiving dehumanization (i.e., metadehumanization) is associated with the mental health of African Americans. In this study, we examined the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization and explored whether this indirect effect was contingent on racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard). African American students completed measures in a university lab located in the Midwestern region of the United States ( N = 326; Mage = 19.7, 72.4% women). We found that the degree to which racial discrimination was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was contingent on racial identity dimensions. Specifically, the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was only significant for individuals who were relatively higher on centrality and private regard. This research suggests that the role of metadehumanization is stronger among African Americans who strongly identify with and have positive views of their racial group. We discuss these results in the context of social cognitive theories.

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