by According to a new study, care is more influential than nature when it comes to the number of serious diseases and early death.
Environmental factors are almost ten times more important than genetic factors when it comes to the risk of death of a person from a number of serious illnesses, one of the greatest studies of this kind.
And many of the environmental risk factors for diseases can be changed, says researcher.
This includes employment, smoking status, physical activity and hours of sleep a day.
Use in the gym, cheese consumption and nap frequency can also play a role, the study said.
The living conditions are also important, including the question of whether someone lives with a partner, their household income and whether people use an open fire for heating or not.
Even weight at the age of 10 can influence aging and risk of premature death 30 to 80 years later, together with other exposure at a young age like a mother who smokes at the time of the birth of a child.
Experts said that the study shows the “enormous opportunity for prevention”.
Researchers who were managed by academics at the University of Oxford wanted to assess how aging and mortality are affected by genes and the environment.
They examined data on almost half a million people who participated in the British Bio Chancement study – a large study in which hundreds of thousands of people from all over the UK were pursued.
The researchers examined how quickly people get older biologically on the basis of proteins in the blood – this method is called “age watch”, which monitors how quickly people age with blood protective mirrors.
This was then correlated with detailed information about your lifestyle and your health information.
The study published in the Journal Nature Medicine showed that environmental factors explained 17% of the variation of death risk compared to less than 2% by genetic disposition.
When considering a certain disease, they found that environmental factors seemed to have more influence than genes on lungs, heart and liver.
And genetic factors seemed to play a greater role than the environment for dementia and cancer of the breast, prostate and intestine.
The researchers said that of the 25 identified environmental factors, smoking, socio -economic status, physical activity and living conditions had the greatest influence on mortality and biological aging.
And 23 of the 25 factors were “modifiable”.
While many of the individual environmental factors played a low role in early death, the combined effect of these multiple factors together explained a large part of the premature mortality fluctuations, as the researchers stated.
The senior author of the paper, Professor Cornelia van Duijn of Oxford Population Heath, said: “Our research shows the profound health effects of exposure that either through individuals or through guidelines to improve socio -economic conditions, to reduce smoking or to promote physical activity can be changed.
“While genes play a key role in brain conditions and some types of cancer, our results underline the possibility of alleviating the risks of chronic diseases of the lungs, the heart and liver, which are leading causes of disability and death worldwide.
“Exposure in early life is particularly important because they show that environmental factors accelerate aging in life at an early stage, but have plenty of opportunity to prevent long -lasting illnesses and early death.”
Dr. Austin Argentieri, leading author of the study at Oxford Population Health and Research Fellow in the Massachusetts General Hospital, said that the study offers the “most comprehensive overview of the environmental and lifestyle factors that promote aging and early death” and adds: ” These results underline the potential advantages of focusing interventions on our environments, Socio -economic contexts and behaviors for the prevention of many age -related diseases and premature diet. “
Professor Bryan Williams from the British Heart Foundation commented on the study: “Your income, your postcode and your background should not determine your chances of leading a long and healthy life. But this groundbreaking study increases that this is reality for far too many people. “
Felicity Gavins, professor of pharmacology at Brunel University of London, added: “This is an exciting study. The fact that most of the identified risk factors can be changed shows an enormous opportunity for prevention.
“By combating social inequalities, promoting healthy behavior and reducing harmful exposure, we can really make a meaningful difference in reducing age -related diseases and premature mortality.”
Dr. Stephen Burgess, group leader at the MRC Biostatistics Unit of the University of Cambridge, said: “This is a great and detailed examination of the predictors for important causes of death in a population based in Great Britain.
“It provides further demonstrations that support previous studies that our genes do not determine our future in most cases.
“There are exceptions, including rare diseases caused by a single genetic variation. In most diseases where western people die.
“Genetics can load the cubes, but it is up to us how we play our hand.”
