Age more influential than genes in disease development

Growing older has a more significant impact on our health than genetics as the years pass by. — AFP

After the age of 50, aging and environment play a greater role than genetics in the development of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease or Alzheimer's, according to an American study.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, states that genetics is not the factor that most determines our health as we age.

Indeed, "age is the primary risk factor for many common human diseases," explain the authors from the University of California (UC), Berkeley.

"As individuals age, many biological processes deteriorate resulting in impaired function and disease."

The research team measured the impact of genetics and ageing on 27 different human tissues taken from about 1,000 participants.

The results of this analysis showed that genetics mattered less as people aged.

Meanwhile, they found that the impact of ageing varied greatly – more than twentyfold – among tissues.

"Across all the tissues in your body, genetics matters about the same amount.

"It doesn't seem like it plays more of a role in one tissue or another tissue,” said Peter Sudmant, UC Berkeley assistant professor of integrative biology and a member of the campus’s Center for Computational Biology.

"But ageing is vastly different between different tissues.

"In your blood, colon, arteries, oesophagus, fat tissue, age plays a much stronger role than your genetics in driving your gene expression patterns.”

The study also indirectly indicates the role of people's environment on ageing.

In fact, our lifestyles (air quality, diet, exercise, etc) could account for up to a third of the changes in gene expression with age, the researchers note.

"Almost all human common diseases are diseases of ageing: Alzheimer's, cancers, heart disease, diabetes.

"All of these diseases increase their prevalence with age," he continues.

"What our study is showing is that, well, actually, as you get older, genes kind of matter less for your gene expression.

"And so, perhaps, we need to be mindful of that when we're trying to identify the causes of these diseases of ageing," he concludes. – AFP Relaxnews