People with favorable socio -economic conditionshow to have a high income or have reached higher education phases, They face a reduced risk of age -related diseases and show less signs of biological agingor that those of the same age who lacks those economic or education levels. AS, Social inequalities seem to have a direct impact on these factorsAccording to a new study conducted by researchers from the University College London (United Kingdom) and published this Friday in the magazine “Nature Medicine”.
The researchers found that people with more social benefits had less blood proteins related to the aging process, including those relating to inflammation and immune system. “This study provides solid biological tests that social conditions influence the rhythm of aging. For decades, we learned that the social advantage is linked to better health, but Our results suggest that it could also slow down the aging process “According to Mika Kivimaki, of the Faculty of Cerebro Sciences of the College London University.
The study underlines that healthy aging is a goal achievable for society as a whole, since it is already a reality for people with favorable socio -economic conditions.
The analysis is based on four important longitudinal investigations that have monitored its participants for many years: the Whitehall II study in the United Kingdom, the Biobanco of the United Kingdom, the study of the Finnish public sector and the atherosclerosis in the study of the community (ARIC) in the United States. Together, these works include over 800,000 participants.
Social advantage measures They refer to factors of the first life such as the education and the socio -economic position of the father or motheras well as adulthood indicators, such as the deprivation of the neighborhood, the state of work or family income. The aging markers have been measured by diagnosis of diseases associated with the aging of the blood and analysis that measure the proteins circulating in the plasma in the blood, in a measurement called advanced plasma proteomic.
Many proteins influence the aging process and this also has an impact on the composition of blood proteins, therefore protein counts can reflect more processes relating to age that can occur before the appearance of any disease.
The results of the disease were determined more than 10 years after the measures of social advantage for two of the cohorts and more than 20 years later for the cohorts of Whitehall II and Aric, in order to find out if the early or medium -sized social factors contributed to aging many years later.
The researchers discovered it The risk of 66 age -related diseases has been influenced by social benefits. On average, 20% more risk was observed in people of low socio -economic level than at high socio -economic level. At the age of 15, people of low socio -economic level had a similar number of diagnosis of age -related diseases compared to richest people.
In the case of some diseases, including type 2 diabetes, liver diseases, heart disease, lung cancer and strokes, the risk was more than double in the most disadvantaged group in relation to the most privileged.
Scientists found that the levels of 14 plasma proteins were influenced by socio -economic advantages, including proteins that regulate inflammatory responses and cell stress. They estimated that up to 39% of the risk reduction in people with a socio -economic advantage It could be related to these proteins.
“Aging is reflected in the composition of blood proteins, which includes thousands of circulating proteins related to biological aging processes in several organic systems. These biomarkers are health indicators that allow us to evaluate how social differences can determine the aging rate”, says Tony Wyss-Coray, of the University of Stanford (United States).
The researchers found evidence of the fact that changes in the social position can have a measurable impact on biological aging, since people who progressed from low levels of early education in life to medium or high social benefits later in life had more favorable protein concentrations in relation to those whose circumstances had not improved.
“While our study does not tell us why the social advantage can slow down the aging process, Other studies have suggested that it could be related to factors Like the stress of life, mental health, exposure to pollution or toxins and behaviors such as smoke, consumption of drugs and alcohol, diet and exercise, as well as access to medical exams, controls, vaccines and drugs “, according to Darame Partridge, of the healthy aging institution of the University of London.
