Summary

Original source:
http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/0001047/62/

Details

• Biological age is impacted by smoking and obesity, according to a study published online today in The Lancet.
• Obesity and smoking are important risk factors for many age-related diseases, the article notes.
• Tim Spector of St. Thomas' Hospital, UK, and colleagues in the US looked for evidence of aging at a molecular level in smokers and obese individuals.
• They analyzed telomeres, which cap the ends of the chromosomes in our cells and protect them from damage.
• 119 of the women were obese, with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30, and 85 women had a BMI under 20.
• The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on smoking history; 531 women had never smoked, 369 were ex-smokers, and 203 were current smokers.
• Their exposure to smoking was measured as pack-years (number of cigarette packs smoked per day multiplied by the number of years smoking).
• In addition to telomere length, the investigators measured the concentrations of a body-fat regulator called leptin in blood samples from the women.
• They found that telomere length decreased steadily with age and that the telomeres of obese women and smokers were much shorter that those of lean women and never-smokers.
• Lean individuals had significantly longer telomeres than women with mid-range BMIs, who, in turn, had longer telomeres than obese individuals.
• "Our findings suggest that obesity and cigarette smoking accelerate human aging," Professor Spector states.
• "Smoking (previous or current) corresponds on average to 4.6 years of aging; and smoking a pack per day for 40 years corresponds to 7.4 years of aging," he adds.
• "Our results emphasize the potential wide-ranging effects of the two most important preventable exposures in developed countries -- cigarettes and obesity," Professor Spector concludes.

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