Scientists from Mass-General Brigham investigated the associations between telomer length that decrease as a person older or is exposed to unhealthy environments and the risk of age-related brain diseases. The research team found evidence that suggests that healthier lifestyle choices could reduce length-associated risks due to telomer. Their results are published in Neurology, The Medical Journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Reducing risk factors such as weight and alcohol consumption and getting more sleep and exercise can all help to reverse the risk of age -related brain diseases, even for people who already show signs of biological aging. In short, it is never too late to take better care of your brain. “
Tamara Kimball, MD, main author, Center for neurotechnology and neurorecovery, Massachusetts General Hospital
The risk of stroke, dementia and late-life depression (LLD) increases for people as they get older. Likewise, telomeren, which are protective caps are on chromosomes, naturally shortened with age or exposure to unfavorable environmental conditions, such as stress and pollution, which increases the risk of DNA damage. This study tried to determine the connection between these age -related brain diseases and the telomer length of leukocytes (LTL), and whether LTL was a direct causal factor or just a predictive marker for brain diseases.
To investigate this relationship, the research team analyzed data from 356.173 participants in the British Biobank. They also used the McCance Brain Care Score (BCS), which takes into account factors such as blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol and lifestyle behavior and social-emotional aspects that influence risk factor profiles.
Their findings showed that individuals with shorter LTLs and lower BCSs, which reflect less optimum lifestyle choices, run a greater risk for these brain diseases. In particular, people with shorter LTLs, but healthier lifestyle scores (high BCs) did not show a significantly increased risk, suggesting that a high BCS can reduce the effects of short telomers.
A remarkable limitation of the study was that LTL was only measured on the first visit, and so the shortening of Telomeer could not be followed over time. Moreover, the study only included individuals of European descent, which limits its generalization. Nevertheless, reducing risk factors seems to reduce the negative effects of shorter telomers on brain health, which forms the stage for future studies to investigate whether lifestyle interventions can in fact delay the effects of aging on the brain.
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Journal Reference:
Kimball, tn, et Alt Alto. (2025). Association of Leucocyt Telomer length with stroke, dementia and late-life depression. Neurology. doi.org/10.1212/WNL.000000000000213794.