Stroke and dementia as well as depression in late life are more common in people with a biomarker of aging called short leukocytes telomeer length, according to a study published on June 11, 2025, online in Neurology®The Medical Journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The good news is that this relationship was not found in people with healthy lifestyle habits, such as healthy eating and low cholesterol and blood pressure.
The study does not prove that shorter telomeres cause these brain diseases; It only shows an association.
“Onze bevindingen ondersteunen de potentiële voordelen van werken om uw risicofactoren te verbeteren, zoals het handhaven van een gezond gewicht, het beperken van alcohol en het krijgen van voldoende slaap en lichaamsbeweging bij het verminderen van het risico op leeftijdsgebonden hersenziekte, zelfs bij mensen die al tekenen vertonen van schadelijke biologische veroudering,” zei studie auteur Christopher D. Anderson, MD, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC, MMSC.
Telomeren are protective caps at the end of chromosomes. They shorten every time cells shorten, making them important biomarkers of biological aging, which reflects the cumulative biological stress that a person has experienced. This study looked at the length of telomeren in white blood cells, called leukocytes.
For the study, researchers analyzed records of 356,173 people in the United Kingdom with an average age of 56 who had information about the length of their leukocytomen and about their risk factors such as diet and smoking. The participants were divided into three groups based on how long their telomers were: short, average or long.
The researchers also looked at a modified brain care score that evaluates risk factors related to stroke, dementia and depression in late life. On a 19-point scale, people with scores of 15 points or higher were considered to have good brain care and people with scores of 10 or lower were considered poor brain care.
Subsequently, researchers looked to see if participants developed one of the three age-related brain diseases: stroke, dementia and depression in late life for an average of seven years of follow-up. During that time, 25,964 people developed at least one age -related brain disorders.
Those with the shortest telomeres had 5.82 cases of brain diseases per 1,000 person, compared to 3.92 cases per 1,000 for people with the longest telomeres. Personal years represent both the number of people in the study and the amount of time that each person spends on the study.
When researchers adapt to other factors that can influence the risk of brain diseases, such as age, high blood pressure and smoking, they discovered that people with short telomeres were more likely to develop at least one of three brain diseases than people with long telomers.
But when researchers looked at the scores of brain care, they discovered that people with short telomers with high scores for brain care had no higher risk of developing brain diseases.
“These results suggest that healthy lifestyle behavior could slow down the aging of our cells and reduce the frequency of these diseases, especially in people who run a greater risk,” Anderson said.
A limitation of the research was that only people of European descent were admitted, so the results may not apply to other groups.
The study was supported by the American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation Centers of Excellence in Hemorrhagic Stroke Research, The National Institutes of Health and the Massachusetts General Hospital McCance Center for Brain Health.
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