Researchers Investigated Environmental and Genetic Factors that Influence Our Longevity the Most
After analyzing over 150 factors, it seems our environment and lifestyles hold the most sway over our health, most of the time
Hiya!
Many people fear death, which is likely why our species is obsessed with youth and longevity. We have legends about fountains of youth, spend billions to heal the sick and save the dying, consume advertised supplements to extend our lifespans, buy skin creams, and have surgeries or inject chemicals to keep us looking young.
There are entire industries dedicated to selling us products that are supposed to help us live long, healthy lives and look good doing it. Meanwhile, many scientists study the more specific debate between what influences our health and longevity more, our environment or genetics? Nature or nurture?
The Study
Austin Argentieri, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, led an international team of experts in conducting an extensive, multi-step analysis, which they published in Nature Medicine on February 19, 2025.
The team began their research by utilizing data from 490,000 people registered in the UK Biobank, a vast collection of volunteers' detailed medical histories, including blood, urine, and saliva samples, along with gene sequencing, MRIs, family health, and more.
Step One
They used the Biobank data to investigate the potential influences of 164 environmental factors on a person’s genetics and their risks of developing any of the top 22 diseases that account for the most premature deaths, such as liver and heart diseases, various cancers, diabetes, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and more.
After conducting what’s known as proteomic profiling, which looks at thousands of proteins that help define a range of information about a person, the team narrowed their list to a specific 45,000 blood samples.
I’ve written about proteomic profiling before, as the technology is hugely popular in archeology. However, it can also be used to learn about living people, such as determining a person’s biological or “protein-predicted” age (the speed at which our body ages) compared to their chronological age (aka calendar year).
Argentieri explained to Jeffrey Kluger of Time Magazine that by utilizing protemic profiling,
“We can get an estimation of how quickly or slowly each participant is aging biologically compared to their chronological age. This is referred to as the ‘proteomic age gap,’ since it’s the gap in years between protein-predicted age and chronological age. [It] is a very strong predictor of mortality…[and] it is also associated strongly with many important aging traits like frailty and cognitive function.”
Pinpointing the gap between our calendar and biological ages is only part of the answer — what causes the gap is equally important.
Step Two
To determine the age gap, the scientists analyzed 164 environmental exposures contributing to disease and biological age, such as diet, employment status, income, marital status, and neighborhoods.
After excluding exposures related to people’s existing diseases, which could have different underlying factors, the team reduced their list from 164 to 85 environmental exposures associated with the risk of premature death.
Step Three
The team then shifted to analyzing the proteins in the 45,000 blood samples to identify which environmental exposures on their newly defined list were also linked with how quickly people were biologically aging.
This step whittled their list down from 85 to 25 environmental exposures, including whether a person was employed and their income level.
Somewhat surprisingly, this newly refined list also included exposures from childhood, such as whether a person was relatively short at age 10 or if their biological mother smoked around the time of their birth.
Meanwhile, the researchers excluded factors like alcohol intake and some diet-related ones since they were more challenging to investigate because of their inconsistencies. For instance, people’s alcohol intake can vary, as does what they eat.
The researchers also looked at more than just the factors that could increase a person’s risk of dying from a chronic disease. They also investigated which factors might decrease it.
The Results
The results of this extensive investigation were astonishing. Get ready for some numbers.