In recent years, younger people have shared photos online of their older relatives from back in the day and questioned, did past generations age faster?
Why did 19-year-olds at Woodstock in 1969, for example, look a decade older than most 19-year-olds today? Or why did couples heading to their senior prom in 1988 look old enough for their 10-year reunion?
Plenty of answers have surfaced — people smoked more in the past, didn’t use sunblock, and sometimes chose hairstyles or clothing that seemed more aged.
But these photo swaps can be misleading. Although people might think younger Americans are aging more slowly, scientists have found younger generations are biologically aging faster, which can mean a greater risk for diseases.
Understanding Biological vs. Chronological Age
Biological age is different from chronological age. Whereas chronological age is the number of years since our birth, biological age is based on the “accumulating damage, physiological changes, and loss of function” that our bodies endure over time.
Biological age can be accelerated by a number of known factors, such as smoking. Scientists have also identified how stress can increase biological age. Similarly, studies have found that pregnancy adds to a person’s biological age.
But getting pregnant or experiencing stress isn’t new or exclusive to the modern experience. So why are younger people experiencing accelerated aging now?
Read More: Aging is Still One of Biology's Greatest Mysteries
How Accelerated Aging Affects Health
In a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research, a team of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis hypothesized that the recent uptick in cancer diagnoses among people ages 55 and younger was related to an increased biological age.
The team looked at data from the U.K. Biobank, a massive database that began in 2006 and provides public health researchers with the biomedical information of 500,000 participants. For this study, the team focused on data from 148,724 people ages 37 to 54.
The researchers calculated each participant’s biological age by analyzing nine biomarkers found in blood, such as glucose, red cell distribution width, and white blood cell count. A person whose biological age was higher than their actual age was considered to have “accelerated aging.”
People born after 1965 were 17 percent more likely to have accelerated aging than those born between 1950 and 1954.
“We see a very clear generational effect of accelerated aging,” says Yin Cao, the principal investigator and an associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Read More: Anti-Aging Benefits Could Be Found in Blood
The Risks of Accelerated Aging and Cancer
When the team looked at the relationship between early-onset cancers and accelerated aging, they found that an older biological age increased the risk of early-onset lung cancer (meaning before age 55). Older biological age also increased the risk of early-onset gastrointestinal and uterine cancers.
Increased biological age was also associated with a 23 percent increased risk for late-onset uterine cancer and a 16 percent increased risk for late-onset gastrointestinal cancer.
The consequences of accelerated aging aren’t limited to cancer. Accelerated aging could lead to other health issues, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Read More: Longevity Researchers Want to Help You Live Longer
The Causes of Accelerated Aging in Younger Adults
Researchers are still trying to understand accelerated aging and why it is impacting the younger generations more than their predecessors.
“Our hypothesis is that it’s everything we are exposed to,” Cao says. “From our research, we saw risk factors from obesity to prolonged sitting to diet. There is a whole spectrum of risk factors that are affecting aging.”
Obesity has increased in the U.S., and some researchers argue the upswing began in the late 1970s and is due to the rise in ultra-processed foods, which are high in fat, calories, salt, and sugar but have little nutritional benefit.
The switch to ultra-processed foods was accompanied by the introduction of sweetened beverages. And it came at a time when many Americans moved away from manual labor and adapted to a more sedentary lifestyle.
Now, almost 74 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Almost one-quarter of teenagers are obese, and 20 percent of kids ages 6-11 are obese. This means people are living with obesity earlier in life than in past generations, and scientists think it could be associated with accelerated aging.
“We understand not all cancer patients are obese, but we want to understand how obesity throughout the life course affects cancer and aging,” Cao says.
Read More: Are Ultra-Processed Foods a Silent Killer?
Can we Reverse Accelerated Aging?
Cao’s team would like to continue their research in identifying biomarkers associated with accelerated aging. In particular, they’d like to apply their analysis to a participant group that includes greater ethnic and racial diversity than the U.K. Biobank.
They’d also like to see increased screenings among younger people for a variety of diseases associated with accelerated aging, not just cancer.
“There is room to improve using better technologies,” Cao says. “Looking at the bigger picture, the aging concept can be applied to younger people to include cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes.”
Read More: How to Become A Super Ager
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
McGill: Office for Science and Society. We Used to Look Older
Translational oncology. Chronological age or biological age: What drives the choice of adjuvant treatment in elderly breast cancer patients?
National Institute on Aging. Stress-induced increases in biological age are reversible
PNAS. Pregnancy is linked to faster epigenetic aging in young women
American Association for Cancer Research. Accelerated Aging May Increase the Risk of Early-onset Cancers in Younger Generations
UK Biobank. What is UK Biobank?
Nutrients. The Origins of the Obesity Epidemic in the USA–Lessons for Today
National Cancer for Health Statistics. Obesity and Overweight
Emilie Lucchesi has written for some of the country's largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and an MA from DePaul University. She also holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an emphasis on media framing, message construction and stigma communication. Emilie has authored three nonfiction books. Her third, "A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy," releases October 3, 2023 from Chicago Review Press and is co-authored with survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.
