- In recent years, there has been increasing discussion about how biological age can be delayed or reversed.
- Scientists are currently investigating various drugs as a way to slow biological aging.
- A new study says the shingles vaccine may help slow biological aging in older people.
When people think of aging, they usually think of their chronological age and the number of birthdays they’ve had.
In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of talk about ways to slow down or improve people’s exercise speed. biological agethis is the health and functional age of the body at the molecular level.
“People are living longer and longer, but many spend those extra years managing chronic diseases, disabilities, and physical and physical ailments. Cognitive dysfunction,” Eileen M. Crimminssaid Dr. AARP, professor of gerontology at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Today’s medical news.
“Slowing biological aging can help not only extend lifespan, but also ‘healthspan’, or the years lived with improved physical and cognitive function. The only way to improve the health of older people and extend healthspan is if people “We have shown that the key is to intervene early, before disease or disability develops. Identifying what slows biological aging is important for understanding how we can improve health outcomes in older people,” Crimmins explained.
“The shingles vaccine is relatively new and is recommended for older adults.” kim jun kian associate professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and lead author of the study, explained: MNT.
“Previous research has shown that there is a low risk of: dementia and other age-related symptoms. we believe that [the] “It’s a fundamental biological process involved in aging,” Kim said.
The researchers used seven different aspects of biological aging in the body to derive a composite biological aging score for the participants.
At the conclusion of the study, the scientists found that participants who received the shingles vaccine experienced slower overall biological aging on average compared to those who did not receive the vaccine.
“This not only suggests that shingles vaccination may be associated with prevention and reduced severity of infection, but also that it may be more advantageous for multiple biological systems, particularly inflammation and overall biological aging,” Crimmins said.
“Although this is an observational study and cannot prove causation, it adds to the evidence that vaccines that affect immunity also affect biological processes that underlie many aspects of aging biology,” she added.
Furthermore, participants who received the shingles vaccine had much lower inflammation measures, slower epigenetic and transcriptomic aging, and lower composite biological aging scores compared to those who were not vaccinated.
“Inflammation and molecular markers of aging are associated with many age-related health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. Finding consistent associations across these domains suggests that shingles vaccination may be associated with delayed aging at a biological level, not just differences in the immune system.”
Professor Crimmins said one possible explanation for how the shingles vaccine can help protect people from aging and health problems that accelerate biological aging is that by preventing the reactivation of the shingles virus, it may reduce chronic low-grade inflammation, which is a key factor in aging.
“Vaccination may also influence immune regulation and gene expression in ways that support healthy aging,” she added.
“Beyond its role in preventing shingles, our study suggests that shingles vaccination is associated with delayed biological aging in older adults,” Kim said. “These findings highlight the interaction between vaccines and changes in the immune system due to biological aging, which may lead to further positive outcomes.”
“Future studies should follow people over longer periods of time to better understand causal relationships, investigate whether similar patterns are seen with new shingles vaccines, and investigate whether changes in biological aging lead to meaningful health outcomes, such as reduced mortality or cognitive decline,” Kim added.
MNT I had a chance to talk with david cutlerM.D., a board-certified family medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, spoke about the study.
Cutler, who was not involved in the study, commented that initial reaction to the conclusion that it slows the aging process was cautious.
“There are several important limitations that temper the interpretation of the association between shingles vaccination and delayed biological aging,” Cutler told us.
“First, this study is observational, so it cannot establish cause and effect; despite statistical adjustments, healthier people who choose to be vaccinated may already age slower biologically (healthy user bias). “There is potential for residual confounding, as unmeasured factors such as health-seeking behavior, frailty trajectory, access to care, or prior immune health may influence both vaccination status and aging biomarkers,” he added.
“Third, vaccination status is based on self-reporting, which can lead to misclassification,” Cutler continued. “Fourth, most participants tested older live attenuated shingles vaccines (zostavax), limiting generalizability to new recombinant vaccines (Shingrix). Fifth, measurements of biological aging are assessed at limited time points, making it difficult to fully characterize long-term trajectories. ”
“Finally, this cohort consists of older adults in the United States, so the results may not generalize to younger populations or other countries. Taken together, these limitations mean that the results, while suggestive, are hypothesis-generating rather than conclusive evidence that shingles vaccination slows biological aging,” he added.
Dr. Cutler proposed several next research steps that would be particularly helpful in advancing efforts to slow biological aging, especially in older adults, including randomized quasi-experimental studies, longitudinal tracking of aging trajectories, comparative studies between interventions, and studies targeting more diverse populations by age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and health status.
“Together, these steps will help move the field from intriguing associations to actionable, evidence-based strategies to slow biological aging and improve health in old age,” he told us.
