Today we will be looking at mental health and as to whether anxiety does in fact accelerate the ageing process.
This is another unique finding by the team at Muhdo Health and a bit of a world first, as we have combined DNA methylation with genotype COMT rs4680, which is associated with neurotransmitters such as
dopamine and serotonin.
Does anxiety cause you to age faster? And does having a certain genotype
accelerate this process further still?
Well unfortunately the answer is a resounding Yes.
But we didn’t just analyse their DNA methylation we also analysed numerous genotypes associated with neurotransmitters
such as serotonin.
Whilst many didn’t have much correlation to ageing, one did. The rs4680 genotype (COMT), is linked with dopamine, with AA homozygotes being linked with higher dopamine and bigger “highs
and lows”.
𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲
Those who reported suffering anxiety had an accelerated biological age on average of 4.38 years but only if they were AA in rs4680.
Those who reported suffering anxiety had an accelerated biological age on average of 1.7 years if they were the more common AG genotype
in rs4680 or GG in the rs4680.
𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲
Those who didn’t report anxiety with AA in rs4680
had a non-significant change in biological age (0.4).
Those who didn’t report anxiety with AG/GG in rs4680
had a deceleration in biological age of -2.2 years.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧?
It appears that anxiety causes an acceleration in biological ageing and as the genes
analysed for biological age affect cancer
, dementia
and inflammation
it can be said that anxiety
has a foundational physical effect on the body which may lead to serious physical pathology if left untreated.
Having certain genotypes may hasten the effect that anxiety
has on the physical self or/and having certain genotypes
protect
against the physical effects of anxiety.
The above information is just a snippet taken from the vast amount of genomic, epigenomic, and lifestyle data gathered during Muhdo Health’s research
over the last 8 years.
Notifications