A Vegan Diet Could Help Reduce Your Biological Age

Switching to a vegan diet could be a way to turn back the clock — at least when it comes to your biological age, a new study suggests.

Biological age focuses on how well your body functions rather than your chronological age, and healthy lifestyle choices have long been thought of as a way to help people function like someone who has celebrated fewer birthdays. Slowing down our biological age can help us live longer and also give us more years of life free of chronic disease and disability, says study co-senior author Lucia Aronica, Ph.D., of Stanford University in California.

“Although medical advances over the last century have dramatically extended life expectancy, a significant portion of the population still spends about a third of their lives suffering from at least one age-related disease, such as heart disease or diabetes,” says Dr. Aronica. “Essentially, if we can slow down our biological aging, we could reduce the risk of developing age-related diseases and live longer, healthier lives, not just increase the number of years we live.”

One way to assess biological age is to focus on a biological process called DNA methylation, which involves molecular changes over time that turn different genes on and off. Some changes that occur with DNA methylation can cause the body to age more quickly, while others can slow down aging.

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