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Higher genetic liability for GrimAge acceleration (a DNA methylation-based biomarker of biological aging) is causally associated with greater adiposity, current tobacco smoking, and lower educational attainment, while being inversely associated with parental longevity.

Your biological age, measured by DNA methylation patterns (GrimAge), is strongly linked to your weight, smoking status, and education level. Maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding smoking can significantly slow down this specific marker of biological aging, potentially extending healthspan and longevity.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Greater adiposity was associated with greater GrimAge acceleration: body mass index (BMI; BetaIVW = 0.76 years per standard deviation (SD) increase in BMI, P = 3.7 × 10−16); hip circumference (BetaIVW = 0.42 years per SD increase in hip circumference, P = 2.5 × 10−5); waist circumference (BetaIVW = 0.59 years per SD increase in waist circumference, P = 5.9 × 10-6)... Current tobacco smoking showed evidence for a causal effect on increased GrimAge... Past tobacco smoking showed evidence for an inverse causal effect... There was evidence from three of the four MR methods to support a link between higher educational attainment (both years of schooling and college/university degree) and lower GrimAge acceleration... father’s age at death: rg = − 0.34; P = 9.66 × 10−6)
Daniel L. McCartney et al. · Genome biology · 2021

Why this rating

Large sample size (n>40,000), multi-ethnic, use of robust Mendelian Randomization methods with consistent results across multiple statistical tests.

Source

Genome-wide association studies identify 137 genetic loci for DNA methylation biomarkers of aging

Daniel L. McCartney et al. · Genome biology · 2021

DOI 10.1186/s13059-021-02398-9

Meta-analysis · 37 studiesCited 300×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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