Smoking has a massive negative impact on biological age

How does smoking affect our age??

Smoking accelerates the aging process. Experts have now found out that smokers in their twenties are actually biologically two decades older than they should be.

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen, the University of Oxford and Insilico Medicine found in their recent research that smoking accelerates the aging process. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language scientific journal "Scientific Reports".

Smoking is very unhealthy for the human body and causes many illnesses and premature deaths. (Image: Ralf-Geithe / fotolia.com)

What results could the scientists find??

The human body has two different ages, one chronological and one biological. The latter refers to how old a person appears. In their study, the experts analyzed the blood samples of tens of thousands of volunteers to determine how smoking can affect biological aging. It turned out that smokers often had twice their biological age. The majority of smokers under the age of 30 were actually between 31 and 40 years old or, in some cases, between 41 and 50 years old. The same trend was also observed for those aged 31-40 who predicted the age of nearly half of smokers aged 41 to 50 years. Older smokers did not show any such effects, possibly because the most affected had already died, say the researchers. The results were obtained from the blood profiles of 149,000 adults, of whom 33 percent (49,000) were smokers.

What was investigated?

The scientists combined an age prediction model using a technique known as deep learning and various biochemical markers of the participants for their study. These included, for example, blood sugar levels, iron stores and urea, a waste product excreted in the urine.

Biological age influences life expectancy

Compared to non-smokers, smokers, irrespective of gender, showed an accelerated rate of aging up to the age of 55, explains study author Dr. Polina Mamoshina from the University of Oxford. Previous research has already shown that biological age is more useful than using a date of birth to predict when a person will die.

How many people are smokers?

In the UK alone, there are an estimated 9.4 million smokers. Smoking is the biggest cause of death and illness in the UK, killing more than 120,000 people each year. Smoking is responsible for around a fifth of British deaths. In Germany, according to the epidemiological addiction survey in 2015, about 29 percent of adults were smokers, which corresponds to about 20 million people. (As)