United States: One of the characteristics of rapid aging seems to be connected with a higher possibility of dementia and stroke, according to a new study.
Researchers found that shorter telomeres in the white blood cells of a person are linked with the two brain diseases, they reported in the journal Neurology on June 11.
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The association was, however, not observed among individuals who have healthy lifestyle practices, researchers noted.
According to a senior researcher, Dr. Christopher Anderson, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, “Our findings support the potential benefits of working to improve your risk factors such as maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol and getting enough sleep and exercise in reducing the risk of age-related brain disease even in people who are already showing signs of damaging biological aging,” US News reported.
Your brain runs the clock. Brain health drives biological age.Neurons aren’t straight wires, their axons form like pearls on a string. That structure is shaped by blood sugar, cholesterol, nutrition, and supplements (still wildly underrated).https://t.co/NmRgyBpcQt
— Yana Holets (@HoletsYana) June 12, 2025
Telomeres refer to protective caps on the end of chromosomes. Telomeres are often likened to the plastic bits at the end of shoelaces, which have a similar purpose – they stop chromosomes from unraveling.
Each time cells divide, their telomeres get shorter, and this feature can be used to determine the biological age of a person, researchers explained.
Biological age is an expression of wear and tear due to stresses that the body experiences throughout our lifetimes, and it can be very different than the chronological age that is shown by one’s birth date.
In this work, scientists used genetic information on over 356,000 individuals involved in the UK Biobank, a massive health study in England, Scotland, and Wales.
The scientists categorized the participants into three groups: short, medium, and long telomeres in their white blood cells (leukocytes).
The team next related the length of the telomeres to the lifestyle habits of the individuals and also to the incidence of dementia, stroke, or depression in them.
Over a median of seven years of follow-up, almost 26,000 individuals developed one or more of these three age-related brain diseases.