Accelerated biological aging linked to higher dementia risk in women

• Biological age has to do with how old someone’s cells are and might not be the same as the number of years since someone’s birth, also known as chronological age.
• One study sought to explore how accelerated biological aging related to certain health outcomes in the long term.
• The study found that having accelerated biological aging appears to increase the risk for cardiovascular disease and death among men and women.
• By contrast, accelerated biological aging in midlife was linked to a higher dementia risk in women only.

Aging is unavoidable, but some people age at a faster rate than others. The term biological age refers to the age of someone’s cells, rather than how long it has been since someone was born, which is their chronological age.

A recent study including over 3,000 participants identified long-term risk from accelerated biological aging.

For all participants, accelerated biological age was linked to greater risk for death and cardiovascular disease. For women, there was also a higher risk for dementia.

The study was published in Scientific Reports.