Epigenetic factors regulate the genes you’re born with and can cause them to malfunction, from the impact of stress, adversity and pollution to diet, exercise and whether or not you drink and/or smoke. Illustration / Getty Images
Halfway through a challenge to lower her cellular age before a ‘significant birthday’, Joanna Wane looks at how a biological clock based on data from the world-famous Dunedin Study can show whether you’re speeding up or slowing down time
When Terrie Moffitt first came out from the United States to work on the Dunedin Study as a PhD graduate, the 1000-plus people who’ve been involved in the project since birth were in their early teens. Next year, when the latest round of exhaustive tests and interviews begins, they’ll be turning 52.
Back then, in the mid-80s, a few of them were already causing minor havoc. Shoplifting at Woolworths. Converting cars. Sniffing glue in the Octagon. Drugs, alcohol, risky sex. Moffitt’s research over the following years into why some kids grow out of juvenile delinquency (or “goofing around”, as she calls it) and others grow up to be career criminals is still widely cited by criminologists worldwide.
Moffitt is now associate director of the Dunedin Study and the clear link she identified between serious adult offending and childhood trauma bears revisiting amid the current political rhetoric over getting tough on youth crime. “Once they got out the other side [from their teens], we began to see those two groups diverge,” she tells Canvas, from her home in North Carolina. “Then you could look back and see that the ones who continued with crime into their 20s and 30s were the ones who had a lot of difficulties as very young children and grew up in very adverse homes.
“The major contribution [of the research] was pointing out to governments and the justice system that the vast majority of teenagers who break the law are not going to develop into hardcore criminals, so you should really help them not get a prison record. Give them a chance to grow out of it and reform themselves and they will naturally.”
What the Dunedin Study has shown over more than five decades now is that childhood exposure to poverty, trauma or victimisation leaves a lasting cellular imprint on the body, too. A tough start in life means you’re likely to age faster and die earlier, you increase the risk of developing chronic age-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Of course, the reverse is also true if you’ve been dealt a better hand and make the most of it, increasing your chances of an extended “healthspan”, defined as the number of quality years where you’re generally healthy, active and free from disease.
The impact, for better or worse, of both the environment you live in and the way you behave in it holds more power over your life than you might think. Epigenetic factors regulate the genes you’re born with and can cause them to malfunction, from the impact of stress, adversity and pollution to diet, exercise and whether or not you drink and/or smoke. This process of DNA methylation is the most significant influence on how well people age; some estimates put it as high as 70 to 80 per cent.
Moffitt, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina and a professor of social behaviour and development at King’s College, London, has remained closely involved with the Dunedin Study. Having followed the cohort from adolescence to midlife, she’ll be back in New Zealand next year for the latest phase of research, which will look at how well they’re preparing for old age.
Since the study members turned 26, data has been collected every five or six years on a series of key biomarkers widely used as an indicator of risk for disease, including cholesterol levels, blood pressure, gum recession, lung function, heart health and blood glucose (a potential red flag for pre-diabetes). Physical functions have been added: how long they can stand on one leg, how many times they can get up out of a chair in 30 seconds without using their hands. Brain scans, first done at age 45, will also be repeated next year.
The first epigenetic clock was invented a decade or so ago, using DNA methylation levels as a way to measure biological ageing. However, what makes the Dunedin Study so unique is its access to waves of progressive data on the same group of people. “We figured out, hey, I bet we could do the same thing [as the other epigenetic clocks] but using our biomarkers,” says Moffitt. “So that’s what we did. And we determined there were 173 of those methylation marks on top of genes that differentiated between those who were falling apart swiftly over the past 20 years, those who were holding steady and those who were staying young.”
The DunedinPACE algorithm, developed in collaboration with Duke University and Columbia University in New York, analyses those epigenetic marks via a pin-prick blood test. It’s now considered the most precise measure of how fast or slowly a person is ageing and the best predictor of future health outcomes. Unlike other epigenetic clocks that have been named after the scientists who invented them (Horvath, Hannum, Levine), DunedinPACE acknowledges the members of the study who’ve made it possible.
Likened to a speedometer, the test captures a specific moment in time and is a fluid measure that can show significant change in as little as eight weeks — reflecting a lifestyle change, perhaps, or the efficacy of a new medication. The fastest rate of ageing recorded so far is 1.4, which means that a person is ageing biologically by almost five extra months for every chronological year. The slowest rate of ageing that’s been measured is 0.6.
Moffitt hasn’t been surprised to find such a huge variation between fast and slow agers. “There are people [in the Dunedin Study] who are Olympic athletes and there are people who lead a really down-and-out life, in and out of prison, on and off addictive drugs. So I knew some were taking care of themselves and some were really not,” she says. “When study members came to the unit for assessment day, some would look so young while others really showed their age. Seeing that reflected in the [rate of ageing] numbers was quite amazing.”
The Dunedin cohort is predominantly Pākehā but comparative studies internationally have applied the DunedinPACE algorithm successfully across ethnicities and among the elderly. Moffitt is also co-director of a longitudinal study following twins born into 1100 British families in the mid-90s and has analysed blood samples from them that show the same trajectories. “It’s miraculous,” she says. “Born 20,000 miles and 20 years apart from the Dunedin Study and yet the DunedinPACE can still tell you something about them.”
Ironically, no equivalent trials have yet been done on Māori and Pasifika in New Zealand.
On my 59th birthday last November, I took a DNA Age test through Auckland-based biotechnology company SRW and sent it off to TruDiagnostics in the US for analysis. A whole swag of results came back, including my extrinsic epigenetic age (a shade under 44) and my DunedinPACE value at 0.71. A follow-up test, done six months later, shows my rate of ageing holding steady. The other big news was that the length of my telomeres had extended markedly.
Protective caps on the tips of chromosome DNA strands, telomeres have been likened to the aglets that protect shoelaces from fraying. Each time a cell divides, our telomeres shorten — and they shorten faster under oxidative stress. Once they reach a critical length, the cell dies. Research in adults has shown that telomere length is a predictor of lifespan and is causally linked to age-related diseases. According to the latest test results, mine have actually extended from 7.01 to 7.24 kilobases, longer than 97.94 per cent of people my age. On this measurement, my predicted biological age is 30.90.
Before I celebrate too hard, though, the full reveal of how my baseline data has shifted over a period of 12 months will come when I do a final test, on the day of my 60th birthday.
Over the past year, I’ve made some lifestyle tweaks in an attempt to shift the dial in the right direction — more alcohol-free days, a bit more exercise (hampered by a knee and shoulder injury), a daily dose of the blackcurrant-based “brain drink” Ārepa, a monthly visit to my osteopath Glyn Flutey, and a regime of SRW supplements, Cel1, Cel2 and Cel3, developed in collaboration with leading scientists around the world to support nine key cellular functions that decline with age.
One of the molecules in Cel1 is astragaloside, a compound found in a plant root that stimulates telomere repair. I’ll never know for sure but it seems likely the supplements have contributed to my positive result. An observational trial by the company in New Zealand showed a biological age reduction of two and a half years in people who took the full suite of Cel supplements for six months. An independent 12-month trial SRW hopes will verify those findings is now underway in the US.
Apart from a regular yoga class, and a hypnotherapy session to help break a lifetime habit of grinding my teeth, I haven’t specifically targeted stress reduction yet as a way to work on lowering my biological age. I did a transcendental meditation course once, in my early 30s, and I know my brain needs some time to slow down, but fitting in two 20-minute sessions a day just never seemed realistic to me.
Rachel Grunwell, a former investigative journalist-turned-wellness coach, teaches mindfulness meditation through her company Inspired Health to a whole range of clients, from people like me to corporate directors and high-performance athletes. The mother of three boys and a former Herald columnist, she interviewed 30 global experts for her recent book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness and found plenty of science to support the idea that lowering stress levels can help slow down ageing.
“We live on a planet that’s speeding up; everything is getting faster and faster,” she says. “I feel anxious just thinking about the idea of having to fit 20 minutes of meditation into my life! But even taking a minute can be incredibly powerful to slow down your breathing, be in the moment and reset a stressed nervous system.”
ONE-MINUTE MEDITATIONS
Chronic stress hammers the body physically, increasing your risk of everything from heart disease (particularly for women post-menopause) and high cholesterol to depression and cognitive problems. It can actually shrink your brain. Here are three “mindful minute” tools wellness coach Rachel Grunwell recommends to help de-stress your nervous system:
Box breathing meditation: Breathe in for four counts, pause for four counts, breathe out for four counts, pause for four counts. Repeat. This forces you to slow down your breathing — and focusing on the count is a good distraction.
20-second hack: Practise belly breathing by imagining you’re blowing up a balloon in your belly as you inhale. Then, as you breathe out, picture the balloon deflating. To check if you’re doing it right, place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach to see which one moves as you breathe.
Body scan meditation: You can do this sitting, lying down or with your legs up the wall. Taking deep belly breaths, scan yourself from the feet up, relaxing the different parts of your body on each exhalation. Especially good just before sleep.
10-second hack: Most of us carry tension in our shoulders. Grab a few seconds to take a deep breath, squeeze your shoulders up towards your ears as high as you can, hold for a beat or two, then release with a strong out-breath.
Senses meditation: When you’re having a hot drink, at home or at a cafe, tune into all your senses to be present and aware in the moment. Savour the feeling of the warm cup in your hands, the patterns you see in the crema, the sounds you can hear around you, the aromas you can smell, the taste in your mouth.
10-minute hack: If you’re in a virtual meeting where you need to listen but not participate, pop in your earbuds and go for a quick walk. “You can’t be entirely anxious when you’re walking,” says Grunwell. “Part of your brain disengages.” Or just be still and look for shapes in the clouds.
Let’s take a look at the science.