{
  "id": 11051156,
  "title": "Living environment and lifestyle factors may accelerate biological aging in early adulthood",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/living-environment-and-lifestyle-factors-may-accelerate-biological",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-30T23:00:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-environment-lifestyle-factors-biological-aging.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have discovered that early biological aging may be accelerated during young adulthood. Lifestyle choices and environmental exposures during childhood and adolescence accounted for around 28% of the variation in biological age at age 22. Genetics, along with lifestyle and environmental factors, influence how quickly our bodies age, with faster aging potentially increasing the risk of age-related diseases earlier in life. A study using machine learning models examined the exposome, or the total effect of lifestyle and environmental exposures, on biological age in young adults. The exposome was assessed using 186 factors, including lifestyle elements, neighborhood greenness, air pollution, and sociodemographic aspects of participants' living areas. The researchers found that childhood and adolescent exposures explained about 28% of the variation in epigenetic age at age 22. Smoking, alcohol use, and youth unemployment were linked to quicker biological aging, while increased tree cover, vegetation index, and neighborhood age structure were associated with slower aging. These findings underscore how living environments and social conditions can impact biological age even in youth. Annika Opperbeck, a doctoral researcher, noted that many of the environmental exposures identified are structural and systemic, meaning individuals cannot change them independently, but society can. She emphasized the potential for early interventions to alter long-term health trajectories and reduce health disparities before they become entrenched. Surprisingly, larger green spaces were associated with faster biological aging, while airborne black carbon predicted slower aging. The researchers believe these unexpected results may indicate underlying rural-urban differences affecting aging, such as socioeconomic and lifestyle disparities. Future research could benefit from further advancements in machine learning to better understand the complex interactions between environmental and lifestyle exposures.",
  "summary": "Researchers from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, found that biological aging may accelerate as early as young adulthood. In addition to lifestyle factors, environmental exposures and living environments may contribute to faster biological aging.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}