In Health and Mortality, Do Human Genetic Variants Matter More With Age Or Less With Age?

To what degree do genetic variants drive the observed differences in human life expectancy? The old consensus guesstimate was that environment determines 75% of life expectancy, and genetic variants the other 25%. Further, it is the common wisdom that gene variants become more important to life expectancy in later life, either by providing greater resilience to specific forms of damage and dysfunction, or slowing the pace at which that damage and dysfunction accumulates. A great deal of medical research is based on the insight that gene variants are thought to provide on disease processes. Views on genetic variants are changing, however. Modern research that makes use of genetic databases that cover very large populations is trending in the direction of demonstrating that ever smaller contributions to life expectancy arise from genetic variants. As the importance of genetic variants diminishes, the importance of environmental factors and lifestyle choices becomes ever greater, and the value of research into genetic variations and aging becomes more questionable. Today's research materials discuss a recent study in which the authors provide data to suggest that gene variants become less important with age, that their contribution to emergent differences in cell metabolism is outweighed by other factors. This, like the genetic studies on large populations, is an attack on the value of research programs that focus on gene variants in the context of age-related dise...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs