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Your biological age ‘changes’ if you have college-educated grandparents
A new study establishes the link between grandparents’ education and grandchildren’s biological aging as it breaks down the complexity of health.
Your genetics are as important as every other measure you take to stay in good health. If your grandparents went to college, you’re likely to age differently.
Parents’ socioeconomic advantages affect child’s health
As with the love and emotional support that parents show, their educational background also influences their children’s health profile.
Epigenetic-based “real” age is based on a person’s health profile and cells, and it isn’t the same as the staged age. Meanwhile, epigenetics clocks are crucial in estimating the longevity and risk of chronic diseases.
The finding of the study aims to highlight the influence of parental early-life socioeconomic advantages on their children’s overall well-being.
The analysis data obtained by mothers recruited twice for the study three decades apart found that they transmitted their social advantages and health to their children aged 2 to 17.
“Parental early life socioeconomic advantages may be associated with better health profile of their offspring through epigenetic mechanisms, especially through the maternal line,” said lead author�Agus Surachman.
The researchers were curious to understand the intergenerational impact of socioeconomic advantages, so they used the mother’s data to see if grandparents’ education affected their grandchildren’s aging.
People with college-educated grandparents age slower
The data collected from the female participants relevant to their childhood and adult health found another interesting but small link between the grandparents and their grandchildren.
Reportedly, grandchildren of college-educated grandparents showed slower biological aging than those whose grandparents did not go to college.
As well as emphasizing the impact of socioeconomic factors on the well-being of the child, the study sheds light on the complexity of health, which is not always in our control.
Agus’s research states: “In the United States, we tend to over-emphasize individual responsibility when it comes to health — and there’s a lot of blaming people for their poor health.”
“But the reality is that health is much more complex than that. Some factors are simply beyond our control, such as the genetics and the inherited epigenetics we are born with. I hope this helps us give more grace and compassion to ourselves and our communities,” he added.
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