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Whether you’ve been using anti-wrinkle creams since your teens or are embracing each wrinkle as marks of a life well lived, the truth is that those of us fortunate enough to grow older do start to show it.
For some, grey hairs emerge in their twenties; others are blessed with youthful looks long into their forties or even fifties.
But things are changing, and certain aspects of our daily lives are making us look older, sooner.
And according to a study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, there is a certain demographic that seem to be affected above all others.
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In their project, the researchers investigated the concentrations of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the blood of 326 older women and men, who had donated samples as part of a study back in the years 1999 to 2000.
PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they had strong molecular bonds which are difficult to break down, meaning that they are accumulating in the world – as well as in our bodies.
And though some are gradually being banned, plenty are commonly used in our households and workplaces, including non-stick pans, food packaging, and cleaning products – even though they were invented back in the 1950s and 60s, when we knew no better.
This is a problem, since – among other toxic consequences – these chemicals seem to accelerate aging, with the study showing that higher PFAS blood concentration correlated with faster aging. The researchers suggested that this was likely to do with inflammation caused by the synthetic chemicals in the body.
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Alarmingly, PFAS were present in 95% of the blood samples, with accompanying data modelling suggesting that middle aged men should be most concerned by this, since higher concentrations seemed to correlate with faster epigenetic aging, as Dr Xiangwei Li explained in a statement:
“Here we show that specific forever chemicals, namely perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), appear to accelerate biological aging, with middle-aged men being the most vulnerable group. These findings suggest that some newer PFAS alternatives are not necessarily low-risk replacements and warrant serious attention regarding their environmental impact.”
The authors suggested that while men and women were neither more likely to have PFAS in their blood (and this didn’t vary by age either), men were likely more affected because of other factors exposed in accompanying participant surveys, with smoking more likely to compound the inflammatory and damaging effects of PFAS in the blood.
To reduce intake of these almost unavoidable chemicals, the researchers suggest avoiding eating out of plastic, and especially not microwaving food in plastic.
Otherwise, anything you can do to stay healthy will help, at least a little, mitigate the chemicals’ toxic effects.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.