Accelerated biological aging may increase risk of dementia, stroke
A hallmark of accelerated aging appears to be linked to an increased risk of dementia and stroke, a new study says.
Shorter telomere length in a person's white blood cells is associated with the two brain diseases, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
However, the link was not found in people with healthy lifestyle habits, researchers added.
"Our findings support the potential benefits of working to improve your risk factors such as maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol and getting enough sleep and exercise in reducing the risk of age-related brain disease even in people who are already showing signs of damaging biological aging," senior researcher Dr. Christopher Anderson, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release.
Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. Often compared to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces, telomeres serve a similar function -- preventing chromosomes from unravelling.
Telomeres shorten every time cells divide, making them useful in estimating a person's biological age, researchers said. Biological age reflects wear-and-tear from the stresses the body endures over time, and can differ greatly from the chronological age reflected by a person's birthday.
For this study, researchers analyzed genetic data for more than 356,000 people participating in UK Biobank, a large-scale health study in England, Scotland and Wales.
Researchers divided the participants into three groups based on whether telomeres in their white blood cells (leukocytes) were short, medium or long.
The team then compared telomere length to each person's lifestyle habits, as well as whether they'd developed dementia, stroke or depression.
During an average seven years of follow-up, nearly 26,000 people developed at least one of these three age-related brain diseases.
People with the shortest telomeres had 5.8 cases of the three brain diseases per 1,000 person-years, compared to 3.9 cases per 1,000 for those with the longest telomeres. Person-years reflect both the number of people in a study and the amount of time each person spends in a study.
Overall, people with short telomeres were 11% more likely to develop one of the brain diseases, after accounting for other risk factors, results show.
They specifically had an 8% increased risk of stroke, 19% increased risk of dementia, and 14% increased risk of late-life dementia, the study says.
However, people with short telomeres didn't have an increased risk if they made healthier lifestyle choices, like eating a good diet and exercising regularly, researchers found.
"These results suggest that healthy lifestyle behaviors could delay the aging of our cells and reduce the frequency of these diseases, especially in people who are greater risk," Anderson said.
Researchers noted that the study can't show a direct cause-and-effect link between telomere length and brain health, only an association between the two.
More information
The University of Utah has more about telomeres and biological aging.
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The most common adverse reactions (≥2% and at least 2% or greater than placebo) in the clinical trials for the preventive treatment of migraine were nasopharyngitis and hypersensitivity. In PROMISE-1 and PROMISE-2, 1.9% of patients treated with eptinezumab discontinued treatment due to adverse reactions. Vyepti® (eptinezumab-jjmr) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults in February 2020, and in January 2022, eptinezumab was granted marketing authorization by the European Commission (EC) for the prophylaxis of migraine in adults who have at least four migraine days per month. Today, eptinezumab is launched in more than 30 markets worldwide. Contacts Marie Petterson Jens Høyer Head of Media Relations, Corp. Communication Vice President, Head of Investor Relations MEEP@ JSHR@ +45 29 82 21 82 +45 30 83 45 01Palle Holm OlesenVice President, Investor RelationsPALO@ 30 83 24 26 About H. Lundbeck A/S Lundbeck is a biopharmaceutical company focusing exclusively on brain health. With more than 70 years of experience in neuroscience, we are committed to improving the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric diseases. Brain disorders affect a large part of the world's population, and the effects are felt throughout society. With the rapidly improving understanding of the biology of the brain, we hold ourselves accountable for advancing brain health by curiously exploring new opportunities for treatments. As a focused innovator, we strive for our research and development programs to tackle some of the most complex neurological challenges. We develop transformative medicines targeting people for whom there are few or no treatments available, expanding into neuro-specialty and neuro-rare from our strong legacy within psychiatry and neurology. We are committed to fighting stigma and we act to improve health equity. We strive to create long term value for our shareholders by making a positive contribution to patients, their families and society as a whole. Lundbeck has approximately 5,700 employees in more than 50 countries and our products are available in more than 80 countries. For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporate site and connect with us via LinkedIn. References: Yu S, ePresentation at EAN Congress 2025 H. Lundbeck A/S. Eptinezumab as Preventive Treatment of Migraine in Adults With Migraine (Sunrise). NCT04921384 Steiner TJ, Stovner LJ, Vos T. et al. J Headache Pain 2018; 19: 17. Leonardi M, Steiner TJ, Scher AT, Lipton RB. J Headache Pain. 2005; 6(6): 429– 440. Takeshima, T, et al. J Headache Pain 2019; 20, 111 Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of migraine in China (2022 edition). Chinese Journal of Pain Medicine 2022, 28 (12) Ashina M, et al. Cephalalgia. 2020 Mar;40(3):241-254. Lipton RB, et al. Neurology. 2020 Mar 31;94(13):e1365-e1377. CONTACT: H. Lundbeck A/SOttiliavej 9, 2500 Valby, Denmark+45 3630 1311info@ This information was brought to you by Cision The following files are available for download: EAN 2025 Press Release SUNRISE_Final View original content:
