Research shows the environment plays a significantly larger role than genetics in determining premature death risks. Analyzing data from nearly 500,000 participants in the UK BioBank, the study identifies 85 environmental exposures impacting health and aging. Key findings emphasize the importance of factors like living conditions and lifestyle choices over genetic predispositions. Researchers advocate for increased focus on modifying environmental factors to enhance health outcomes. These insights underline the critical influence of the exposome on public health and the need for targeted interventions.
Dr Austin Argentieri, the first author of the research at Harvard and the Broad Institute, said: For a lot of these diseases, it's really the environment and exposome that's driving a lot of our risk for these outcomes, and investments in understanding and modifying our environments are likely going to have a profound impact on improving health for all of us.
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Argentieri and colleagues at Oxford Population Health and other institutions report how they analysed whether 164 environmental exposures, from salt intake to living with a partner, were associated with the risk of premature death.
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