Accelerated biological aging is linked to an increased risk of stroke regardless of diet quality, researchers reported in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
The study found that individuals whose bodies age faster than their chronological years face a higher likelihood of experiencing a stroke, even if they maintain healthy eating habits.
Scientists analyzed health data from more than 422,000 individuals participating in the British UK Biobank and the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, alongside 312 patients from a hospital in China.
The UK Biobank is a major biomedical database tracking extended health outcomes in the United Kingdom, while the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey assesses the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States.
Participants in the UK Biobank cohort were monitored for an average of about 16 years. During this observation period, 11,345 participants suffered a stroke.
Measuring biological age
To evaluate how fast a person is aging physically, researchers calculated biological age using the PhenoAge metric.
Unlike chronological age, which simply measures the number of years since a person was born, biological age reflects the functional condition of cells, tissues, and internal organs.
The PhenoAge formula combines an individual's actual chronological age with nine distinct blood indicators that measure physiological health, organ function, and systemic vulnerability.
Each additional year that biological age exceeded chronological age was associated with roughly a 6 percent higher risk of stroke.
In the British dataset, this statistical pattern was specifically observed for ischemic stroke, which occurs due to impaired blood supply to the brain.
The link was not observed for hemorrhagic stroke, a condition caused by bleeding inside the brain when a blood vessel ruptures.
Impact of diet and sleep
Adopting a healthier diet was associated with slowing biological aging by approximately 0.7 years.
However, accounting for dietary quality only slightly weakened the connection between accelerated biological aging and stroke risk.
The study authors concluded that the rate of biological aging reflects physiological changes connected to vascular health and stroke risk that cannot be explained by diet quality alone.
A stroke is a critical medical emergency that occurs when blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted, depriving brain cells of oxygen and essential nutrients.
The findings build on previous medical research into lifestyle factors and brain vascular health.
Scientists previously established that maintaining healthy sleep patterns is also associated with a lower risk of experiencing a stroke.
