Poor people age faster because of hormone imbalance

September 17, 2019  14:15

If a person in his life had four years living below the poverty line, then mentally and physically he will grow old earlier than those who were more fortunate with money.

Some of us are aging faster, some are slower, and this depends not only on genes, but also on environmental conditions - that is, on how a person lived. Well, how we live depends a lot on how much money we have. Employees of the University of Copenhagen - in their article in the European Journal of Ageing write that poverty accelerates aging.

The study involved 5500 middle-aged people who were tested for physical and mental condition. They checked how much they clench their fist, or how much they can sit down and get up from a chair in 30 seconds, or how high they can jump. Also, the participants in the study evaluated the inflammatory background. (The inflammatory reaction of the immune system may indicate not only a specific infection, but also that the body itself does not feel well - it is known that general inflammation increases with aging.)

Those who have had at least four years of life below the poverty line have performed worse tests: they could sit down and get up in half a minute, they had a weaker grip, while a sluggish inflammation was stronger. Moreover, these four years could not necessarily go in a row: a person could have several periods of poverty interspersed with periods of well-being, but all the same, total poverty made the body age faster, Science and Life reported.

The authors of the study took into account middle-aged people who were in need, already being adults. Possibly, poverty is easier to bear in adolescence, although it is difficult to say anything without additional research. We know that it is better not to test the children's brain with poverty: on the one hand, a low level of income and lack of education in parents have a bad effect on the brain development of their children, on the other hand, poor living conditions in childhood can contribute to depression.

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