Lifestyle and environmental factors have a greater impact on our health than our genes do

A new study in Nature Medicine led by researchers from Oxford Population Health found that a range of environmental factors like lifestyle and living conditions have a greater impact on health and premature death than our genes do. Using data from almost half a million UK Biobank participants, the researchers assessed 164 environmental factors and genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases affecting aging, diseases and premature death.

The research showed that environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in risk of death compared to less than 2% explained by a genetic predisposition. Of the 25 independent environmental factors identified, smoking, socioeconomic status, physical activity and living conditions had the most impact on biological aging and mortality.

Early life exposure to certain conditions including body weight at 10 years old and maternal smoking around birth were shown to influence aging and the risk of premature death 30-80 years later. Environmental exposures had a greater effect on diseases of the lung, heart and liver whilst a genetic risk was most likely to determine the risk for dementia and breast cancer.