Researcher in the spotlight after finding surprising connections between extreme exercise and ageing
What slows down or speeds up human ageing? The exact reasons for ageing are not yet known, but researchers are increasingly interested in factors that are related to slowing down ageing.
Anna Kankaanpää was very excited when she got an opportunity to clarify if genes and environmental factors would be connected to biological ageing.
For her dissertation, Kankaanpää got access to the massive of the Finnish Twin Cohort study. The data includes the health and lifestyle data of more than 30,000 Finnish twins from 1975 to the present day.
As an expert in statistical modelling, Kankaanpää was intrigued by the idea if it would be possible to sort out how genetic and environmental factors affect health and biological ageing.
Epigenetic clock determines a person’s biological age
Kankaanpää was also excited about a new tool, the epigenetic clock, which helped her to determine the biological – or epigenetic – age of twins based on the twin study data.
A person’s epigenetic age may be different than their calendar age, because the body does not always get old synchronously with chronological age. The estimation of a person’s age using epigenetic clocks is based on changes in DNA methylation status determined from a blood sample. When a person gets older, methyl groups start to gather in certain regions of the DNA strand. This addition of methyl groups typically “silences” the expression of a gene.
In her research, Kankaanpää used the GrimAge clock. It is a computational algorithm which acknowledges the methylation status in as many as 1,030 sites of the DNA strand.
“When estimated by the latest indicators, a faster biological rate of aging predicts the risk of death, the onset of many age-related diseases, and a decline in physical functioning,” says Kankaanpää.
An article award results in media attention
One of the findings Kankaanpää made based on the twin cohort data was especially surprising: those who exercised the most and the ones who exercised the least during the 15-year follow-up period seemed to age the fastest.
When the influence of lifestyle-related factors and illnesses were taken into account, the connection between physical activity and ageing applied only to those who exercised the most.
“In the group of individuals who exercise the most,” says Kankaanpää, “the daily average of the MET hours, which describes energy expenditure during exercise, was 7.5 MET hours per day. It can be achieved, for example, by jogging one hour three times a week.”
In addition, the likelihood that physical activity can lengthen a person’s lifetime did not look as clear in the study as it is generally understood to be.
“The data revealed that those who exercise the least die earlier,” Kankaanpää says. “However, it does not necessarily mean that you will die younger if you exercise less; instead, people in this group exercised less because of illnesses. Genetic factors also explain this phenomenon.”
Before completing her doctorate, Kankaanpää wrote an article about the results and won the research award of the Finnish Society of Sport Science in November 2023.
The surprising connection between extreme exercise and ageing and the result of the survival analysis caught the attention of researchers as well as the Finnish media. From there, the news then spread to international media.
“It was really exciting because I was just finalising my dissertation at the time,” she says. “I was frequently contacted by large media outlets for interviews and radio broadcasts.”
In this situation, the support of more experienced colleagues was important.
“We decided together to calm the situation down and move any interviews to after the completion of the dissertation. This way I got time to finish my work.”
At the Ģֱ, Kankaanpää is part of the multidisciplinary research group of Associate Professor Elina Sillanpää, which studies the genetic and lifestyle factors that predict biological ageing, health and functional capacity.
Dissertation demonstrates the strong influence of genotype on ageing
Anna Kankaanpää’s dissertation in the field of gerontology and public health was completed in spring 2024. consists of four partial studies.
In brief, what did the study clarify about biological ageing, genotype and ways of living?
“Ageing is strongly heritable,” says Kankaanpää. “Of the factors related to lifestyle, especially smoking and overweight are clearly connected to faster biological ageing. Differences between individuals in biological ageing are visible already in early adulthood.”
What about the connection between exercise and ageing: what kind of exercise does not result in premature ageing?
“Based on our research, the relationship between physical activity and biological ageing is not that clear. However, the study suggests that it is more favourable to follow a regular healthy lifestyle than to exercise long durations at a high intensity.”
Kankaanpää emphasises the multiple health benefits of physical activity: it helps to maintain physical functioning and prevent any increase in weight.
Research on interactions between genotype and lifestyle is just beginning
Kankaanpää is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Gerontology Research Center, in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the Ģֱ. She conducts research in the GenActive research project.
The project explores the relationships between genetic predisposition, physical activity and cardiovascular diseases.
Over the next two years, Kankaanpää will focus her attention on, for example, clarifying the connection between physical activity and overweight in different phases of life.
“My aim is to clarify causal relationships using genetic information and the twin study data,” Kankaanpää says. “We will clarify, for example, if a genetic susceptibility to childhood overweight may lead to a sedentary lifestyle.”
She finds it important that the ageing process is studied very extensively. Ageing is regulated by many issues related to genetic factors, environment and lifestyle. Therefore, surprising factors or interconnections may appear.
“The importance of a healthy lifestyle is often highlighted in studies on ageing and biological ageing,” says Kankaanpää. “However, investigating the interaction between genes and lifestyle-related factors has only just begun. It is important to clarify if it is possible to modify the impacts of genetic factors in biological ageing.”
