A study in Clinical Epigenetics by Willems et al (2024), examined whether self-control is associated with buccal and saliva DNA-methylation (DNAm) measures of biological aging, and whether biological aging measured in buccal DNAm is associated with self-reported health status.
The study found that in older participants (57–72 years), lower self-control was associated with more advanced biological aging, but this was not the case in young adults, adolescents or children. These associations were present even after correcting for possible confounders such as socioeconomic contexts, BMI, or genetic correlates of low self-control. The results also indicated that both advanced biological age and a faster pace of aging as measured by buccal DNAm, were associated with more self-reported disease.
The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that self-control is associated with health via pathways that accelerate biological aging in midlife and older age.
We were excited to see that Isohelix SK-1S buccal swabs and Dri-Capsules were used to collect buccal and saliva samples for methylation profiling.
Click here to see other publications that used Isohelix products to investigate methylation status: https://isohelix.com/publications/
Read the open-access paper here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-024-01637-7