Research conducted at the Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä has shown that a genetic predisposition to high muscle strength predicts a longer lifespan and lower risk of developing common diseases. This is the most comprehensive international study to date of the relationship between inherited muscle strength and its prevalence. The study used genomic and health data from more than 340,000 Finns.
Muscle strength, especially hand grip strength, can indicate an individual’s physiological resources to protect against, and ability to cope with, age-related diseases and disorders. The decline in muscle strength associated with aging varies from person to person and is influenced not only by lifestyle but also by genetics.
The study found that people with a genetic predisposition to strong muscle strength had a slightly lower risk of common non-communicable diseases and early death. However, we did not predict that survival would be better after an acute health crisis compared to before the onset of the disease.
“A genetic predisposition to strong muscular strength is more important than an individual’s ability to recover or fully recover after severe adversity, and is more important to an individual’s inherent ability to resist and protect against the pathological changes that occur with age.” ,” says postdoctoral researcher Paivi Helanen. Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences.
This study utilized a unique research population
Muscle strength is a multifactorial trait that is influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors, but it is also influenced by many genetic variations, each of which has a very small effect on muscle strength. In this study, genetic predisposition to muscle strength was defined by constructing a polygenic score for muscle strength that summarizes the effects of hundreds of thousands of genetic variations into a single score. Polygenic scores make it possible to compare participants with an exceptionally high or low genetic predisposition to muscle strength and to investigate associations between inherited strength and other phenotypes, in this case common diseases. Masu.
“In this study, we were able to use both the genetic information and health outcomes of more than 340,000 Finnish men and women,” Helanen explains.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between genetic predisposition to muscle strength and various diseases on this scale.”
Further research is still needed on lifestyle effects
Information about genetic predispositions to muscle strength could be used alongside traditional risk assessment in identifying individuals at particularly high risk for common diseases and health adversities. However, further research is still needed on this topic.
“Based on these results, we do not know how lifestyle factors such as physical activity alter an individual’s inherent resistance to disease, and whether the impact on health varies between individuals due to genetics. “No,” Herranen points out.
This study utilized the internationally unique FinnGen dataset compiled through the Finnish Biobank collaboration. This dataset consisted of 342,443 Finnish individuals who provided biobank samples with their consent. Participants ranged in age from 40 to 108 years, and 53% of them were women. The diagnoses chosen in this study were based on the leading causes of death and the most important non-communicable diseases in Finland. Selected diagnoses include the most common cardiometabolic and pulmonary diseases, musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases, falls and fractures, mental health and cognitive impairment, cancer, and overall mortality and cardiovascular disease. Mortality rates were included.
This study is the second publication of Paivi Helanen’s doctoral thesis, which investigated how genetics and environmental factors influence biological aging, particularly age-related declines in muscle strength and functional capacity. becomes. This study is part of the GenActive project, which is funded by the Finnish Research Council, the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Paiwicki Foundation, and the Sakari Solberg Foundation. The project is led by Assistant Professor and Academy Research Fellow Elina Silampaa. The study was carried out in collaboration with the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC), the Finnish Institute of Molecular Medicine (FIMM) and her FinnGen research project.
