Even the best anti-aging creams can’t compete with “forever chemicals.”
Smile lines and crow’s feet give away our age on the outside, but on the inside, certain synthetic compounds found in many household items may be wreaking havoc on our tissues, accelerating our biological age in ways we might not be able to see in the mirror.
And there’s one demographic — middle-aged men — that appears to be the most vulnerable.
A new study out of Shanghai is linking the presence of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as forever chemicals), to a host of warning signs for premature epigenetic aging that showed up most prominently in men between the ages of 50 and 64.
While there are thousands of PFAS chemicals that we know of, the study looked at the effects of just two — PFNA and PFOSA — and found “mortality-related aging markers in males and middle-aged individuals” as well as “lipid metabolism-related aging measures.”
The researchers, led by epidemiologist Xiangwei Li, found an association between the chemical exposure and our bodies’ inhibited ability to regulate inflammation, repair DNA and metabolize protein. They found evidence of greater “cellular senescence,” or the halting of cell division, too.
The report also cited findings of other recent studies examining how PFAS-related inflammation can lead to tissue injury and other disturbing imbalances like systemic metabolic decline, muscle dysfunction and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Li and his team looked at the publicly available blood samples of 326 older men and women who had enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 1999 through 2000.
While PFNA and PFOSA chemicals were present in almost 95% of the participants, Li and his team noted that high amounts of PFNA in males age 50 to 64 indicated faster epigenetic aging than in women of the same age who also had high PFNA levels — though it’s unclear why. (Li has said it might have to do with “lifestyle factors such as smoking,” though that hardly explains the gender divide.)
PFAS was first developed in the 1940s, as a water-, grease- and heat-resistant property that was introduced to consumers a decade later. Today, we have PFAS to thank for the durability of everyday items like raincoats, non-stick pans, upholstery and food packaging.
But, by design, PFAS doesn’t break down easily. In fact, it’s estimated that the carbon-fluorine found in all PFAS could take upwards of 1,000 years to break down naturally.
We knew from past research that exposure to certain PFAS chemicals is associated with a range of health complications, including cholesterol increases, lower vaccine efficacy, liver problems, pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia, smaller birth weight and higher risk of kidney and testicular cancers.
Scientists have been ringing alarm bells about the dangers of sustained exposure to PFAS since at least the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that the U.S. government began to phase out two of the most common (and most-studied) types of PFAS because of “health concerns.”
But many thousands of other forms of PFAS are still used, including PFNA and PFOSA, which were originally developed as less toxic alternatives. That doesn’t appear to be the outcome, however, especially for certain demographics.
“These findings suggest that some newer PFAS alternatives are not necessarily low-risk replacements and warrant serious attention regarding their environmental impact,” Li said.
Until there are stronger regulations restricting PFAS in manufacturing, the best way to reduce exposure is to limit consumption of packaged foods and avoid microwaving fast-food containers, he added.
The years leading up to old age are already rife with biological changes and new vulnerabilities, “characterized by the onset of multiple age-related conditions” like cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and early tissue degeneration, Li said.
But the infestation of forever chemicals into our drinking water supply, rainfall and bloodstreams likely only make us more sensitive to serious health complications during this stage of life.
