What nations of the world are aging slower than others

The United States is a multinational country. Many migrants from various countries of the world live here, including the closest states of Latin America. Experts involved in analyzing the life expectancy and health status of citizens noted that representatives of the Spanish-speaking population of the country, mainly those from Mexico and neighboring states, have the highest life expectancy, despite significant indicators for some groups of diseases. This phenomenon is even called the "Latin American paradox." So, among this group, life expectancy is an average of 81 years. While ordinary Americans, this figure is 78 years old, and among African Americans - only 75 years old.

To understand the reasons for this situation, researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara conducted a large-scale study of various peoples. DNA of 6,000 people from 7 different ethnic groups was analyzed. Among them were residents of East Asia, two African groups, Hispanic Americans, white Americans, African Americans, as well as the indigenous people of Bolivia (Cyman Indians). It turned out that all these groups are significantly different from each other in a number of indicators. For example, blood cells of the Latin American population and residents of Bolivia, which have much in common with them in genetic terms, age more slowly than the blood of representatives of other groups. In particular, this was determined after identifying the biological age of the test groups.

It was possible to establish that aging of blood cells proceeds most slowly among the indigenous population of Bolivia. The biological age of their blood cells was 2 years younger than Hispanic cells and 4 years younger than white American blood. It turns out that Latinos living in the United States retained a piece of the unique gene pool, but lost something from mixing with the newcomer Spanish population.

Interesting facts regarding the incidence of various ethnic groups were also noted. The Indians of Bolivia were more susceptible to infectious diseases, but chronic diseases, the main evil of modern developed society, are extremely rare in them.

And the longevity of Hispanic Americans is primarily due to their heredity, since the incidence of many chronic diseases in them is quite high compared to other groups. For example, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are widespread among them. Most likely, representatives of the Hispanic population compensate for the negative impact of certain diseases on their health with the help of a unique feature of blood cells.

The findings are very interested in the researchers. In the future, scientists plan to continue work in this direction and explore additional ethnic groups.