Parks and green spaces in the city also help slow down cellular ageing. According to a study published in Science Advances, people living near Green Islands are on average biologically younger than the others by two and a half years.
A link had already been established between exposure to green spaces and better cardiovascular health, as well as lower mortality rates. The researchers believed that physical activity and social interactions related to park attendance played a role in this finding. But it wasn’t clear whether the parks themselves slowed cellular aging.
The team responsible for the published study then looked at the chemical modifications of DNA, or methylation.
Led by Kyeezu Kim, researchers at the University of Northwestern in the United States followed suit more than 900 people from 4 American cities (Birmingham, Chicago, Minneapolis and Oakland) for 20 years, from 1986 to 2006. Using satellite imagery, the team measured the distance between participants’ addresses and parks, and studied blood samples taken at the 15th and 20th grades of the study to determine their biological age. The researchers then built scientific models to evaluate the results and took into account variables that could have influenced them such as education, income, smoking.
They found people whose houses were surrounded from 30% green within a radius of 5 kilometers, they were on average biologically 2.5 years younger than those whose homes were surrounded by 20 percent greenery. But the benefits were not the same for everyone: Blacks who lived near green spaces were only one year younger than their age, while whites were three years younger. “Other factors such as stress, the quality of surrounding green spaces and other social factors can influence the extent of the biological age benefits of green spaces,” said Kyeezu Kim. (HANDLE).
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