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Key to Healthy Aging is a Healthy Mind… and Eating Cheese

    healthy aging, health benefits, cheese intake, cheese consumption, dairy, cheese

    Written by: Brittany T. Truong, Ph.D. | Issue # 123 | 2024

    • Using genetic data from 2.3 million people of European ancestry, researchers found that mental well-being has a direct effect on aging, regardless of socioeconomic status. 
    • Over 30 mediators, such as lifestyle choices, behaviors, diseases, and physical functions, were identified as mediating factors that contribute to mental health. 
    • Cheese consumption was identified as a factor linked to better mental health. 

    Relax. Just take it “cheesy.”

    According to a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour, eating cheese is beneficial for a person’s mental health, and good mental health is directly linked to healthy aging [1]. 

    This finding is consistent with previous work showing that the consumption of dairy products, such as yogurt and kefir, is associated with better mental well-being. These studies have shown that eating dairy decreases levels of depression and anxiety and may have neuroprotective effects against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease [2-5]. 

    Other studies have also established an association between mental well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, optimism, and feelings of purpose) and physical health and longevity [6, 7]. However, these studies were observational and can only assume an associative, rather than a cause-and-effect, relationship. 

    Here, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have now shown a direct relationship between the two using a technique called Mendelian randomization [1]. This is a genetics tool that uses genetic variants as a fixed variable to determine if there is a causal effect of an exposure (i.e., mental health) on an outcome (i.e., healthy aging). This type of analysis reduces the effect of confounding variables and reverse causation and allows researchers to make direct and causal inferences [8]. 

    The study used publicly accessible genetics data collected from approximately 2.3 million people of European ancestry. The data included information on mental health, including the individuals’ overall well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect, neuroticism, and depressive symptoms; socioeconomic status, such as income, education, and occupation; and aging phenotypes, such as the genetically independent phenotype of aging (aging-GIP), resilience, self-rated health, health span, parental lifespan, and longevity [1]. 

    The researchers analyzed relationships among these variables and found that regardless of socioeconomic status, better mental well-being leads to healthier aging. They argue that mental well-being has a “protective causal impact” and is a “viable avenue to healthy aging” [1].

    Next, the researchers ran additional statistical tests to identify mediating factors that could affect this relationship. They evaluated individuals’ lifestyle choices, behavior, physical function, and disease states and analyzed the effect on mental health. 

    They determined that smoking, sedentary lifestyles, medication use, cognitive performance, age at first menstruation, adiposity, muscle mass, and diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, ADHD, diabetes, and cancer) had a significant effect on mental well-being, and, thus, aging [1]. These findings are consistent with and further solidify the associations found in previous studies [7]. 

    Moreover, one of the more interesting factors identified in the analysis was dietary fruit and cheese intake. Cheese, in particular, mediated over 3.5% of the total effect of well-being on aging [1]. It is a nutrient-dense food with high levels of protein, calcium, fat, vitamins, and probiotics and provides numerous benefits for both physical and mental health [9]. 

    Although this study offers robust evidence on the relationship between mental health and aging, there are limitations. For example, Mendelian randomization assumes that a single gene variant influences an outcome (in this case, aging) solely through one marker (i.e., mental health); however, this is impossible to verify. In addition, it does not fully eliminate the possibility of confounding variables, particularly other genetic variants that are in linkage disequilibrium with the gene of interest. In other words, other genes may influence aging through additional pathways [10]. 

    The study is also limited in that it was conducted only on people of European ancestry. Further evidence is needed for other ethnic groups [1]. 

    Together, this study highlights the importance of mental well-being in how we age. In addition, it offers guidelines and strategies for how to improve mental health and promote healthier aging.  

    References

    1. Ye C-J, Liu D, Chen M-L, Kong L-J, Dou C, Wang Y-Y, et al. Mendelian randomization evidence for the causal effect of mental well-being on healthy aging. Nat Hum Behav. 2024;8(9):1798-809.
    2. Liu J, Chen M, Ma Y, Ma T, Gao D, Li Y, et al. Habitual dairy consumption is inversely associated with depressive and social anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents aged 7-17 years: Findings from a cross-sectional study in beijing, china. J Affect Disord. 2022 Dec 15;319:309-17.
    3. van de Wouw M, Walsh AM, Crispie F, van Leuven L, Lyte JM, Boehme M, et al. Distinct actions of the fermented beverage kefir on host behaviour, immunity and microbiome gut-brain modules in the mouse. Microbiome. 2020 2020/05/18;8(1):67.
    4. Perez-Cornago A, Sanchez-Villegas A, Bes-Rastrollo M, Gea A, Molero P, Lahortiga-Ramos F, et al. Intake of high-fat yogurt, but not of low-fat yogurt or prebiotics, is related to lower risk of depression in women of the sun cohort study. J Nutr. 2016 Sep;146(9):1731-9.
    5. Kumar MR, Azizi NF, Yeap SK, Abdullah JO, Khalid M, Omar AR, et al. Clinical and preclinical studies of fermented foods and their effects on alzheimer’s disease. Antioxidants (Basel). 2022 Apr 29;11(5).
    6. Steptoe A, Deaton A, Stone AA. Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing. Lancet. 2015 Feb 14;385(9968):640-8.
    7. Santamaria-Garcia H, Sainz-Ballesteros A, Hernandez H, Moguilner S, Maito M, Ochoa-Rosales C, et al. Factors associated with healthy aging in latin american populations. Nature Medicine. 2023 2023/09/01;29(9):2248-58.
    8. Smith GD, Ebrahim S. ‘Mendelian randomization’: Can genetic epidemiology contribute to understanding environmental determinants of disease? Int J Epidemiol. 2003 Feb;32(1):1-22.
    9. Zhang M, Dong X, Huang Z, Li X, Zhao Y, Wang Y, et al. Cheese consumption and multiple health outcomes: An umbrella review and updated meta-analysis of prospective studies. Adv Nutr. 2023 Sep;14(5):1170-86.
    10. Glynn RJ. Promises and limitations of mendelian randomization for evaluation of biomarkers. Clin Chem. 2010;56(3):388-90.