Hair elements and healthy aging: a cross-sectional study in Hainan Island, China

Abstract

Healthy aging is considered as the core issue of aging population. Centenarians are a symbol of healthy aging. Concentration of elements in hair is an indicator of micronutrient status, which can affect the human health. In the present study, we investigated element concentrations in the scalp hair of 255 healthy centenarians from Hainan Island, China. The pattern of intergenerational transmission of elements and the effects of confounders such as sex, age, education level, smoking habits, alcohol intake, and frequency of hospitalization on hair element concentrations were assessed. For most elements, the load in hair increased significantly through intergenerational transmission (i.e., centenarians \ children \ grandchildren). Our results also demonstrated that female centenarians had significantly higher concentrations of Ca, Mg, Mn, Se, and Sr but lower levels of Cr and P. The Mn level was statistically significantly lower in the primary studies group. Alcohol intake was positively associated with Cd and Na levels, whereas smoking habits showed no significant effect on all the elements. Furthermore, the frequency of hospitalization was significantly positively associated with Cd, Cu, and Pb concentration. Moreover, our analysis suggested that adequate concentrations of Fe and Se might increase the life span of centenarians, whereas excessive concentrations of P and Pb were harmful to health and reduced life span. These results imply that element concentrations could be manipulated as a therapeutic modality in geriatric disease. They might also provide reference values for diseased subjects, allowing improved diagnoses and more effective therapies, which might support effective policies on health and aging.

Relationships among Environment, Climate, and Longevity in China

“…Se is an essential trace element to humans, and average Se contents in the body decrease with increasing age. Se in hair decreased significantly through intergenerational transmission (grandchildren > children > centenarians) [ 26 ], which means Se supplementation is important for healthy aging. In this paper, the correlation coefficient of Se with the longevity ratio is not as high as temperature and humidity.…”

“…This is because Se varied largely even at a small scale in soil, high Se content and low Se content usually coexist in a city, and the research scale of this paper is still too large to show relationship between Se and longevity. Some studies at the town scale and county scale within a city have shown that climate factors is almost the same, so Se will be more significant related to longevity [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…Of all the trace elements, Se appears most closely linked with longevity [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Food contributes a greater proportion of daily elemental intake than drinking water [ 26 ], and the Se content in food is positively correlates with the Se content in soil [ 27 ]. Because of this, we selected the Se content in soil to represent the relationship between longevity and trace elements.…”

Demographics, phenotypic health characteristics and genetic analysis of centenarians in China

“…This group’s follow-up study on 78 centenarians suggests that regulating in vivo contents of trace elements, especially Se, Co, and Zn, is a reasonable approach to intervene with geriatric diseases (Li et al 2012). Based on a sample of 255 centenarians and their 124 children and grandchildren, the group led by Wang and Li found that adequate concentrations of Fe and Se might increase the life span of centenarians, whereas excessive concentrations of P and Pb were harmful to health and may reduce life span (Hao et al 2016). …”

Human predisposition to cognitive impairment and its relation with environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements

“…Individuals with a family record of neurodegenerative conditions (ANT1) are mainly associated to a diagnosis of "normal" (MMS1-MCI, MOC2-normal, CDR0-normal, dia 0-normal) and low levels (category 1) of PTEs in urine. Although recent studies investigating relationships between PTEs levels in toenail clippings or human hair and socio-economic factors are available from the literature (Cabral Pinto et al 2013;Ndilila et al 2014;Cabral Pinto et al 2015;Hao et al 2015;Reis et al 2015), to the best of our knowledge this has not yet been attempted using urine samples as specimen to measure biomarkers of environmental exposure and its impact on the health status of the population.…”