This is a pretty interesting NY Times article on a study done on identical twins and how differently they aged, depending on environmental factors. There is a slide show where you can see sets of twins and see how things like sun exposure and smoking caused them to "age" differently as far as wrinkles are concerned.
Here's the link: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/twin-studies-explain-wrinkles-of-aging/#more-855
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Kristin, that's a fascinating story!
We attribute so much about our own aging to our genes, believing that we will age similarly to how our parents and grandparents did. While we believe that lifestyle and environment have an effect, it's hard to get as clear a picture of that as in this study.
Identical twins, of course, are genetically programmed to age the same way. The researchers showed pictures of the twins to other people and asked them which twin looked older or younger. They were even able to pin down certain time frames for certain behaviors (for instance, smoking aged a twin 2.5 years).
Where would we be without twin research?
February 17, 2009 - 10:01amThis Comment