A new study revealed that speaking more than one language can protect the health of the brain and body, as it slows down the biological processes of aging.
The study was conducted by researchers from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Its results were published in Nature Aging magazine on November 10, and the EurekAlert website wrote about it.
The study analyzed data from 86,149 participants from across Europe and showed that multilingual individuals experience slower biobehavioral aging compared to monolingual individuals.
Biobehavioral Age Gaps Index The difference between life expectancy and actual age indicates whether a person is showing a younger, healthier age or experiencing accelerated ageing.
The researchers quantified biobehavioral age gaps, which were estimated using AI models trained on thousands of health and behavioral profiles, using the innovative biobehavioral aging clock framework.
Gap between actual biological age
These models predict a person’s biological age through traits such as physical condition (high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep problems, sensory loss) and protective factors (education, cognition, functional ability, physical activity).
The study found that individuals from countries where people typically speak at least one additional language were 2.17 times less likely to experience accelerated aging, while monolingual speakers were twice as likely to show patterns of premature aging.
“The protective effect was cumulative – the more languages people spoke, the more protected they were from age-related decline,” said study co-author Dr. Lucia Amoroso from the Basque Center for Cognition, Brain and Language in Spain.
Dr Hernan Hernandez, co-author from the Latin American Brain Health Institute, highlighted the societal implications: “Our results show that multilingualism is an accessible and low-cost tool to promote healthy aging among people, complementing other modifiable factors such as creativity and education.”