Study reveals some age 3 times faster than others
Scientists have recently done (another) study on ageing, and the results are only good news for a few.
According to the study, some people aged three times faster than their chronological age, while for a few lucky others, ageing appeared to have hardly touched them.
The study focused on a group of people aged 38, and focused on 18 different factors in order to assess the biological age of test-subjects. These factors include kidney, liver, lung, heart, and immune system function, as well as metabolism and cholesterol. They also studied the back of the eye’s capillaries, which provide insight (no pun intended) into the blood vessels of a subject’s brain.
Amongst the 38-year-olds, biological ages were measured anywhere from a pristine 28 to a shocking 61 years.
According to Duke University Center for Ageing’s lead scientist, Dr Dan Belsky, “We set out to measure ageing in these relatively young people. Most studies of ageing look at seniors, but if we want to be able to prevent age-related disease, we’re going to have to start studying ageing in young people.”
The study is one that has been taking place for over a decade, as the 871 test subjects began participation at the age of 26. Their age was then assessed at 32, and again at 38. This periodic testing allowed doctors to measure the rate at which their test subjects aged individually.
Some were found to have aged normally, while others aged a startling 3 years per year, biologically. Others still, just as shockingly, did not appear to have aged at all.
For the less fortunate advanced agers, the effects were palpable: “Already, before midlife, individuals who were ageing more rapidly were less physically able, showed cognitive decline and brain ageing, self-reported worse health, and looked older.”
So while we can’t change the genes we were born with, these findings will definitely have us drinking more green smoothies and skipping fewer yoga classes.
Related links:
Does the mirror reflect how you feel? This photo series captures older people as they once were
Big changes coming to aged care funding
Video: dog dobs in her guilty best friend