Test shows how old your body really is

Scientists say they have developed a way of testing how well, or badly, your body is ageing. They say it could help predict when a person will die, identify those at high-risk of dementia and could affect medicine, pensions and insurance.
The team at King's College London say looking at "biological age" is more useful than using a date of birth.  However, the work, published in Genome Biology, provides no clues as to how to slow the ageing process.  The test looks for an "ageing signature" in your body's cells by comparing the behaviour of 150 genes. It was developed by initially comparing 54,000 markers of gene activity in healthy, but largely sedentary, 25 and 65-year-olds and then whittling them down to a final 150. Prof Jamie Timmons, from King's College London, told the BBC News website: "There's a healthy ageing signature that's common to all our tissues, and it appears to be prognostic for a number of things including longevity and cognitive decline.  "It looks like from the age of 40 onwards you can use this to give guidance on how well an individual is ageing."
Image copyright Thinkstock  The team said "health" and "age" were two separate entities. And while some lifestyle decisions, like spending all day on the sofa, could be bad for your health they do not appear to affect the speed your body ages.  The team believe combining lifestyle factors and your biological age would give a more accurate picture of your health.  The research group at King's are aware that being able to check your biological age could have wide-ranging consequences from pensions to insurance premiums.
Prof Timmons told the BBC: "It raises a number questions, no doubt, and strenuous debate, but we are judged by our age already so this might be a smarter way of doing it. "You might decide not to pay so much into your pension and enjoy your life as it is now."
    BBC Health

 

Test shows how old your body really is

Scientists say they have developed a way of testing how well, or badly, your body is ageing. They say it could help predict when a person will die, identify those at high-risk of dementia and could affect medicine, pensions and insurance. The team at Kings College London say looking at biological age is more useful than using a date of birth. However, the work, published in Genome Biology, provides no clues as to how to slow the ageing process. The test looks for an ageing signature in your bodys cells by comparing the behaviour of 150 genes. It was developed by initially comparing 54,000 markers of gene activity in healthy, but largely sedentary, 25 and 65-year-olds and then whittling them down to a final 150. Prof Jamie Timmons, from Kings College London, told the BBC News website: Theres a healthy ageing signature thats common to all our tissues, and it appears to be prognostic for a number of things including longevity and cognitive decline. It looks like from the age of 40 onwards you can use this to give guidance on how well an individual is ageing. Image copyright Thinkstock The team said health and age were two separate entities. And while some lifestyle decisions, like spending all day on the sofa, could be bad for your health they do not appear to affect the speed your body ages. The team believe combining lifestyle factors and your biological age would give a more accurate picture of your health. The research group at Kings are aware that being able to check your biological age could have wide-ranging consequences from pensions to insurance premiums. Prof Timmons told the BBC: It raises a number questions, no doubt, and strenuous debate, but we are judged by our age already so this might be a smarter way of doing it. You might decide not to pay so much into your pension and enjoy your life as it is now. BBC Health