People age in different ways, and biological age is a metric that scientists usePredict health riskscan. Medicine can increase their relevance by combining different markers. Particularly important of these are frailty and the epigenetic clock, which researchers at Karolinska Institutet describe in a recently published study.
New measurement method for biological age
Biological age, or senescence, can be different from chronological age. Measuring the former can indicate health risks or the risk of early death. Hopefully this offers new onesHealth care options. However, which markers are most relevant for measuring biological age? A new piece of the puzzle is a study by Sara Hägg, a researcher at Karolinska Institutet, that combines different markers.
“There are different ways of doing thatto measure biological age“, she says. “We need to know which markers are most important. Ultimately, this could potentially lead to new ways to prevent age-related diseases.”
DieMetric of agingScientists have recently investigated this in several studies. However, a special feature of this new study is that it explores a combination of several markers. The results of the study show that some markers are of particular importance in predicting the risk of early death. The degree of frailty, based on participants' self-reports of various symptoms, is part of this. The other is the epigenetic clock (DNA Methylation Age Estimator), which relates to how different genes are expressed.
Risk measurement with an effective tool
Other markers examined include telomere length, blood biomarker analysis, and cognitive and physical abilities. These markers were also associated with an increased risk of early death. The study was a population-based study involving 845 middle-aged and elderly participants over a 20-year period.
“There is a lot of interest inthis researchand biological age is an effective tool for predicting health risks,” says Hägg. “However, it is important to emphasize that our results are population-based and need to be validated at the individual level.”
