It has happened to all of us after reconnecting with old friends, to realize that for some it seems that the years do not pass, as if their aging process was paralyzed or, at least, slowed down. Now, a new study carried out by a team of scientists at Duke University School of Medicine (USA) confirms that in fact there are people who age slower or faster , depending on a number of factors.
In order to discover what factors accelerate aging (and thus be able to prevent some of the diseases associated with age), the researchers analyzed the variation of 18 specific biomarkers in about 1,000 participants born in the same city between 1972 and 1973 and coming from a longitudinal study conducted in New Zealand.
“Most studies focus on older people, but we thought that if we wanted to prevent age-related diseases, we needed to start studying the aging process in young adults ,” explains Daniel Belsky, leader of the study.
By analyzing biological factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index, metabolic and immune systems, inflammation or telomere length at the ages of 26, 32 and 39, the scientists were able to calculate the actual age and the rate of individual aging of the volunteers.
The results revealed that, in general, the majority aged one biological year for each chronological year but, other people, increased three biological years each time they reached another year; that is, they aged three times faster than the others. This characteristic was associated with a poorer physical condition, a lower IQ and a higher risk of developing some type of dementia, according to subsequent physical, cognitive and balance tests. The luckiest ones had negative aging : after 12 years from the first tests of the study, some of them did not present biological changes in their organism.
“This is just the beginning. The next step will be to find out how this information can help us, for example, to identify the causes of accelerated aging in order to find ways to slow it down . This information can also help us evaluate therapies that seek to slow down the process of getting older ”, explains Belsky.
The work has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
