Scientists have learned to accurately assess the biological age
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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On the Internet, you can find a lot of ways to determine the biological age - from standing on one leg to examining your own skin. Of course, such methods have nothing to do with science.
And finally, Chinese scientists developed the world's first method, which allows correctly to determine the real biological age of a person.
Unfortunately, all people are gradually aging - and this is inevitable. But scientists have long been concerned about the question: if we completely understand all the most complicated biological processes that occur in the body, then will it be possible to prevent old age and avoid it? The answer to this question tried to find Professor Aubrey de Gray, together with his team, which refers to aging, as a disease. And this disease can and should be able to stop.
Chinese specialists have created a specific type of urinalysis. It is assumed that this analysis will help determine the presence of the effect of anti-aging therapy, but not approximately, but precisely: for certain biochemical features.
Perhaps not everyone would like to receive true information about their biological age. However, in a full-scale sense, innovation can become a way of predicting cardinal age changes and even lethality.
Professor Jian-Ping Tzu, representing the National Center of Gerontology (Beijing), spoke about all the possibilities of the new method.
Even those people who adhere to an exceptionally healthy way of life, gradually, year after year, grow old - and the fault is the damage to cells and tissues. How quickly this process will proceed depends on a lot - including on genetics, and on the same way of life. It is possible to influence such processes, but not completely. According to experts who adhere to the "free radical theory", oxidative stress plays a major role in organ aging.
"Various waste products in the form of metabolic products can lead to oxidative damage of biological molecules - DNA and RNA. In the process of aging, the number of such injuries increases, while the level of special age markers also increases, "the professor explains.
Such age markers can be easily identified in the analysis of urine. The scientists conducted the test using the effective liquid chromatography technique. During the experiment, the urinary fluid was analyzed for more than 1200 people of different age categories - from two to 90 years. It was found that the level of the specific marker of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine is interrelated with age.
"Already at the age of 21, a person has an increase in the level of this marker - and this is due to the age process."
Summing up, the new development of scientists for estimating biological age is a most valuable adaptation, both for physicians and patients. And in the future it can bring tremendous benefit in the fight against aging.
Details are described by the professor-gerontologist on the pages of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (frontiersin.org).
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