Researchers learned to measure the aging process in young adults to understand the phenomenon of why people grow “old” at such differing rates.
If you look around at a 20th high school reunion, you might notice that although your classmates were all born within months of each other, these 38-year-olds appear to be aging at different rates.
That’s actually right, according to researchers of a large long-term human health study in New Zealand that has sought evidences to the aging process in young adults.
Are you aging faster than your peers?
“We set out to measure aging in these relatively young people,” said first author Dan Belsky, an assistant professor of geriatrics in Duke University’s Center for Aging. “Most studies of aging look at seniors, but if we want to be able to prevent age-related disease, we’re going to have to start studying aging in young people.”
Most people think of the aging process as something that happens late in life, Belsky said, but signs of aging were already apparent in these tests over the 12 years of young adulthood: from 26 to 38.
Aging process — setting a “biological age”
According to the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a set of 18 biological measures may be combined to determine whether people are aging faster or slower than their peers.
The study, which was funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, has tracked more than a thousand people born in 1972-73 in the same town from birth to the present in order to set a “biological age” for each participant, which ranged from under 30 to nearly 60 in the 38-year-olds.
Calculating the aging trajectory by combining multiple measures
Researchers studied the volunteers at age 26, 32 and 38 and found that while most of them aged at a normal pace some of them aged surprisingly slower or faster.
Most participants clustered around an aging rate of one year per year, but others were found to be aging as fast as three years per chronological year. Many were aging at zero years per year, in effect remaining younger than their age.
Belsky said the progress of aging shows in human organs, the metabolic and immune systems, just as it does in eyes, joints and hair, but sooner. Researchers studied several aspects ranging from the measurement of cholesterol to cardiorespiratory fitness, and the condition of the tiny blood vessels at the back of the eyes, which are a proxy for the brain’s blood vessels.
The results of the study
The fastest-aging people tended to have worse balance and coordination and more difficulties in solving unfamiliar problems.
The biologically older individuals also reported being physically weaker than their peers – activities such as walking up stairs were found more challenging.
The aging process isn’t all-genetic
Interestingly studies of twins have found that only about 20 percent of aging can be attributed to genes, Belsky said. “There’s a great deal of environmental influence,” he said.
“That gives us some hope that medicine might be able to slow aging and give people more healthy active years,” said senior author Terrie Moffitt, the Nannerl O. Keohane professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke.
Understanding aging process of young adults may help anti-aging therapies
The study is significant because it looks at young adults, rather than at the second half of the average person’s life. Looking at young people’s aging process could open a new door for anti-aging therapies, researchers wrote.
“The science of healthspan extension may be focused on the wrong end of the lifespan; rather than only studying old humans, geroscience should also study the young.”
“As we get older, our risk grows for all kinds of different diseases,” Belsky said. “To prevent multiple diseases simultaneously, aging itself has to be the target. Otherwise, it’s a game of whack-a-mole.”
Could integrating studies on the aging process in young adults help us tracing aging trajectories?
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Growing Old Faster Than Your Peers? Aging Process Explained
