A fast-aging brain could be the reason for intricate health problems.
Scientists at Duke, Harvard, and the University of Otago in New Zealand have created a tool that can tell how a person ages based solely on a snapshot of their brain.
The tool can tell whether someone in their prime is at risk of developing chronic diseases that could appear a few decades later.
Such information could help people take precautionary measures, such as eating a healthier diet or exercising.
The tool can also help older people by predicting whether they will develop dementia or a similar disease that affects their minds before they show any symptoms. This gives them a better chance of slowing down the disease.
Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, explained that before finding ways to help people live healthier and longer lives, scientists had to see how people’s aging could be monitored, reports Science Daily.
While a couple of algorithms already exist that monitor how a person ages, they aren’t very accurate. This is because they rely on data that focuses on people of different ages, instead of measuring one person as they age.
The challenge is to devise a measurement that could tell how fast a person ages without being related to external factors such as smoking.
The researchers relied on data gathered during the Dunedin, NZ, study, which involved more than a thousand participants who had been analyzed since birth.
These participants were checked every few years to see changes in their blood pressure, body mass index, glucose and cholesterol levels, lung and kidney function, and more.
The scientists then used the pattern of change these health markers showed over nearly 20 years to create a score that could tell how fast a person ages.
The tool, DunedinPACNI, was trained to assess a rate of aging score based on the information provided in a single brain MRI scan from 860 Dunedin study participants, aged 45 years.
Researchers also analyzed the brain scans in other datasets, including people from the UK, the US, Canada, and Latin America.
The research showed that people who age faster perform worse on cognitive tests and show a faster decrease in the brain region responsible for memory.
One analysis included the examination of brain scans for Alzheimer’s disease in more than 600 participants aged between 52 and 89. It was discovered that people who the tool marked as aging the fastest were 60% more likely to develop dementia in the upcoming years. These participants also started experiencing memory and cognitive issues sooner than those who aged more slowly.
The researchers also found that those who were aging faster also suffered from other health problems, such as lung diseases, strokes, and heart attacks.
People who were aging fastest were 18% more likely to have a chronic disease in the next several years in comparison with those who aged more slowly.
The data also revealed that such people were 40% more likely to die during that time compared with average aging people.
The research also revealed how linked our brains and bodies actually are.
It also revealed that while humans now live longer, they also suffer more from chronic age-related diseases.
While drugs against Alzheimer's do exist, they often only cure the symptoms because the disease has already progressed. This is why a tool that can detect aging is crucial to catch signs of the disease early and help prevent it from escalating further.
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