It’s instinctive as we get older to question whether we’re ageing more quickly than our friends, but thanks to a ground-breaking study, there’s some solid proof as to why some people’s looks and health seem to deteriorate quicker than others.
Scientists at UCLA have identified the clearest evidence to date that five per cent of us are programmed to age faster and die younger than everyone else.
The study, published in the journal Aging, analysed DNA in blood samples from more than 13,000 people in the US and Europe. The ageing rate of each individual was measured using an ‘epigenetic clock’ created by the lead author on the study, which calculates the ageing of tissues and blood by looking at methylation (the process in which DNA breaks down over time).
They then took each person’s ‘biological age’ and contrasted it with the person’s real age to calculate their life expectancy – and were surprised to find that some of the healthier people seemed biologically destined to die younger than their peers.
Those in the five per cent that age quicker have a 50 per cent higher risk of an early death no matter what they smoke, eat or drink.
Co-author Dr Themistocles Assimes, an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, admitted that future research is needed to question whether the “epigenetic changes associated with chronological ageing directly cause death in older people”, or if they simple “enhance the development of certain diseases – or cripple one’s ability to resist the progression of the disease after it has taken root.”
Researchers also said that this would encourage them to find ways to prolong healthy living.
