Bambi Eloriaga-Amago
If you had the option of knowing how much time you have left on this Earth, would you take it? Because apparently, now you can.
A group of scientists from King’s College London have developed a blood test that can determine a person’s true biological age, the possibility of developing dementia, and predict the time of a person’s demise.
Scientists explain that since some people age more rapidly than others, looking at how well a body is aging is more useful than knowing what they call your actual “years on the planet” age. The research group has devised a test that looks for a body’s “aging signature,” by analyzing 150 genetic markers that make up the “molecular signature for biological age.”
In an interview with the BBC, researchers stated that “Finding this biological signature means we’re now able to look at individuals and project their future health. We’ve been able to demonstrate the same signature in muscle, human brain, skin and blood, and blood is obviously the more convenient place to look at it.”
While the test can predict how long you’ll live, unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any clues on how to slow the aging process down. While having a sedentary lifestyle and eating unhealthy food does affect your health in general, the tests offer no indication on whether this affects the speed of aging. Pretty much, once you know when you’ll go, there really isn’t much you can do about it.
On the up-side, though. The new blood test offers potential benefits such as determining the biological age of organs offered for donation, and can even be used to screen a person’s potential for developing Alzheimer’s or dementia.
