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Scientists Show Human Aging Rates Vary Widely

HughPickens.com writes: Ever notice at your high school reunions how some classmates look ten years older than everybody else — and some look ten years younger. Now BBC reports that a study of people born within a year of each other has uncovered a huge gulf in the speed at which human bodies bodies age. The report tracked traits such as weight, kidney function and gum health and found that some of the 38-year-olds in the study were aging so badly that their "biological age" was on the cusp of retirement. "They look rough, they look lacking in vitality," says Prof Terrie Moffitt. The study says some people had almost stopped aging during the period of the study, while others were gaining nearly three years of biological age for every twelve months that passed. "Any area of life where we currently use chronological age is faulty, if we knew more about biological age we could be more fair and egalitarian," says Moffitt. The researchers studied aging in 954 young humans, the Dunedin Study birth cohort, tracking multiple biomarkers across three time points spanning their third and fourth decades of life. They developed and validated two methods by which aging can be measured in young adults, one cross-sectional and one longitudinal. According to Moffit 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. "Eventually if we really want to slow the process of ageing to prevent the onset of disease we're going to have to intervene with young people."

7 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Colour me suprised by amalcolm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What you do/experience when you are young (smoking, drinking to much, too little sleep, bad excercise, bad housing ... etc. ) comes back to haunt you.

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    Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
    1. Re:Colour me suprised by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From the article:

      The team said the next step was to discover what was affecting the pace of ageing.

      So common wisdom might tell you that this is all caused by smoking, drinking, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, etc., but scientifically we don't know. We might study this and discover that the effect of some of those things in minor when compared to... I don't know what. Genetics? Childhood trauma? Stress? Sitting too much?

  2. try facebooking with friends when you're 40+ by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Getting back in touch with high-school classmates was a huge eye-opener for me. I'm 47 now, graduated in 1986. Many of my classmates look like they're in their 60s. I'm not exaggerating. It's just amazing to me how differently people age.

  3. Re:Methamphetamines age you prematurely. by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's stress; be it from the hard work in raising a family or a single person pushing 60+ hours a day with 5 hours of sleep or less. This kills the body, literally! Mental stress also shrinks the brain. I'm in my late 30s, and I can tell how much work related stress (you either have a job, or don't. There's no fucking balance in this world anymore to pay the mortgage/rent) has altered my health. I feel I've aged twice what I should have. I'm the only one in my family that has a few gray hairs early. 10 years go, people thought I was under 21.

    FUCK!

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  4. Unfair by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1, Insightful

    We must fair and egalitarian. There can be no losers, it's just not the modern PC way.
    I propose that if we cannot retard the aging of those who age more quickly, then we must work to accelerate the aging of those who appear younger, to level the playing field.
    We'll call it, "Redistribution of Health". (insert the obligatory "thanks Obama" here )
    :)

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  5. Re:Methamphetamines age you prematurely. by blazer1024 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's stress; be it from the hard work in raising a family or a single person pushing 60+ hours a day with 5 hours of sleep or less.

    That is a long freaking day.

  6. Re:Methamphetamines age you prematurely. by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Step one to not aging so fast: Don't be white trash.

    Seriously, every white trash friend I've ever had ended up looking 10-20 years older than their age by the time they're in their 30's. I've seen 20-something white trash who looking like they were middle-aged.

    White Trash is basically the Caucasian equivalent of nigger, right?

    Why is that post not getting down modded as fast as this one is...to be due to the utterance of the dreaded "N" word?

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