A blood test that detects how quickly organs age

Scientists have created a blood test that can predict how quickly the body’s internal organs are aging, and identify which organs may soon fail.

The results indicate that one in five healthy adults over the age of 50 may have at least one rapidly aging organ.

It also appears that one to two out of every 100 individuals may have multiple organs whose age estimates appear to be older than their birthday.

Although the idea of ​​testing may seem scary, it may be an opportunity to intervene and change course, according to the researchers.

“Knowing which organs age rapidly could help detect looming health problems,” the researchers told Nature.

Age gap of members

The study showed that having one or more organs that age rapidly is associated with an increased risk of developing some diseases and of death over the next 15 years.

For example, premature heart aging may increase the risk of heart failure, while a rapidly aging brain may be more susceptible to dementia.

The organs that were examined and studied include:

* the brain

* the heart

* Liver

* Lungs

* Intestine

*Kidney

* Arteries and blood vessels

*Immune tissue

* Muscles

* Pancreas.

The blood test looks for levels of thousands of proteins to give clues about which organs are aging at different rates.

The researchers trained a machine learning algorithm to make predictions using lots of blood test results and patient data.

In this regard, one of the researchers, Dr. Tony Weiss-Coray, explained, “When comparing the biological age of each of these organs, for each person, with a group of people who do not suffer from serious diseases, we found that 18.4 percent of people who are 50 Year or more, they have at least one organ that ages rapidly.

The researchers also found that these individuals are at increased risk of developing a disease in this particular organ over the next fifteen years.

However, more studies are needed to verify how well it predicts organ age and health.