Your heart is (probably) older than you!
Or how scientists are predicting disease risk using the age of your organs. Plus, a systematic investment plan to stay healthy, and on the horizon — a longevity drug for dogs.
Imagine a science-backed crystal ball that predicts your health. One that predicts the risk of developing conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease or even Alzheimer’s. Imagine doctors using it to predict disease. They could then make plans to prevent you from getting sick.
Guess what? That crystal ball is almost here. It is based on the age of your organs like the heart or liver or kidney or brain.
New research published in Nature shows that every organ in your body ages at a different pace.1
Yeah! So, your heart, liver, kidney or brain could have different ages. These could be much older than the age according to your birth certificate.
What’s more, scientists have discovered that this ageing of organs can be used to predict future disease risk and its progression.
Imagine, all of this — possibly — from just a few drops of blood!
How’d they do that? Well, I’ll get to that in a bit. But first, let’s take a look at what researchers found:
There is an ‘age gap’ between an organ’s chronological age (same as your age) and biological age.
20% of the participants had at least one organ that shows accelerated ageing.
1.7% of the participants were multi-organ agers (have many organs showing accelerated ageing).
Organ ageing could be used to predict disease onset: persons whose hearts were ageing faster than normal had a 250% increased heart failure risk as compared to those with normally ageing hearts. Extreme ageing in the kidneys shows a strong risk of developing hypertension and diabetes.
Accelerated organ ageing could add up to a 20-50% increased mortality risk.
What’s in it for you?
Remember that adage – prevention is better than cure?
Well, up until now, blood tests and other investigations check whether or not you have a disease. So, for instance, a person is treated for diabetes once their blood sugar levels cross a certain level.
This research shows that one could develop a blood test to predict future illness – or predict if a person could develop diabetes - and help doctors plan interventions or a treatment plan beforehand.
Can’t they already do that?
Sort of.
Doctors have already started identifying pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive patients and treating them, but not for other conditions like say, Alzheimers.
You also have super-expensive tests that tell you your biological age. These do not, however, tell you the biological age of just the brain or kidney or liver.
Which is why this new research holds promise.
So, how did researchers measure organ age?
They drew blood. They matched the proteins in the blood to specific proteins present in the organs.
Separately, they analysed ageing in 11 major organs.
They then used protein levels at different ages in the organs to train machine learning models to estimate the organ’s age.
The research premise: if the concentration of those proteins in the blood sample was more than the ‘normal’ concentration, it indicated the organ was ageing faster than it should be.
(In case you want to geek out, read the research paper here).
What is the connection to disease?
Researchers found that higher the biological age of an organ, higher was the risk of developing a specific disease. To find this they followed up with the study participants for over 15 years.
Here’s what they found for heart disease (in participants who had no clinically abnormal readings or disease when the study began):
Every 4.1 years of additional heart age = a 2.5 times increased risk of heart disease
Similarly, accelerated ageing in the kidneys indicated a high risk of the person developing metabolic diseases like diabetes or hypertension in future.
A rapidly ageing brain posed a high Alzheimer’s disease risk.
What does this mean?
This study holds out the hope that a simple blood test can be developed to predict illness before we get it. Presently, tests only confirm the presence of a disease.
Can you imagine the possibilities? The entire healthcare system would have to change its outlook from healing to prevention. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
5 Health SIPs to invest in
Like all things in life, a blood test to estimate organ age is still some time away. In the meanwhile, we can work with what we know and try to stay healthy. To start with, consider investing in these 5 health SIPs.
SIP 1: Walk. Every. Day.
Your Investment: Walk 30 mins, 5 days a week (150 mins/week)
Your ROI:
19% less Coronary Heart disease risk
59% lower Diabetes risk
29% lower Hypertension risk
25% lower Dementia risk
SIP 2: Quit Smoking
Your Investment: Throw away the pack!
Your ROI:
Add ~10 years to your life
Improve high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels
50% lower heart disease risk in 3-6 years
Cancer risks reduce in 5 years
Risk of stroke equals that of non-smokers
Save money on smokes!
SIP 3: Quit Alcohol
Your Investment: Dump the bottle!
Your ROI:
After 1 month of abstinence —
Insulin resistance decreases ~25%
Weight reduces ~2%
BP levels improve
Fatty liver disease risk reduces
Sleep improves
Long term —
Lowers Cancer risk
Save money!
SIP 4: Eat ‘em fruits & veggies
Your Investment: Eat 5 or more servings of fruits & veggies every day.
(1 serving = 80 grams)
Your ROI:
Lower blood pressure
Helps reduce blood sugar spikes
Reduced heart disease and stroke risk
Helps prevent some types of cancer
Lower risk of digestive problems
SIP 5: Keep your friends close
Your Investment: Call 1 friend every day, meet 1 friend every week.
Brownie points for hanging out with a group
Your ROI: Greater likelihood of living longer if you have a friend group as compared to those with poor social relationships
Before you go…
Here’s a little something that caught my eye this week:
The US FDA has given the first of three approvals needed for a longevity drug for dogs. Its goal – to increase the ‘healthful’ years of a dog’s life. The drug is an injection developed by a US biotech company. This can be administered to dogs over 7 years and 40 pounds at their veterinarian's office every three to six months.
But, don’t queue up at your vet’s office just yet. The company hopes to get a conditional approval for the shot in 2026.
If a shot for dogs is almost here, then one for humans shouldn’t be too far away, right? In fact, scientists have been studying ageing in dogs for over a decade now. Know why? Like humans, dogs are genetically diverse; live in diverse environments and develop similar age-related ailments. (Yes, dogs get Alzheimer’s too!) Unlike humans though, dogs age faster. This means scientists have to study them for a shorter time. Meaning man’s best friend could well be man’s best bet to slow down ageing. Chew on that for now.
In the meanwhile, if you have any suggestions, do write to me. I’ll see you next Monday.
Kavita.
Researchers studied 5,676 people across the human lifespan with no active diseases or clinically abnormal biomarkers. They analysed ageing in 11 major organs and found they could replicate results for all subjects across 5 independent groups. The study, however, only covered Americans and Caucasians and is yet to be replicated in other populations.