Brett Ryder
A decade or so ago, I had my biological age measured. I was in my mid 40s at the time and was fit, slim and a disciplined eater. When the results came back, I was gratified to discover that I was, biologically, quite a bit younger than my age. Around six years, if I remember correctly.
I dread to think what it is now. In the intervening years, I have gained weight, stopped exercising as much, experienced multiple heatwaves and been through an extremely traumatic event, the suicide of my wife. I definitely feel all of my 55 years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m biologically older.
If so, I wouldn’t be alone. In the past few years, scientists have discovered a troubling trend in biological ageing. All over the world, people are getting older faster. Those born after 1965 are ageing, biologically, more rapidly than people born a decade earlier, and diseases that were once considered to be a scourge of the elderly are becoming ever-more common in younger people.
“Cancers are increasing in younger age populations, people under 40 years of age have more heart attacks, more diabetes,” says Paulina Correa-Burrows, a social epidemiologist at the University of Chile in Santiago. “Why? My answer is because we’re ageing faster.”
The reasons for this shift are starting to become clear. Some, unfortunately, are unavoidable. Many, thankfully, are modifiable. So, how can we endeavour to keep our biological and chronological ages in step?
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The best way to measure how rapidly somebody is ageing is by measuring their biological age and then doing so again a few months or even years later. The most accepted tool for this, says Antonello Lorenzini at the University of Bologna in Italy, is epigenetic clocks, tests that analyse modifications to DNA. These aren’t perfect – precise biological ages should be taken with a grain of salt – but they are enough for telling who, out of a group of participants, is ageing faster or slower.
