Every time the oldest people in the world celebrate their birthday, they are inevitably asked what the secret of their longevity is.
Some of them state that it is alcohol, some that they do not drink at all, some centenarians mention the importance of regular sleep, while others state that they sleep very little.
However, their longevity has a lot to do with good genes, and researchers now report that this complicated mix of lifestyle and genetics can be detected thanks to blood tests and advances in biomarker cataloging, Live Science reports.
"Many predictions and risk thresholds already exist related to predicting the onset of certain diseases. We took the next step by showing that the occurrence of certain patterns in different groups of biomarkers can indicate how a person will age and what risks there are for diseases and syndromes associated with a certain age," the lead author of the study told Science Daily.
The researchers measured the levels of 19 different biomarkers in the blood of more than 4.700 subjects between the ages of 30 and 110. They discovered the state of the subjects' immune system, as well as their metabolism and kidney function.
Examining the health status of survey participants, including the prevalence of diseases, scientists have identified 26 biomarkers that predict better physical and cognitive functioning of the body, higher risk of type 2 diabetes, etc. They point out that with a better understanding of various biomarkers, we could one day use a blood test to find out which diseases we are at risk for even before symptoms appear, writes Science 2.0.
In this way, we could produce effective drugs for various diseases much faster than we do today.
The research was published in the journal Aging Cell.
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