I used to shy away from the topic of aging. Is there anything we can do about the inevitable?
But lately, I’ve been digging into a new wave of longevity research, and that’s human aging, an exciting time for all of us.
After all, we all age at different rates. Super old people may have great genes, but healthy aging depends on our habits and habits: what we eat, how we move, and who we spend our time with. Research shows that everything from
Now, the next frontier is to target the fundamental biology of aging and come up with new interventions to slow aging.
Many scientists are optimistic that we are on the verge of a breakthrough. It not only helps us live longer, but more importantly, it extends the years we live in good health.
That’s the goal of researchers in the Human Longevity Laboratory at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. They are recruiting study participants so they can test what interventions might slow the rate of aging. For this reason, I decided to devote myself fully to science.
Welcome to Aging: A Visit to the Longevity Laboratory
Upon arrival, the first step was a simple blood draw. The Potoksnack Longevity Institute is located on his light-filled 21st floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital overlooking Lake Michigan. It felt more like a spa than a doctor’s office. I never expected that scientists would be able to glean such a vast range of data and insights from a battery of tests.
Over the course of four hours, they performed more than 20 assessments. At first, it felt like an annual physical exam. They checked my blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol.
NPR’s Alison Aubrey measures body composition inside BodPod. Several other tests, conducted at the Longevity Institute led by Dr. Douglas Vaughan, are used to estimate biological age.
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NPR’s Alison Aubrey measures body composition inside BodPod. Several other tests, conducted at the Longevity Institute led by Dr. Douglas Vaughan, are used to estimate biological age.
Jane Greenhalgh/NPR
But then the test got even more interesting. Inside a small exam room, a medical assistant opened the hinges of the BodPod, a submarine-like capsule. The machine assessed my body composition and determined the ratio of fat mass, including muscle, to lean mass. Muscle strength is an important indicator of healthy aging and helps prevent frailty and falls.
Next, to test their olfactory function, they were asked to smell and identify a variety of unique odors, ranging from leather to chocolate. Loss of smell can be an early sign of disease or cognitive decline. They scanned my retina and took digital images of the inside of my eye. This also helps in detecting diseases. I then took a memory and cognitive function test called MOCA. Thankfully, everyone was healthy.
I then underwent numerous cardiovascular health tests. They measured endothelial function, which keeps blood flowing smoothly through the body. They looked at my heart rate fluctuations and my pulse wave velocity, which is an indicator of the stiffness of my arteries. Electrodes were attached to my chest for an electrocardiogram.
Halfway through, I got a little nervous and my mind started racing. If.
Of all the tests they ran, the most interesting is the GrimAge test. This test predicts that biological Year. This will determine whether your girlfriend’s DNA age is younger or older than her chronological age (chronological age). Doesn’t it make you think of the Grim Reaper? Well, that’s the idea. This test can estimate how quickly or slowly a person is aging.
To figure this out, researchers use a technique based on DNA methylation, a measure of DNA modification. Basically, as we age, compounds called methyl groups attach to parts of our DNA molecules and can turn genes on and off. The researchers showed that the higher the proportion of DNA that is methylated at a particular location, the faster a person’s biological age. Published research suggests this is a reliable way to predict lifespan and healthspan.
Can I change my biological age?
Who wouldn’t want to know that they’re aging faster than everyone else? But now comes the exciting part. Our biological age may be malleable. It is hoped that lifestyle changes can slow down the rate of aging. Anti-aging drugs and other interventions may be in the future.
Dr. Douglas Vaughan and Dr. John Wilkins of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Potokusnuk Longevity Research Institute;
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Dr. Douglas Vaughan and Dr. John Wilkins of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Potokusnuk Longevity Research Institute;
Alison Aubrey/NPR
For researchers, the GrimAge test is more than just a way to estimate DNA age. This is a tool to study whether interventions can change that.
“This is the great silver lining through all of this: the possibility that we can slow aging and extend people’s healthy lives,” says Dr. Douglas Vaughn, director of the Longevity Institute. Healthy life expectancy is the number of years we can live in good health. “It can change very quickly in experimental models, and it probably can change in humans,” he says.
For example, smoking has a very strong effect on methylation. “When you smoke, methylation occurs in tens of thousands of locations,” explains Steve Horvath, the researcher who developed the epigenetic clock used as part of the GrimAge test. Obese people also show higher methylation at certain sites. “Conversely, if you eat vegetables, stay lean, and exercise, you slow down methylation aging,” he explains.
Of course, we’ve known for a long time that smoking and eating irregularly are bad for you. But researchers can now test specific interventions to see if they can move the needle.
Vaughn’s deep interest in aging began when he identified a distinct genetic variation in an Amish community in Indiana. People with this mutation are protected from diabetes and have a healthier cardiovascular system than those without. In the lab, when Dr. Vaughn engineered mice to have only 50% of their levels of the protein associated with this mutation, their lifespans increased by almost four times. “This was a great moment,” he says.
He told current medical students that during their careers they would be prescribing interventions to slow biological aging in patients.
“We don’t know exactly what it will be. It could be a drug. It could be a lifestyle intervention. For all I know, it could be gene editing,” Vaughn said. To tell. “But there may be ways to slow this process and help people live longer, healthier lives.”
Democratizing aging
People who live in Chicago’s upscale neighborhoods where the Human Longevity Lab is located can expect to live much longer and healthier lives than those who live just a few miles away. Vaughn hopes to help close this gap.
“What worries me is that the life expectancy of the neighborhood we’re in right now is 92 years, while the life expectancy of poor people on Chicago’s south side is 55 years,” he says. Amazing difference over 30 years. (You can check your life expectancy based on your postal code here.)
Many factors contribute to this difference in life expectancy, including poverty, housing, stress, and crime, all of which can negatively impact healthy life expectancy.
Vaughn and his collaborators are enrolling people of a wide range of ages, ethnicities, regions, and socio-economic statuses to see what works to slow biological aging for everyone.
“There are a lot of people who are treated poorly when it comes to aging,” Vaughan says. Their goal is to find affordable, evidence-based interventions that benefit everyone, regardless of socio-economic status.
For example, if you are interested in stress research, Vaughan said that may be “part of the reason why life expectancy varies by region in Chicago.” To study this, he was able to measure people’s biological age at baseline, have them try a stress reduction program, and test them again to see if the results changed.
Vaughn is also interested in studying people with chronic HIV infection, who tend to age at an accelerated rate. Charitable donations from Chicago families with common interests contributed to the establishment of the Institute. Vaughn’s team is looking at a variety of interventions to test whether they can slow aging in this population.
“It could be weight training, it could be intermittent fasting, it could be diet, it could be drugs that are available today that may have anti-aging effects,” Dr. Vaughn said, using the diabetes drug metformin as an example. List and explain.
Longevity and healthspan research is attracting a lot of funding and attention from places like the Hevolution Foundation, which provides grants and early-stage investments, and Altos Labs, a biotech company founded by Dr. Rick Klausner . Rejuvenate cells.
Dozens of groups have announced their intention to participate in a $101 million global competition focused on treatments that support longevity and health, from new drugs and supplements to devices and repurposing old medicines for new uses. It has been stated.
“Teams need to be at the starting line, and we’re going to set up a framework to prove their treatment efficacy,” says XPRIZE’s Jamie Justice, who is also a researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Embracing aging science
Luckily, my GrimAge score came back younger than my actual age, but there were a few surprises as well. I discovered that my body composition was not optimal. As it turned out, I needed to gain more lean muscle mass. This is common as we age, especially in women.
Muscle mass decreases if you don’t use it. After the age of 30 to 35, muscle mass gradually begins to decrease. And after the age of 65, this loss accelerates. So it’s never too early to start building reserves. My goal this year is to build muscle through strength training and an optimal diet. And also to reduce stress.
My experience in longevity research motivated me to start a new project. How to grow as you get older. We will have more articles on healthy aging interventions coming soon.
share the secrets of aging
As part of this project, we hope you’ll share your tips for healthy aging with us. What habits and lifestyle hacks do you adopt to thrive as you get older? Share your thoughts using this form or email us at Thrive@npr.org.
Series editors Jane Greenhalgh and Carmel Ross
