First at 44 and again at 60, people experience accelerated aging at two key points in their lives. It’s a new discovery from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University researchers that could help scientists better understand how humans age on a molecular level.
Published in Nature Aging, the researchers followed 108 California-based participants ages 25 to 75 for around 1.7 years, with some being tracked for nearly seven. The objective? To track changing molecules, particularly RNA, proteins and microbiomes.
“Take care of yourself more closely at specific time points during your life span,” study author Xiaotao Shen, assistant professor in microbiome medicine at Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.
“We are not becoming old gradually,” he later added.
Rather than aging linearly, a little by little through the years, the researchers discovered that a majority of the molecules they tracked experienced accelerated aging when the subjects were 44 or 60. Around the age of 40, people became less effective at metabolizing caffeine and alcohol — even less so at 60.
It was also recorded that muscle injuries and fat accumulation were more common at these ages. One of the significant reasons for these bodily changes is that proteins responsible for holding tissues in place, such as skin and muscle, degrade over time.
More research is needed to properly understand how these proteins and other important molecules change over time. But the study has penned a new chapter in the growing body of work dedicated to discovering these secrets.
“These comprehensive multi-omics data and the approach allow for a more nuanced understanding of the complexities involved in the aging process, which we think adds value to the existing body of research,” the researchers said. “However, further research is needed to validate and expand upon these findings, potentially incorporating larger cohorts to capture the full complexity of aging.”
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