By Julie E 
Photo Credit ( Freepik )
A new study shows that there are real differences in how fast people age, and the differences begin when they are young adults.
When people are 45 years old, they are more likely to feel, function, and look much older than they really were if their “biological aging” rate is faster. And that fast-paced move toward old age began when they were 20 years old.
The study’s writers said the results show we need to change how we think about getting older.
“Getting older happens all your life. Lead scientist Maxwell Elliott, a doctoral student at Duke University in Durham, N.C., said, “It doesn’t start all of a sudden at age 60.”
Time doesn’t always show how old someone is. Anyone who has known an 80-year-old who is still active and sharp as a tack or a 50-year-old who has health issues and disabilities knows this.
That’s why there’s the idea of biological aging, which is the rate at which body processes break down over time.
Elliott said that it’s not clear exactly when people start to age biologically at different rates.
Based on the new research, it looks like split happens pretty early in life.
Elliott and his colleagues used information from more than 1,000 New Zealanders who were tracked from birth in the 1970s to age 45 for the study. From the age of 26, body fat, heart fitness, lung capacity, blood signs of inflammation, and even cavities were used to track how quickly their bodies were aging.
In fact, biological aging was very different between people. The person who aged the slowest gained only 0.4 “biological years” for every chronological year; on the other hand, the person who aged the fastest gained nearly 2.5 biological years for every chronological year.
And by age 45, people who age biologically quickly were already showing some health signs that are usually linked to getting older. They walked more slowly, had weaker grips, and had more problems with balance, seeing, and hearing than their peers.
The researchers also found clear differences in how smart people’s minds were.
On average, people who age quickly did worse on memory tests, and they said they forgot more things in everyday life. MRI studies, on the other hand, showed that their brain tissue was usually thinner.
The results were made public online on March 15 in the journal Nature Aging.
Elliott, who is only 45 years old, said he was surprised by how different the aging was.
He also said that they were important enough for people to see them in everyday life. People who age quickly often said things like they felt older than they were and didn’t think they would live to be 75.
On top of that, independent raters who looked at the study participants’ faces said they looked older than their age.
Dr. Sofiya Milman is in charge of research on human life at the Institute for Aging Research at New York City’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
She agreed with Elliott that getting older doesn’t “magically start at age 60.”
“Aging is a continuum,” agreed Milman, who looked over the results. “And it probably starts even earlier than we’ve recognized.”
Milman said that genes play a part in figuring out how fast a person ages biologically. Some “longevity genes” can help protect people from some aspects of their surroundings that can make them sick.
Being old is not a given, though. Milman and Elliott both said that the atmosphere is important, particularly when it comes to things like poverty and long-term stress.
It is clear that not smoking, working out regularly, and eating well can lower the chance of many diseases. Milman said that people can do those things right now.
But she also said that experts want to use what they learn about aging to make medicines that can be given to the right people at the right time in the future.
Milman said that living a good life is not enough for some people.
No need to worry if you feel “old” in your 40s, said both researchers. It’s never too late to get a checkup, lower your blood pressure, start moving, and eat better.
They said, “Midlife is a great time to deal with these things.” “We can’t change the past, but there’s still a lot of time to intervene.”
He said that the main point is that “we need to stop putting so much emphasis on chronological age.”
Elliott said that stepping in earlier to stop cellular aging could save lives and make people’s lives better.