A simple brain scan in your 40s can reveal how long you may have to live, depending on how fast your body is aging.
Researchers from Duke University have discovered that MRI brain imaging during midlife can accurately determine the pace someone is aging biologically, helping doctors to predict the onset of several diseases including Alzheimer’s.
Biological aging refers to how quickly your body is aging compared to your actual age, which can affect your health and how long you might live.
In this study, the researchers tied faster aging to physical changes in the brain that are usually seen in elderly adults, especially those experiencing cognitive decline.
Scientists developed a tool called the DunedinPACN, which takes a single scan and calculates the patient’s ‘Pace of Aging’ by analyzing factors like surface area, gray matter volume, and the size of specific brain regions like the hippocampus.
Researchers trained their new tool on the brain scans of 860 people in the Dunedin Study, giving the device its name.
The results revealed that people determined to be aging at the fastest rates were 18 percent more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease within the next few years.
Moreover, these ‘fast agers’ were 40 percent more likely to die within that timeframe compared to those aging more slowly.
An MRI scan can now tell how fast you’re aging by revealing the physical changes in your brain
Those with more fluid and a smaller hippocampus had brains far older than the average 45-year-old
Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, said: ‘What’s really cool about this is that we’ve captured how fast people are aging using data collected in midlife and it’s helping us predict diagnosis of dementia among people who are much older.’
DunedinPACN revealed that people whose brain scans showed faster aging did worse on memory and thinking tests and had more shrinkage in the hippocampus, a key region tied to memory.
Smaller hippocampal volume was linked to faster cognitive decline, while larger ventricle volumes (fluid-filled spaces in the brain) was associated with worse health after middle age.
Faster agers were also more likely to develop health problems like frailty, heart attacks, lung disease, or strokes later in life.
‘The way we age as we get older is quite distinct from how many times we’ve traveled around the sun,’ Hariri said in a statement.
The study author added that several computer algorithms have been created to serve as so-called ‘aging clocks’ but these programs typically rely on data from people of all ages, taken at a single point in their lives.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Aging, focused on participants at age 45, creating more uniformity in the results.
A software called FreeSurfer was used to process the brain scans and measure 315 different brain features, including cortical thickness, how thick the outer layer of the brain (the cortex) is. Thinner areas of the cortex might suggest faster aging or wear and tear.
Fast agers were 18 percent more likely to develop chronic diseases, and 40 percent more likely to die sooner
‘The link between aging of the brain and body are pretty compelling,’ Hariri added.
The professor added that the connection between Pace of Aging and dementia was just as strong across different racial and economic backgrounds in the study.
Specifically, the Dunedin Study included participants who were low-income and non-White, and lived everywhere from Latin America to the UK.
‘It seems to be capturing something that is reflected in all brains,’ Hariri said.
The MRI scans also measured factors like gray-white matter signal intensity ratio, which compares how bright gray matter looks to white matter (the brain’s wiring that connects different areas).
A change in this ratio can show differences in brain tissue health, like how well the brain is holding up as you age.
Researchers noted that the size of a person’s hippocampus can also shrink with age or from diseases like Alzheimer’s.
So, a smaller hippocampus might signal faster aging or higher dementia risk, especially among people who are only in their 40s.
Meanwhile, Ventricles, the fluid-filled spaces in the brain that help cushion it, often get bigger when the brain tissue around them is shrinking – another sign of advanced aging or brain health issues.
Dementia was the main threat discovered in faster aging brains, as it increased the risk of cognitive decline
The Duke team then examined the brain scans of 624 people ranging in age from 52 to 89 who took part in the North American study of risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
They determined that the fastest agers were 60 percent more likely to develop dementia in their later years.
Fast agers also began to suffer from memory and thinking issues sooner than those who found to be aging slower.
These slow agers had brains that looked younger and healthier than expected, like having a 30-year-old’s brain in a 45-year-old body.
Their brains featured a thicker cortex or larger hippocampus and showed fewer signs of wear and tear.
They were also less likely to develop chronic diseases, meaning they typically had longer lifespans than the fast agers.
When the team saw the results, ‘our jaws just dropped to the floor,’ Hariri said.
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