biological age Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Postpartum Sleep Deprivation Associated with Accelerated Biological Aging

AHA Publisher — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 07:00:36 +0000

University of California – Los Angeles via News-Medical – When new mothers complain that all those sleepless nights caring for their newborns are taking years off their life, they just might be right, UCLA research published this summer in the journal Sleep Health suggests. Scientists studied 33 mothers during their pregnancies and the first year of their babies’ lives, analyzing the women’s DNA from blood samples to determine their “biological age,” which can differ from chronological age. They found that a year after giving birth, the biological age of mothers who slept less than seven hours a night at the six-month mark was three to seven years older than those who logged seven hours or more. Mothers who slept less than seven hours also had shorter telomeres in their white blood cells. These small pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes act as protective caps, like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces. Shortened telomeres have been linked to a higher risk of cancers, cardiovascular and other diseases, and earlier death. “The early months of postpartum sleep deprivation could have a lasting effect on physical health. We know from a large body of research that sleeping less than seven hours a night is detrimental to health and increases the risk of age-related diseases.” Judith Carroll, study’s first author, UCLA’s George F. Solomon Professor of Psychobiology While participants’ nightly sleep ranged from five to nine hours, more than half were getting less than seven hours, both six months and one year after giving birth, the researchers report. “We found that with every hour of additional sleep, the mother’s biological age was younger,” said Carroll, a member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA’s Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “I, and many other sleep scientists, consider sleep health to be just as vital to overall health as diet and exercise.” Carroll urged new mothers take advantage of opportunities to get a little extra sleep, like taking naps during the day when their baby is asleep, accepting offers of assistance from family and friends, and, when possible, asking their partner to help with the baby during the night or early morning. “Taking care of your sleep needs will help you and your baby in the long run,” she said. Co-author Christine Dunkel Schetter, a distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, said the study results “and other findings on maternal postpartum mental health provide impetus for better supporting mothers of young infants so that they can get sufficient sleep -; possibly through parental leave so that both parents can bear some of the burden of care, and through programs for families and fathers.” Dunkel Schetter added that while accelerated biological aging linked to sleep loss may increase women’s health risks, it doesn’t automatically cause harm to their bodies. “We don’t want the message to be that mothers are permanently damaged by infant care and loss of sleep,” she emphasized. “We don’t know if these effects are long lasting.” ‘This Aisle Is Closed’: Using Epigenetics to Determine Biological Age The study used the latest scientific methods of analyzing changes in DNA to assess biological aging -; also known as epigenetic aging, Dunkel Schetter said. DNA provides the code for making proteins, which carry out many functions in the cells of our body, and epigenetics focuses on whether regions of this code are “open” or “closed.” “You can think of DNA as a grocery store,” Carroll said, “with lots of basic ingredients to build a meal. If there is a spill in one aisle, it may be closed, and you can’t get an item from that aisle, which might prevent you from making a recipe. When access to DNA code is ‘closed,’ then those genes that code for specific proteins cannot be expressed and are therefore turned off.” Because specific sites within DNA are turned on or off with aging, the process acts as a sort of clock, Carroll said, allowing scientists to estimate individuals’ biological age. The greater an individual’s biological, or epigenetic, age, the greater their risk of disease and earlier death. The study’s cohort -; which included women who ranged in age from 23 to 45 six months after giving birth -; is not a large representative sample of women, the authors said, and more studies are needed to better understand the long-term impact of sleep loss on new mothers, what other factors might contribute to sleep loss and whether the biological aging effects are permanent or reversible. Carroll and Dunkel Schetter reported last year that a mother’s stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child’s biological aging, which is a form of “intergenerational transfer of health risk,” Dunkel Schetter said. Co-authors of the new study included researchers from the department of psychology, the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, and the department of human genetics and biostatistics at UCLA and from the psychology department at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. To read the original article click here.

The post Postpartum Sleep Deprivation Associated with Accelerated Biological Aging appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

New, Highly Precise ‘Clock’ Can Measure Biological Age

AHA Publisher — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 08:00:05 +0000

University of Cologne via EurekAlert – Using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, researchers at the University of Cologne have developed an ‘aging clock’ that reads the biological age of an organism directly from its gene expression, the transcriptome. Bioinformatician David Meyer and geneticist Professor Dr Björn Schumacher, director of the Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and Disease at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research and the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), describe their so-called BiT age (binarized transcriptomic aging clock) in the article ‘BiT age: A transcriptome based aging clock near the theoretical limit of accuracy’ in Aging Cell. We are all familiar with chronological age – our age since birth. But biological age can differ from it, at times significantly. Everyone ages differently. Scientists can use aging clocks to determine an organism’s biological age. Until now, aging clocks such as Horvath’s epigenetic clock have been based on the pattern of methylations, small chemical groups that attach to DNA and change with age. Using the transcriptome, the new clock takes into consideration the set of genes that are read from DNA (messenger RNA) to make proteins for the cell. Until now, the transcriptome was considered too complex to indicate age. Sometimes genes transcribe a particularly large amount of mRNA, sometimes less. Hence, so far it has not been possible to develop precise aging clocks based on gene activity. Meyer and Schumacher’s new approach uses a mathematical trick to eliminate the differences in gene activity. The binarized transcriptome aging clock divides genes into two groups – ‘on’ or ‘off’ – thus minimizing high variation. This makes aging predictable from the transcriptome. ‘Surprisingly, this simple procedure allows very accurate prediction of biological age, close to the theoretical limit of accuracy. Most importantly, this aging clock also works at high ages, which were previously difficult to measure because the variation in gene activity is particularly high then,’ said Meyer. BiT age is based exclusively on approximately 1,000 different transcriptomes of C. elegans, for which the lifespan is precisely known. Model organisms such as the nematode provide a controllable view of the aging process, allowing biomarkers to be discovered and the effects of external influences such as UV radiation or nutrition on longevity to be studied. The new aging clock allows researchers to accurately predict the pro- and anti-aging effects of gene variants and various external factors in the nematode at a young age. The aging clock also showed that genes of the immune response as well as signalling in neurons are significant for the aging process. ‘BiT age can also be applied to predict human age quickly and with very high accuracy. Measuring biological age is important to determine the influence of environment, diet or therapies on the aging process and the development of age-related diseases. This clock could therefore find wide application in aging research. Since BiT age is based purely on gene activity, it can basically be applied to any organism,’ Schumacher explained. To read the original article click here.

The post New, Highly Precise ‘Clock’ Can Measure Biological Age appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

New Research Suggests Aging Can Be Reversed

AHA Publisher — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 08:00:16 +0000

Dr. Don Colbert – How’s your epigenetic clock ticking? If you’re not sure or haven’t heard of it, it’s the measurement and prediction of your biological age. For the first time, researchers believe they’ve found and tested a hormone combination that can turn its wheels back. Yes, they’re attempting to turn back time in the human body. If this sounds too good to be true, stay tuned. While more research needs to take place, this is an incredibly promising and interesting study, with a lot of potential in anti-aging medicine. What’s more, many lifestyle factors contribute to changes in your epigenetic clock. Make sure yours is ticking correctly for your healthiest aging. Here’s what you need to know about this study and your lifestyle. THE WHEELS AND GEARS OF YOUR EPIGENETIC CLOCK What makes up your epigenetic clock? Put simply, it’s an assessment or time prediction of your epigenome. Your epigenome is the compilation of chemical modifications your body makes to your DNA in your cells as you live. The modifications “tag” the DNA with a methyl group, for example, and scientists are able to see these tags to predict your biological age (1). Some of the modifications to the DNA genome are caused by environmental exposures or illness. Some are inherited. Once the DNA is tagged, the methyl groups that are attached turn genes on or off. Another type of chemical modification is called histone modification. It affects DNA indirectly by wrapping the DNA in cells around histone proteins and attaching chemical tags. Based on the tags, parts of the DNA are used or ignored (2). Scientists can compare your biological age, based on these tags, to your actual chronological age. They can surmise how well your body functions for how old you are. Some people function better, or younger. Others, older. In addition, your epigenetic clock can tell scientists more about your mortality risk, and the lifestyle factors contributing to your biological age. You may be accelerating it. You may be able to slow down. THE THYMUS GLAND’S AGE AND FUNCTION While studying the epigenome, scientists have identified several key DNA sites in the body that best represent DNA-methyl tags and biological age. This current study centered around the thymus gland. The thymus gland is crucial for effective immune function. It lies between the lungs and breastbone in the chest. After white blood cells are produced in the bone marrow, they are sent to the thymus to mature and specialize. Unfortunately, the thymus begins to deteriorate after puberty and becomes clogged with fat as we age. These researchers were determining if they could turn the hands of time back in the thymus itself. THE STUDY: TURNING BACK TIME IN THE THYMUS In the scientific community, it’s been long known that growth hormones stimulate regeneration in the thymus. But there’s a downside to growth hormones. They can also promote altered blood sugars. So, in addition to growth hormone, the researchers used 2 anti-diabetes medications, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and metformin. For one entire year, 9 healthy participants took a combination of growth hormone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and metformin each day. Their biological age was assessed at the beginning, throughout the study, the end, and 6 months thereafter. THE RESULTS: FOREVER YOUNG? After completion of the year-long trial, the participants reduced their biological ages by 2.5 years. Their immune systems specifically showed signs of rejuvenation. Maybe the most exciting point is that the rejuvenation of the thymus gained momentum towards the end of the study. From 0-9 months of the study, the rate of age reversal relative to chronological age was assessed at -1.6 years per year. The rate at the end of the study, from 9-12 months, was -6.5 years per year. What’s more, the effects persisted for 6 months after the discontinuation of the medications. This means that not only did normal aging of the thymus halt, but it actually reversed (3). LOOKING AHEAD AND TURNING BACK TIME Most scientists are surprised. Based on previous studies, they thought intervention could likely stop aging at DNA-methyl sites, but not reverse it. According to the researchers, this was the first report of an increase, based on an epigenetic age estimator, in predicted human lifespan by an accessible intervention (4). Now, other researchers are testing the individual medications used alongside growth hormone, to see if they are contributing separately to anti-aging mechanisms. They are optimistic that rejuvenating the thymus could offer help to those with struggling immune systems, including the elderly, those with illnesses that attack immune function, and more. Looking forward, this opens the door to other DNA-methylation sites and biological age reversal of the epigenome. NATURAL AGE-DEFYING LIFESTYLE HABITS In addition to hormones and medications, many lifestyle factors affect epigenome patterns. You likely already know the ones: Diet Weight Physical activity Tobacco smoking Alcohol consumption Environmental pollutants Psychological Stress Working Night Shifts This means there’s good news, and there’s bad news. First, the bad: What you do matters for your aging and health, even at the cellular DNA level. The good news: You can make a difference in your aging and health by choosing healthy lifestyle habits. Start with these: 10 Science-Backed Free Anti-Aging Habits in 24 Hours Also, consider starting Dr. Colbert’s 21 Day Detox and Fast. It’s free and can jump-start your new healthy lifestyle by first detoxing your body from toxins and harmful substances that accumulate in cells. BOTTOM LINE While this study was the first of its kind, there will likely be many more to come. Rejuvenation of the epigenome could potentially change the way people age, fight disease and continue youthful lifestyles into advanced years. Time will tell. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Colbert click here.

The post New Research Suggests Aging Can Be Reversed appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.