Youngsters are now experiencing premature ageing, a new research reveals.
A team of researchers from U.S., U.K., Israel and New Zealand measured ageing process among young adults and found that even youngsters are ageing three times faster than normal youngsters.
The result of the study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which revealed that these individuals have biological ages that were different from their actual chronological age.
"Most studies of ageing look at seniors but if we want to be able to prevent age-related disease, we are going to have to start studying aging in young people," Dan Belsky, the study's principal researcher and an assistant professor of geriatrics at Duke University said.
The team worked with participants with ages that ranged from 26 to 38 and determined various factors that might affect their premature ageing.
The team looked into aspects such as the function of certain body organs (kidneys, liver, lungs), metabolism, immune systems, amount of good cholesterol, cardiorespiratory fitness, lung function and dental health and many more, to assess the actual biological age of each participant.
The researchers discovered that those who 38 years old but were biologically older manifested faster ageing process, while those with biological age of 40 age 1.2 years a year for 12 years. Likewise, those undergoing premature biological ageing were found enduring physical problems, like difficulty in climbing the stairs. Those ageing prematurely also looked older.
The team conducted the research to find out ways on how to slow down the ageing process instead of addressing conditions that usually come with ageing like heart disease or cancer.
"The ability to measure how quickly a young person is ageing may in the future enable us to engage in interventions that slow ageing or target specific diseases," Salomon Israel, who works at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and one of the researchers' said.
