DNA allows death prediction
By 2050 the world will have almost 400 million people aged 80 years or older. This generation has had the highest number of middle aged adults with living parents. If you type 60 words per hour, and type eight hours a day it would take about 50 years to type up the human genome. Photo Credit: MCT Photo
Predicting your death. Sounds like part of a plot of a science fiction novel; however in the past few years scientists are able to use DNA methylation to predict your morality. You have two ages your estimated age and your chronological age.
Your estimated age is calculated by using health factors, risk factors, environmental surroundings, and life style choices. The degree of DNA methylation can change during your lifetime based on these factors.
Scientists think the difference between these two ages are age-related and diseases. No further research has been conducted to further investigate whether this DNA methylation is actually effective or not. Studies have shown however that if one has a DNA methylation age that is five years older than your actual age then the risk of death is 21% higher if it wasn’t that high.
Factors such as health, risk, environment, class, and life style can also raise the risk up to 16%. This study may show evidence of a biological clock but no conclusions have been drawn so far.
