New Study Finds People Age Differently, Some Even Age Three Times Faster Than Others

Scientists from the United States conducted a new study, which revealed that people age at variable rates. The study examined a group, which was made up of 38-year-olds, and found out that the biological age of those individuals were between 28 and 61, The Independent reported.

The 871 individuals were also the subject of another large study called the Dunedin Study. The study was done by the researchers who collected data when they were 26, 32, and then 38 years of age.

Researchers looked into specific biomarkers for aging by using 18 measures that indicates how fast an individual is "getting old". Those measures included screening for cholesterol, heart health, lung, liver, kidney and immune function.

The analysis showed that majority of those 871 people had aged at a normal pace, meaning their numerical aged matched their biological age. However, the variation was astonishing when it came to the two polars of the subject group; some did not show any signs of aging while some others aged three times faster than the others.

The most unlucky group, the group that showed signs of aging three times faster, "were less physically able, showed cognitive decline and brain aging, self-reported worse health, and looked older," the authors of the study noted, The Independent reported.

The Independent said that the scientists also emphasized  the fact that only 20 per cent of the aging process is influenced by genes, citing a study of genetics conducted on identical twins. The remaining 80 per cent that is not determined by birth holds hope according to the co-author Duke University Professor Terrie Moffitt. "That gives us hope that medicine might be able to slow aging and give people more healthy and active years," he told The Independent.