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Your biological age could reveal your risk of developing dementia.
New research published by the Alzheimer’s Association explored the link between a person’s biological age, determined through a blood test, and all-cause dementia risk.
The U.K.-based researchers analyzed UK Biobank data from more than 223,000 participants, measuring blood metabolites — small molecules linked to fat processing, inflammation and energy use.
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According to health records, nearly 4,000 of the participants developed dementia during follow-up.
The researchers calculated a measure called MileAge delta (metabolite-predicted age minus actual age). A higher MileAge delta means an individual’s blood profile looks older than expected, and a lower MileAge delta means their profile looks younger.
Those with a higher MileAge delta and a higher genetic risk for dementia had a 10-times higher all-cause dementia risk. (iStock)
Researchers calculated “MileAge delta” (metabolite-predicted age minus actual age) — the difference between metabolite-predicted age and actual age. A higher delta means a person’s blood profile appears older than expected, while a lower delta means it appears younger.
The results showed that a higher MileAge delta was linked to a higher risk of all-cause dementia, vascular dementia, earlier-onset dementia and unspecified dementia. The strongest association was for vascular dementia.
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People with both a higher MileAge delta and the APOE gene linked to Alzheimer’s had a 10-times greater risk of developing all-cause dementia.
Study co-author Dr. Julian Mutz, a research fellow at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London, called this increased genetic risk “striking.”
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“The biological aging marker, MileAge, was especially predictive of vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Those with a higher MileAge delta and a higher genetic risk for dementia — carriers of the APOE gene, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease — had a 10-times higher risk of all-cause dementia. (iStock)
The researcher said it’s important to better understand other risk factors beyond genetics.
“While tenfold is a very large increase, it reflects the combination of a powerful genetic risk factor with an indicator of biological aging,” he said.
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“The important point is that these two sources of risk are complementary, and unlike genetic risk, metabolomic aging (biological aging measured through metabolites) is potentially modifiable through lifestyle or clinical intervention.”
Mutz considered how managing cardiovascular risk factors, staying physically active and monitoring mental health can help slow biological aging, thus reducing the risk of dementia and other age-related diseases.
“Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of aging.”
“Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of aging,” Mutz noted. “It can potentially be delayed or prevented by modifying risk factors, including biological aging.”
The researchers found that a higher MileAge delta was linked to a higher risk of all-cause dementia. (iStock)
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel commented on these findings, noting that the study points out the value of “healthspan” versus “lifespan.”
“It emphasizes the role of the APOE gene in provoking dementia, especially Alzheimer’s,” reiterated the doctor, who was not involved in the study.
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This research also highlights how chronic illness increases the chance of dementia when combined with the APOE gene, Siegel added.
“There’s a 60% increased risk of vascular dementia when poor health is combined with this gene,” he said. “Vascular dementia correlates with heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity.”
Because the study was observational, it couldn’t prove that older biological age causes a higher risk of dementia, but only suggested an association. (iStock)
The study had some limitations, the researchers acknowledged. Because it was observational, the research couldn’t prove that older biological age causes a higher risk of dementia, but only suggested an association.
As the data came from the UK Biobank, the participants tended to be healthier and primarily of European ancestry, and so were not fully representative of the general population. The study also relied on a single blood measurement, meaning it could not track changes in biological aging over time, the researchers noted.
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Regarding the dementia diagnoses, it’s possible that lifestyle behaviors and health factors could have influenced the results.
The researchers emphasized that the MileAge biomarker still requires further validation before being used in clinical settings.