Body clock could determine biological age and longevity, researchers say

Researchers have developed a new “body clock” tool that calculates people’s biological age — and could even predict the risk of disability or death.The tool, which comes from the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, uses eight different metrics from a patient’s physical exam and bloodwork to determine the results, according to a press release from UW.The tool’s method — officially named the Health Octo Tool — is detailed in the journal Nature Communication in a May 5 publication.The researchers see this method as more comprehensive than current health assessments, which typically focus on individual diseases rather than overall wellness, according to the report’s first author, Dr.Shabnam Salimi, a physician-scientist and acting instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine at UW.Using data from large longevity studies, the Health Octo Tool was found to predict disability, geriatric syndrome (a group of common health conditions in older adults), Short Physical Performance Battery (a clinical tool that assesses lower extremity function in older adults) and mortality with 90% accuracy or greater, the study reported.“An aging-based framework offers a new path to discover biomarkers and therapeutics that target organ-specific or whole-body aging, rather than individual diseases,” Salimi said in the release.The tool focuses on “health entropy,” which encompasses the amount of molecular and cellular damage the body has sustained over time.That has a direct impact on the function of a person’s organs and overall body systems, which can be used to determine how fast they are aging, the researchers noted.The tool starts by assigning a “body organ disease number,” ranging from 1 to 14, based on whether the patient has experienced any diseases affecting the heart, lungs, brain or other specific organ systems.“Our findings demonstrated that organ systems age at different rates, prompting us to develop a Bod...