Amazing stuff!
Why should aging be a strictly gradual process? Why not in phases?
From my own experience, I tend to believe this is correct.
"... Researchers assessed many thousands of different molecules in people from age 25 to 75, as well as their microbiomes—the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live inside us and on our skin—and found that the abundance of most molecules and microbes do not shift in a gradual, chronological fashion. Rather, we undergo two periods of rapid change during our life span, averaging around age 44 and age 60. A paper describing these findings appears in Nature Aging. ...
These big changes likely impact our health; the number of molecules related to cardiovascular disease showed significant changes at both time points, and those related to immune function changed in people in their early 60s. ...
The researchers used data from 108 people they've been following to better understand the biology of aging. Past insights from this same group of study volunteers include the discovery of four distinct "ageotypes," showing that people's kidneys, livers, metabolism and immune system age at different rates in different people. ...
The researchers tracked age-related changes in more than 135,000 different molecules and microbes, for a total of nearly 250 billion distinct data points. ...
They found that thousands of molecules and microbes undergo shifts in their abundance, either increasing or decreasing—around 81% of all the molecules they studied showed non-linear fluctuations in number, meaning that they changed more at certain ages than other times. When they looked for clusters of molecules with the largest changes in amount, they found these transformations occurred the most in two time periods: when people were in their mid-40s, and when they were in their early 60s. ..."
From the abstract:
"Aging is a complex process associated with nearly all diseases. Understanding the molecular changes underlying aging and identifying therapeutic targets for aging-related diseases are crucial for increasing healthspan. Although many studies have explored linear changes during aging, the prevalence of aging-related diseases and mortality risk accelerates after specific time points, indicating the importance of studying nonlinear molecular changes. In this study, we performed comprehensive multi-omics profiling on a longitudinal human cohort of 108 participants, aged between 25 years and 75 years. The participants resided in California, United States, and were tracked for a median period of 1.7 years, with a maximum follow-up duration of 6.8 years. The analysis revealed consistent nonlinear patterns in molecular markers of aging, with substantial dysregulation occurring at two major periods occurring at approximately 44 years and 60 years of chronological age. Distinct molecules and functional pathways associated with these periods were also identified, such as immune regulation and carbohydrate metabolism that shifted during the 60-year transition and cardiovascular disease, lipid and alcohol metabolism changes at the 40-year transition. Overall, this research demonstrates that functions and risks of aging-related diseases change nonlinearly across the human lifespan and provides insights into the molecular and biological pathways involved in these changes."
Massive biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s, Stanford Medicine researchers find (original news release) "Time marches on predictably, but biological aging is anything but constant, according to a new Stanford Medicine study."
Fig. 1: Most molecules and microbes undergo nonlinear changes during human aging. [The art of aging! Can aging be so beautiful?]
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