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For doctors, looking at a person’s birth date doesn’t tell them much. Sure, a person might be 75 on paper, but genes, lifestyle and environment all play into health. So it’s important to get a good understanding of how old our bodies really are — a biological age rather than chronological age.
A new study, published Tuesday in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, found that a simple urine test could deliver valuable information about our biological age.
In the study, Chinese researchers collected spot urine samples from 1,228 healthy people between the ages of 2 and 90, all of whom were undergoing routine health checkups. The participants were split about evenly between male and female.
Researchers focused on two molecules –8-oxo-7, 8-dihydro-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodGuo) and 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxoGuo) – and their concentrations in each person’s urine. The latter molecule is known to cause abnormal proteins to form, which can ...
