There is a famous scene from the 1992 movie “My cousin Vinny” in which Marisa Tomei complains to Joe Pesci that her biological clock is running out of time. Many women probably feel this same way when pregnancy is delayed. This idea of a biological clock is much closer to the truth than you would imagine.
The Guardian, 28 September 2016: Scientists have found the most definitive evidence yet that some people are destined to age quicker and die younger than others – regardless of their lifestyle. “You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young,” said Steve Horvath, a biostatistician who led the research at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We’ve shown some people have a faster innate ageing rate.”
The scientific term for a biological clock is epigenitic clock. Wiki: “A pre-eminent example for an epigenetic clock is Horvath’s clock, which is based on 353 epigenetic markers on the human genome. Horvath’s epigenetic clock was developed by Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The scientific article was first published on Oct 21, 2013 in Genome Biology.”
Guardian (2016): “A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, was consistently linked to an earlier death, the study found. For the 5% of the population who age fastest, this translated to a roughly 50% greater than average risk of death at any age. Intriguingly, the biological changes linked to ageing are potentially reversible, raising the prospect of future treatments that could arrest the ageing process and extend the human lifespan.”
Guardian (2016): “The scientists found that known health indicators, such as smoking, blood pressure and weight, were still more valuable in predicting life expectancy in the 2,700 participants who had died since the study began, but that their underlying aging rate also had a significant effect.”
Guardian (2016): “The study, published in the journal Aging, suggests that accelerated ageing rather than simply a riskier lifestyle could explain why men die younger. Even by the age of five, Horvath said, the different speeds of aging between genders was apparent and by the age of 40 a biological age gap of 1-2 years opens up. “Women always age a little bit more slowly than men,” he said. “It’s not lifestyle, it’s this innate ageing process that favours women.”
Guardian (2013): “The clock ticked fastest in the years up to around age 20, then slowed down to a steadier rate. Whether the DNA changes cause ageing or are caused by ageing is an unknown that scientists are now keen to work out. “Does this relate to something that keeps track of age, or is a consequence of age? I really don’t know,” Horvath told the Guardian. “The development of grey hair is a marker of ageing, but nobody would say it causes ageing,” he said.
When Horvath tested his blood, the test indicated that he was 5 years older. I suppose you can truly feel younger (or older) than your age indicates. To some extent, this comes as a relief.
My biological clock is ticking – My cousin Vinny (1992) – IMDb, video, Wiki
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