"My current research really focuses on trying to actually quantify or measure aging. So can we take all of the cellular molecular changes that people have undergone and actually give them a sense of how they're doing in terms of the aging process? Are the aging slower than we would expect, or are they aging faster than we would expect? We all age, but we don't all age at the same rate."
"I think a lot of people don't realize how much power we actually have over our aging process. So a lot of people think, "Oh, my life expectancy or my risk of getting something like cancer or heart disease is due to genetics or it's just gonna happen." But we actually have a lot of ability to kind of modulate our potential risks, or at least the timing perhaps of when these diseases might occur."
Early familiarity with older relatives can drive awareness of aging and disease risk. Research aims to quantify aging by integrating cellular and molecular changes to produce an individual aging rate. People age at different speeds, and measuring those differences can inform future disease risk, remaining life expectancy, and health planning. Genetics do not fully determine aging pace; behavior and other modifiable factors can shift disease risk or delay onset. Greater understanding of aging biology and its links to disease can empower interventions that alter aging trajectories and improve health outcomes.
Read at Big Think
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