An article was published recently via The Guardian & the NY Times describing a new discovery with our DNA, essentially alluding to our age being connected to a function of DNA – measuring the biological age of our tissues and organs.

This “clock” in our DNA shows that while many tissues age at the same rate as the body, some of them age much faster or slower. In addition to that, the age of diseased organs varied hugely, all the way up to tens of years “older” than healthy tissue in the same person, according to the clock.

Now, the researchers say that unravelling the mechanisms behind the clock will help them understand the ageing process in humans, and ultimately lead to some form of slowing things down.

‘”Ultimately, it would be very exciting to develop therapy interventions to reset the clock and hopefully keep us young,” Horvath told The Guardian. He studied the methylation of nearly 8,000 samples of healthy and cancerous tissue and found 353 DNA markers that varied with aging. They effectively work like little biological clocks. Interestingly, different types of tissue age at different rates. Whereas the biological age of heart tissue appears around nine years younger than it should, cancerous tissue appears to be an average of 36 years older.’

The Guardian 

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