If you could know your life expectancy, would you want to know? Recent study published in British Journal of Ophthalmologysuggests that your eyes can lift the curtain on your life expectancy.
The retina – the membrane at the back of the eye – contains millions of light-sensitive cells (rods and cones) and other nerve cells that receive and organize visual information.
A study of about 47,000 adults found that those whose retinas were “older” than they actually were were more likely to die in the next decade.
This finding may have major implications for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“The retina provides a unique and accessible ‘window’ for assessing the pathological processes underlying systemic vascular and neurological diseases associated with increased mortality risk,” said lead author Dr Mingguang He of the Australian Center for Eye Research said:
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How researchers collected their findings
Researchers monitored participants between the ages of 40 and 69 for an average of 11 years.
As part of the UK Biobank study, each person had their fundus (back of the eye) scanned. A large biomedical database and research resource containing detailed genetic and health information from his 500,000 participants in the UK.
An international team compared the ‘biological age’ of each retina to the person’s chronological age and found a ‘retinal age gap’ in many participants.
Large gaps were associated with a 49% to 67% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease or non-cancer causes.
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This was after considering potentially influencing factors such as high blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), lifestyle, and ethnicity.
“Our new findings show that retinal age differences are independent predictors of increased risk of death, particularly non-cardiovascular disease/non-cancer mortality risk. may be a clinically important biomarker of aging,” said the researchers.
Scientists found that each year of age difference increased the risk of death from any cause or specific cause by 2% and 3%, respectively.
This finding adds to the evidence that the network of small blood vessels in the retina is a reliable indicator of the overall health of the body’s circulatory system and brain.
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The risk of illness and death increases with age, according to the team, but it’s clear that it varies considerably among people of the same age.
The study authors used an advanced type of AI (artificial intelligence) known as “deep learning” to accurately predict a person’s retinal age from fundus images.
This new technique, unlike similar tissue, cellular, and chemical tests for biological aging, is fraught with ethical and privacy concerns, the study authors say. These tests are invasive, expensive and time consuming.
The team validated the screening model using approximately 19,200 fundus images from the right eye of 11,052 relatively healthy participants. This showed a strong association between predicted retinal age and actual age, with overall accuracy within her 3½ years.
Applying the same process to my left eye gave similar results. The scientist then assessed the retinal age difference in his remaining 35,917 volunteers.
During the study period, 1,871 (5%) participants died. Of this group, 321 (17%) died of cardiovascular disease, 1,018 (54.5%) died of cancer, and 532 (28.5%) died of other causes, including dementia.
More than half of the participants fell into the category of “premature aging” (those whose retinas look older than they actually are), with 51% more than 3 years old, 28% 5 years old, and 4.5% different in retinal age. had. more than 10 years apart.
The new findings, combined with previous studies, add weight to “the hypothesis that the retina plays a key role in the aging process and is sensitive to cumulative damage of aging that increases mortality risk.”
“Our findings indicate that retinal age differences may be a potential biomarker of aging that is closely associated with mortality risk, providing risk stratification and tailored interventions.” “This suggests the potential of retinal imaging as a screening tool for retinal imaging,” the study authors concluded.
This newspaper used to study We found a link between diet, circadian rhythm, eye health, and longevity.
