A new blood test, developed by a group of British scientists, will be able to determine the date of death of any living person. The test will also be able to reveal the risk of dementia, as well as the biological age of the patient.
The experts have worked out a system that determines aging in the human body by examining the signs of aging in 150 isolated genes.
Some individuals age faster than others, meaning they need to get tested earlier for signs of dementia and cancer, scientists tell the Daily Mirror. The experts analyzed a total of 54 000 genetic markers of healthy people, who led a sedentary way of life, aged between 25 and 65.
Throughout the course of the study, the markers were reduced down to 150. From these they extracted a molecular pattern, indicating the biological age of the body.
These data have helped researchers determine the age of the individual, their health condition, as well as provide an estimated date of their demise.
The blood test also checks for signs of aging in the blood, muscles, brain and skin.
The new method has already been tested on 70-year-old volunteers from Sweden in an attempt to predict the time of their death. According to the signs, the majority of the volunteers are expected to die after 5 years.
The test also has the ability to show whose cells age faster and who should test themselves for dementia and cancer before the first symptoms of the diseases appear.
It is believed that these methods of analysis would be useful in finding which individuals would be good organ donors, despite their advanced age, as long as their body is otherwise healthy.
"Determining one's biological age, as scientists call it, is much more useful than looking at their birth date, " researchers report to the BBC.
If the test proves its effectiveness, it's likely to become common practice and even be added to the pension reform in Great Britain.
