Age against the machine: UW Medicine tool predicts your body’s true age
If you could predict your biological risk of death, would you want to know? Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle have developed a resource that does just that and more. Called the Health Octo Tool, this innovative health assessment method offers a more accurate and holistic view of how we age.
Unlike current methods that focus on individual diseases and overlook interactions among diseases and the impact of minor diseases, the tool uses eight metrics from routine exams and lab tests to better estimate biological age and predict risks of disability and death. What sets it apart is its emphasis on “health entropy,” a measure of accumulated molecular and cellular damage affecting organ function. Assessing organ systems, which age at different rates, provides a more nuanced understanding of overall biological aging.
“Collectively, these eight metrics — Body Clock, Body Age, system-specific clocks and rates, Speed- and Disability-based clocks — offer a way to view an individual’s aging process with information gathered from their medical history, physical exam and test results alone,” said Shabnam Salimi, M.D., a physician-scientist and acting instructor in the UW Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine and investigator at the UW Medicine Healthy Aging & Longevity Research Institute.
Researchers, drawing upon data from major aging studies, are now developing a digital app to help patients and their doctors determine the biological age of their bodies and organs, track the rates of aging, and evaluate the effects of lifestyle changes and treatments.