Can Your Genes Predict Your Future Health?

          "Age is just a number". It's a phrase that's been said time and time again by people who claim to feel as though they are in better condition than their age suggests. According to recent studies by a research team at King's College in the United Kingdom, that might just be the case.

          The research team, led by professor of precision medicine James Timmons, recently announced its study on a "gene signature" that has the potential to predict future health problems based on your underlying biological age. Blood samples collected from test subjects between the ages of 25 and 65 were used to analyze 150 classifier genes and then to calculate a “healthy age gene score” that could be used later to test underlying biological health of potential patients. To further observe the accuracy of the "gene score" relative to the actual health of patients, Timmons' research team tracked a group of 70-year-old participants for 20 years only to see that the "underlying biological age" varied greatly for each of the participants, independent of their identical ages.

          The research team hopes that their work can help slow the devastating effects of Alzheimer's before its onset. Yvette Brazier, writer of Medical News Today, writes:

"it is anticipated that novel genomic diagnostics such as this will help predict future health care needs, guide targeted preventive measures and enable individualized treatment strategies for a number of diseases experienced in older age."

          According to the UK's National Health Service, they hope that research like this will "transform diagnosis". As science develops and research techniques become more advanced, genetics will play a larger and larger role in the way that disease is treated and prevented in the medical field. Because of my future hope of working as a doctor in a trauma center, I personally look forward to future developments like these in the medical field. Science is single-handedly changing the way that patients are being cared for, and the future is promising with research like this!