The whole issue of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, fascinates and amazes me.
Nearly every cell in our body has the same DNA, which is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms
To imagine that this molecule carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses is simply incredible.
The other thing that fascinates me is our blood. So much can be known about our bodies and what we may need from just one drop!
Scientists scour our blood for biomarkers – easily measured substances that illuminate what is going on in hard-to-reach places.
Sugar or protein in a sample of urine can shed light on what is happening in the kidneys or pancreas. The concentration of cholesterol in the blood may hint at disease in the arteries. What’s changed is medicine’s ability to measure more molecules, with greater precision and less cost, than was possible in the past.
Does that mean our blood is able to predict our fate?
Well, scientists say one little drop of our blood may soon predict how long we will live!
Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at the Boston University School of Public Health, tested 5,000 people in 550 families with a predilection for longevity.
The volunteers in the study were subjected to many blood tests.
The tests included common ones (haemoglobin concentration, serum albumin) and exotic ones (C-reactive protein, insulin-like growth factor). Together, the tests shed light on six domains of physiology, including inflammation, kidney function and blood-sugar metabolism.
A computer algorithm analysed the test results in the thousands of volunteers and determined that they fell into 26 patterns, or clusters. Each cluster contained people with similar test results. The biggest one had 2,200 people, all of whom had test readings close to the average for the whole study population. They became the reference group.
Researchers found the clusters differed from each other and from the reference group in their rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and premature death and also in measures of aging, such as grip strength and walking speed.
As expected, one cluster was considerably healthier than the average, with a low incidence of disease and early death. Its members seemed to have biological ages younger than their chronological ages.
In short, the 19 blood tests together formed a biomarker that told people whether they were aging prematurely and predicted in general terms the chances of developing serious illness or dying early.
Biomarkers that hint at our chances of a long life are scientifically interesting. However, various studies have shown that genes are responsible for only 30 per cent of our longevity.
The other 70pc is determined by diet, exercise, weight, habits such as smoking and drinking, family and social life, along with access to medical care and luck.
So we already know what to do to make ourselves healthier and live longer!