Our eyes, perhaps one of the most important of the 5 sense organs, have more functions than we think. With a scientific study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, it was revealed that the eyes can directly detect the biological age of a person, and therefore the general health status.
The scientists conducting the research can calculate whether a person is aging rapidly and their biological age by examining 2 substances in the retinas. Let’s go deeper into the matter together.
If the retina is older, the death rate from the disease increases
With a machine learning model developed in the published study, a biological age calculation method on retinas was developed, and the algorithm had such a small margin of error that the biological ages of 47,000 middle-aged people in the UK could be estimated. Of these 47.000 people, 1,871 have now died, and deaths are predominantly from the ‘older’ retina.
If the algorithm detects that a person’s retina is 1 year older than their original age, that person’s probability of dying from any cause, such as any disease, in the next 11 years, increases by 2%. At the same time, the risk of death from a cause other than cardiovascular disease or cancer increases by 3%.
The retina is extremely sensitive to the effects of aging.
This is a huge study, but still the findings are only observational. Scientists cannot fully define the biological link between the retina and lifespan. Here’s how it works: The retina is very sensitive to the damage that comes with aging. For this reason, thanks to the blood cells and nerves in the retina, information about the individual’s brain and vascular health is provided.
In the past, thanks to studies on the eye, scientists were able to predict cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and various signs of aging. However, this study is the first to link the retina with the aging factor.
The retina can be scanned in less than 5 minutes, and if scientists can learn more about how this layer of tissue connects with the rest of the body, it could be an excellent new development in the hands of doctors.
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