Biological ageing tests have, so far, been unable to reveal how old your brain is. But a recent study may have found a new way to calculate how fast your grey matter is ageing – and it could help predict and prevent dementia.
Unlike your chronological age (the number of years since you were born), your biological age depends on how worn down your cells and tissues are. Two people can be the same chronological age, but have different biological ages.
Most of the time, biological age is measured via DNA methylation – a chemical process that changes how your genes look at the cellular level. But researchers at the University of Southern California noted that this method doesn’t work for our brains.