Researchers in California may have discovered a way to reverse the aging process. A promising study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles suggests that a drug cocktail can effectively reverse biological aging.
Your biological age determines your functional capacity, physical appearance and cognitive abilities. Scientists measure biological age with a biochemical test called an epigenetic clock.
Think of human DNA as a piece of metal. If you leave metal outside in the elements, a chemical reaction occurs and rust forms. The presence of rust can tell us a lot about an object’s composition. Human DNA also undergoes a chemical change, called methylation, as we age. Scientists use an epigenetic clock to measure changes in a subject’s DNA.
Biological age is typically equivalent to chronological age; however, new evidence suggests that it is possible to reverse the biological aging process. Researchers followed nine healthy adults for one year. The study participants took a combination of two diabetes medications and a growth hormone. At the end of the one-year period, the participants’ biological markers suggested that they were aging backward. They reversed their biological age by an average of two-and-a-half years, and their immune systems were functioning at an improved rate.
The epigenetic analysis was conducted by Professor Steve Horvath. Horvath is the creator of Horvath’s epigenetic clock, an age estimation method that uses more than 350 epigenetic markers to measure DNA methylation.
The main purpose of Professor Horvath’s study was to measure the effect of growth hormones on the thymus gland. Since growth hormones can increase the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, study participants also took metformin and dehydroepiandrosterone, two anti-diabetic medications. This drug cocktail is believed to be responsible for reversing the participants’ biological ages.
Horvath was shocked to see a reversal of participants’ biological ages. He admits that he hoped to see the aging process slow down, but he never expected to witness an age reversal.
So, does this mean that we have finally found a fountain of youth? Not exactly. Wolfgang Wagner, a cell biologist from the University of Aachen, cautions that the study size was small, and there was no control group.
Researchers are planning a larger controlled study that tests the effects of the drug cocktail on different races, sexes and age groups.
