TL;DR
Get health and wellness essentials delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
Researchers used plasma metabolite data from 18,476 people aged 1 to 96 to develop measures of metabolomic aging and mortality-related age deviation. The measures were associated with chronic disease and death risk, and added modestly to existing risk assessments; the observational study does not show that changing diet or lifestyle reverses biological aging.
Researchers analyzing blood samples from 18,476 people aged 1 to 96 developed metabolite-based measures of aging that were associated with chronic disease and mortality risk. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggests plasma metabolite profiles may add information to conventional health assessments, but it does not establish that the measured patterns cause illness or can be changed to prevent it.
The team studied participants in the Shanghai Pudong Cohort across six centers. They used plasma samples and nano-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry to measure metabolic features. A group of 5,252 healthy participants was used to build a model estimating metabolomic age, and researchers tested it in a separate healthy group of 5,456. A further 7,768 participants with health conditions formed a disease cohort.
For the healthy participants, the researchers calculated metabolomic age acceleration, or how far the blood-based age estimate differed from a person’s chronological age. For people with existing conditions, they developed an age-deviation measure based on mortality risk relative to what would be expected for someone of that age. A panel of 56 metabolites retained most of the age-predictive information found in the full set of 232 features.
Higher metabolomic age acceleration was associated with greater risk of developing conditions including diabetes, hypertension and fatty liver disease, as well as higher all-cause mortality risk. The measures improved the ability to distinguish people at higher and lower mortality risk beyond several existing assessments, including frailty measures, cardiovascular health scores and routine blood biomarkers. The researchers described those gains in risk discrimination as modest.
How Blood Profiles Could Add Risk Information
Chronological age is a useful health indicator, but it cannot capture all differences in the condition of people the same age. A blood-based measure that tracks patterns associated with aging could eventually help identify people whose health risks merit closer assessment, including in population-level screening or research. In this study, the measures were associated with overall health, multiple-system disease and the burden of several conditions.
The results do not show that the measures are ready to guide individual medical decisions. Their added predictive value was modest, and an association with future illness does not mean the blood profile itself causes disease. The study also does not establish that acting on a metabolomic age score improves health outcomes. Further testing would be needed before such profiling could be used routinely.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
How the Researchers Built the Measures
Baseline assessments took place in 2019, chronic disease status was reassessed in 2023, and mortality was tracked through January 2025. In 2023, thousands of participants completed repeat surveys and updated disease assessments; 1,500 also provided repeat samples for metabolomic profiling. The researchers used questionnaires to collect information on diet, lifestyle, sleep, mental health and family medical history where available.
The study also examined whether the modeling approach could be retrained using data from the UK Biobank, NHANES and gut microbiome research. Within the Shanghai cohort, higher metabolomic age acceleration was associated with factors including active and secondhand smoking, shift work history and parental premature cardiovascular disease. The authors also reported links with dietary patterns and physical activity, but these observations do not establish direct effects.
“The findings highlight the potential of plasma metabolomic profiling for future population-level risk assessment and improved risk stratification.”
— The study authors, as reported by News-Medical
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Limits of the Aging Signal
The findings show associations, not proof that particular metabolites or lifestyle factors cause faster aging, chronic disease or death. The study does not establish that a person can lower their biological risk by changing a specific food or activity, nor does it show that adjusting a metabolomic score would reduce illness. The reported improvements in mortality-risk discrimination were modest, and the supplied report does not give a single effect size that would explain how much the measures changed an individual’s risk estimate.
The research was conducted in a cohort from Shanghai, China. How well the findings apply to other populations, and whether the measures perform consistently across different settings, remains to be established. The report also does not specify a timetable for clinical use or describe a validated threshold for making treatment decisions.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Validation Before Clinical Use
The next step is further research to test how reliably the measures predict health outcomes in different populations and whether they add useful information in real-world clinical settings. Studies would also need to determine whether using these profiles to guide care leads to better outcomes, rather than simply identifying statistical differences in risk.
For now, the findings concern a research tool, not a standalone diagnosis or a replacement for established assessments. The study authors’ framing points to possible future use in population-level risk assessment; evidence supporting individual clinical decisions remains to be developed.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Questions
What did the researchers measure in blood?
They analyzed plasma metabolites—small molecules reflecting processes in the body—and used patterns among them to estimate metabolomic age or mortality-related age deviation.
Does a higher metabolomic age mean someone will develop a disease?
No. Higher metabolomic age acceleration was associated with greater disease and mortality risk in the study, but it does not determine an individual’s future health or provide a diagnosis.
Did the study prove that diet or exercise changes biological aging?
No. The researchers reported associations between some dietary and activity patterns and metabolomic age measures. Because the findings are observational, they do not establish that those behaviors directly cause a change in biological aging.
Can this blood test be used in routine care now?
The report presents the measures as having potential for future risk assessment. It does not establish that they are ready for routine clinical use or provide a validated threshold for treatment decisions.
Source: rss
Cold & flu season Picks
humidifiers
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
