A new tool shows the rate you’re aging — and it can predict dementia early

“The link between aging of the brain and body are pretty compelling.”

Hariri and colleagues analyzed data from 1,037 people to form their conclusions, which published this month in Nature Aging. The subjects had all been part of the Dunedin Study since birth, which meant decades of data on their changes in blood pressure, body mass index, glucose, cholesterol and more was readily available.

Based on that data, the researchers determined how well or poorly each subject was aging. The end result was DunedinPACNI — a model that can use data from a single MRI scan to determine the rate a person ages.

“The way we age as we get older is quite distinct from how many times we’ve traveled around the sun,” Hariri said.

While measuring a person’s rate of aging, this groundbreaking tool can be used to predict risks of chronic illnesses, including dementia and Alzheimer’s. The method may one day even help patients as young as 45 make necessary lifestyle and dietary changes to prevent health problems later in life.

“What’s really cool about this is that we’ve captured how fast people are aging using data collected in midlife,” Hariri said. “And it’s helping us predict diagnosis of dementia among people who are much older.”

The researchers discovered that subjects that were aging more quickly, according to their DunedinPACNI model, performed worse in cognitive tests and showed more shrinkage over time in their hippocampus — which affects memory. It’s a pattern of cognitive decline that could come with heavy consequences for fast agers, such as an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

After analyzing brain scans from 624 subjects for their risks of Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, Hariri and colleagues determined the group’s fastest agers were up to 60% more likely to develop dementia later on than the slowest agers.

While more research is needed to move DunedinPACNI into health care pending a patent, the team hopes it will soon offer access to data that blood tests cannot produce. They aim to analyze brain scans from people in the U.S. and Canada next.

“We really think of it as hopefully being a key new tool in forecasting and predicting risk for diseases, especially Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and also perhaps gaining a better foothold on progression of disease,” Hariri said.