There’s a good reason why your doctor uses a light to dilate your pupils during your annual eye exam.
Not only do your eyes provide access to your soul, but they can also reveal a lot about your health and longevity. A new study suggests that a simple eye test could predict life expectancy. The study, described as the first of its kind, could be useful in determining the impact of certain diseases on a person’s life expectancy.
retinal age and longevity
It has long been known that the cells of the retina deteriorate with age. An example of this is the development of glaucoma, which is common in older people.
the in British Journal of Ophthalmology However, a published study found that people with a retina older than their actual age are more likely to die within the next decade. The co-author of the study, Dr. Mingguang He from Center for Eye Research Australia, moreover:
The retina offers a unique, easily accessible “window” to assess the underlying pathological processes of systemic vascular and neurological diseases that are associated with an increased risk of death.
Age difference in the retina
To arrive at this conclusion, the international research team analyzes aloud CNN more than 130,000 retinal images of samples collected from UK participants BioBanka long-term government study of over 500,000 UK participants aged 40-69.
Using a type of machine learning model, the researchers were able to estimate the “retinal age gap” between the actual biological state of the eye and the person’s age since birth. Large retinal age gaps were associated with a 49 to 67 percent higher risk of dying from a cause other than cardiovascular disease or cancer. The researchers write in their results:
Our new findings have revealed that retinal age difference is an independent predictor of increased risk of death, specifically non-cardiovascular disease/non-cancer mortality. These results suggest that retinal age may be a clinically important biomarker of aging.
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Translated from English by Ohmymag UK