AS most of us know only too well, there’s no escape from ageing. But we can’t have failed to notice that some people age more quickly than others, and this can have a profound effect on both our quality and length of life.
With this in mind, news that doctors may one day be able to use scans to predict our “brain age” and identify those at risk of cognitive decline or even early death, is to be welcomed.
A study involving hundreds of Scots, jointly run by scientists at the University of Edinburgh, has revealed that the greater the difference between a person’s brain age and their actual age, the higher their risk of poor physical and mental health. Participants with “older brains” performed worse than others on a number of standard physical measures for ageing, including grip strength, lung capacity and walking speed; they were more likely to die before the age of 80.
MRI scans could one day predict a patient’s brain age, allowing early intervention giving those with “older” brains the opportunity to change their lifestyle and diet and hopefully become “younger”.
The neuroscientists who carried out the research have cautioned that it will likely be years before their research can be used routinely in clinical practice, but they hope that brain age screening may be possible in the future.
It should, of course, be pointed out that routine screening by its very nature involves significant costs, and this would be a particular consideration for a technique that relies on MRI scanning. The financial implications of such screening would obviously have to be weighed against the benefits for patients and the NHS.
But we should surely commend the scientists who carried out this research for contributing to the wider debate on ageing. Their findings highlight that our brains reveal as much about our physical health as our mental and cognitive well-being.
Anything that improves our knowledge and reiterates the need for healthy lifestyles as we get older should be welcomed by the NHS - and given due attention by all of us.
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