Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a groundbreaking blood test that can determine the biological age of your major organs, revealing why some people age faster than others and offering unprecedented insight into future health risks. By analyzing nearly 3,000 proteins in blood samples from over 44,000 participants, scientists created an algorithm that assigns biological ages to 11 organ systems including the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. The results are remarkable: about one-third of people have at least one organ that’s aging either extremely fast or staying surprisingly youthful compared to their chronological age.
The most striking discovery involves the brain, as people with extremely aged brains were 3.1 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and had 182% higher risk of death over 15 years. Conversely, those blessed with youthful brains had only a quarter of the typical Alzheimer’s risk and 40% lower mortality rates. The test can predict organ-specific disease risks up to 10 years in advance, potentially allowing doctors to intervene before symptoms appear. With plans for commercialization within the next few years, this revolutionary tool could transform medicine by shifting focus from treating diseases to preventing them based on how fast our individual organs are actually aging.