The discovery: Women and men can age very differently

In the study, the researchers used artificial intelligence to browse notes from biopsies taken from 4.9 million people between the ages of 0 and 106.

The tissue samples came from several different organs in the body, including the skin, liver, lungs, brain, kidneys, and muscles.

One of the findings of the formidable article was that there appeared to be a significant difference between when the aging of the body’s cells associated with disease, in the form of, among other things, inflammation and hard tissue, occurred in men and women.

In women, the aging associated with the disease already began at the age of 19 on average, while it first began around the age of 40 for men, while in contrast it seemed to progress much faster than in women.

“Men seem to stay young until they are about 40. But their aging is correspondingly faster than that of women. So it’s good news for both sexes,” explains Morten Schebe Knudsen from the University of Copenhagen. He is a physician and senior lecturer in aging and one of the researchers behind the study in Illustrated Science.

Researchers: “Fast Descent”

The results may seem a little strange in light of the fact that women generally live longer than men around the world. But according to Morten Scheppe Knudsen, the different numbers can still be understood.

“Women are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and losing muscle mass, so women don’t escape the aging process itself, even if they live longer,” he explains.

“The rate of aging can also have an effect. Women may last longer because aging is slower. Once men are affected, it descends quickly,” he explains.

Scientists don’t know exactly why men begin to age in earnest at a later date. But one current theory is that the explanation may be evolutionary.

“Surprisingly, the time when aging accelerates in men also approaches the longevity of antiquity,” explains the elderly researcher.

He further explains that there may be an evolutionary advantage to men being able to resist disease and aging for longer and thus be able to spread more of their genes, but he maintains that it is still only a matter of theories.

Another finding in the study is that at the same time there is a huge difference between how our tissues age in different organs. Tissues in the liver and gallbladder, for example, appear to age linearly and predictably, while tissues in the heart, kidneys, and bladder, for example, seem to follow a more irregular pattern, having first a growth phase and then a later That’s the aging stage.

The researchers themselves stress that one of the study’s weaknesses is that tissue samples are only taken when trial participants seek medical help. Therefore, the delayed aging of men could also be an expression of the fact that they may tend to seek medical help later in the process than women.

The study has not yet been published, but it is available at biorxiv archive It has therefore not been peer-reviewed, which is part of the quality assurance of scientific studies.