People under 50 are ‘ageing faster’ than previous generations, study finds

Amidst a worrying rise in cancer among younger people, new research has revealed that under-50s are ageing faster than previous generations. Those born between 1965 and 1974 display higher biological age — wear and tear happening inside the body at a cellular and molecular level — than those born between 1950 and 1954, according to a recent study published in Nature Medicine. The same was true for participants born between 1990 and 1999, who showed biological ageing greater than those born between 1965 and 1969. “Our findings suggest that some younger adults may be experiencing these biological changes earlier than expected, and that this could be linked to the rising rates of cancers seen in younger generations,” Yin Cao, an associate professor of surgery and of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and co-author of the study, told Oncology Central. While cancer is traditionally considered a disease of old age, early-onset cancers have been increasing over the last three decades. The number of people under 50 being newly diagnosed was found to have risen by 79% globally since 1990, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) report.Childhood cancer rates have also spiked, with an estimated 13,800 children and teenagers from 27 EU member states diagnosed in 2022, according to the European Cancer Information System (ECIS). The reasons behind this continue to confound experts who, in previous studies, have cited ultra-processed foods, alcohol, obesity, smoking and exposure to microplastics as potential causes and risks. While the study does not prove that rapid biological ageing leads to an increased incidence of cancer, it does provide a powerful new correlation — one that considers the body as a whole instead of individual cells. “What makes this research particularly significant is that it looks beyond individual cancer cells and considers the wider changes taking place across the body over time,” John Riches, clinical reader in cancer immuno-metabolism at the UK’s Barts Cancer Institute, said, reacting to the findings.“The findings reinforce the idea that factors such as our environment, lifestyle and overall health can have long-term effects on the body’s biological processes.” Ultimately, more research is needed to better understand what is driving this biological ageing in younger people, and how it connects to the development of cancer and other chronic diseases. “We now need further research to understand exactly what these measurements are telling us,” Jyoti Nangalia, group leader at the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute, said reacting to the findings.“Are they capturing processes that directly drive cancer development, or are both these biological changes and cancer being driven by other shared underlying factors?” “It will be fascinating to see whether such measurements may help us track changes in health across different populations and generations,” Nangalia said.