A new study published in The Lancet Digital Health suggests that biological age of different organs could predict a person's risk of diseases such as cancer, dementia, and heart disease than their actual chronological age. The research analyzed long-term data from Whitehall II study, which had been followed by over 10,000 British adults for more than 35 years.

The blood plasma samples were collected between 1997 and 1999 from participants between ages 45 to 69. Researchers have now examined a follow up data from 6,235 participants, who were by then aged 65 to 89. This was done to see how aging of specific organ may correlate with the development of diseases over two decades.

What Organs Were Studied?

The study measured the biological age of nine key organs, including:

• Heart
• Blood vessels
• Liver
• Immune system
• Pancreas
• Kidneys
• Lungs
• Intestines
• Brain

The researchers were able to find that different organs aged at different rates in different people. In many of the cases multiple organs showed signs of faster aging within the same individual. What is important to note is that those with accelerated aging in certain organs had a higher risk of developing 30 out of the 40 age-related diseases the study had tracked.

Organ Aging And Disease Risk

Some organ-disease connections were expected—people with rapidly aging lungs were more likely to develop respiratory diseases, and those with aging kidneys had an increased risk of kidney-related conditions. However, the study also found less obvious associations.

For example, individuals with fast-aging kidneys were more prone to diseases in other organs, such as the liver and pancreas. Additionally, multiple fast-aging organs were linked to an increased risk of kidney disease.

One of the most surprising findings was that dementia risk was not best predicted by an aging brain but rather by the immune system’s biological age. This suggests that factors such as chronic inflammation and immune health may play a critical role in neurodegenerative diseases.

What Is Organ Specific Blood Tests?

The study also highlights the important of the potential of developing blood tests that could assess the biological age of specific organs. Unlike previous complex methods that measured the organ health, this new approach could make things simple to detect early signs of disease.

The leader author of the study Mika Kivimaki, who is also a professor at the University College London's Faculty of Brain sciences pointed out that such tests could be helpful when it comes to guiding personalized healthcare. In a news release, Kivimaki said, "They could advise whether a person needs to take better care of a particular organ and potentially provide an early warning signal that they may be at risk of a particular disease."

The study reinforces the idea that aging does not affect all organs equally and that looking beyond chronological age could offer better insights into disease prevention. By understanding which organs are aging more rapidly, medical professionals may be able to recommend targeted interventions for individuals at higher risk of specific conditions. Future advancements in organ-specific blood testing could revolutionize how we detect and manage age-related diseases, potentially leading to more personalized healthcare strategies.

A shingles vaccination effort launched in Wales in 2013 has produced two findings that bring new optimism to dementia research. The program appears not only to lower the likelihood of mild cognitive impairment but also to slow the course of dementia in people who already have the condition. Shingles stems from the varicella zoster virus and causes a painful rash.

Around one in three people in the United States will experience shingles during their lifetime, with the risk rising sharply with age. For this reason, adults aged fifty and older in the United States are advised to receive two doses of the shingles vaccine.

The vaccine has long been known to prevent shingles with an effectiveness above ninety percent for older adults, but recent work suggests it may hold additional advantages.

What Is Shingles?

Shingles, or herpes zoster, is caused by the varicella zoster virus, which is also responsible for chickenpox. It usually presents as a cluster of blistered skin on one side of the body, often forming a band across the torso. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the nerve cells and can reactivate years later, especially when the immune system weakens, according to Mayo Clinic.

What Is Dementia?

Dementia refers to a collection of symptoms that include significant problems with memory, reasoning, and daily function. It results from damage to brain cells caused by several conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Although dementia becomes more common with age, it is not considered a normal part of growing older, as outlined by the World Health Organization.

Shingles Vaccine Linked To Dementia Progression

Growing evidence indicates that receiving the shingles vaccine may lower the chances of developing dementia. A new study, published Tuesday in the journal Cell, builds on earlier research by proposing that the vaccine might also slow existing dementia, which could reduce the risk of death related to the disease.

“We see a change in the odds of dying from dementia among people who already have the condition,” said Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and senior author of the new study.

“That means the vaccine may not only prevent dementia, but it might also serve as a form of treatment because we notice improvements in people already living with the disease,” he said. “This was both surprising and encouraging.” The new study follows earlier work by Geldsetzer and his team showing that shingles vaccination may help delay or prevent dementia.

In that earlier analysis, researchers reviewed health records from older adults in Wales, where a shingles vaccine program for people in their seventies began on September 1, 2013. Under the rules of the program, individuals who were seventy-nine on that date could receive the vaccine for one year, while those aged eighty or older were not included.

That cutoff allowed researchers to compare outcomes between seventy-nine-year-olds who were offered the vaccine and eighty-year-olds who were not eligible but might have chosen to be vaccinated had they been allowed.

Challenges With The Shingles Vaccine And Reducing Dementia Progression

The next task will be to understand why the shingles vaccine might influence dementia risk or progression. The answer may lie in interactions involving the nervous system or immune response. Certain viruses that affect nerve tissue have been linked in animal studies to the harmful protein accumulation seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Future research may examine larger and more diverse groups of people, and may also explore how the newer shingles vaccine compares with the older version used in Wales in 2013, which has since been replaced.

“At least directing part of our research efforts toward these pathways might bring important progress in both prevention and treatment,” said biomedical scientist Pascal Geldsetzer from Stanford University.

Of the many medicines that we consume on a day to day basis, we are not aware of how gradually they are actually making our health worse. One medicine that is common in many households, especially in India households, as points Dr Obaidur Rahman, Ortho and Sports Surgeon is pantoprazole, popularly sold under the name PAN40, PAN Top or PAN D. These medicines are used to treat and relieve symptoms of heartburn, which is a common symptom of acid reflux and GERD.

"A patient came to me, he was an 80-year-old male. He has a habit of taking this tablet regularly, and because of that he suffered an osteoporotic fracture. This means he fell while walking and fractured," points out Dr Rahman.

He says that many people, old and young, alike, have a habit of taking this pill like a multivitamin. In fact, they have substituted with pro and prebiotics and assume that it helps with digestion. However, he points out, "If you take this regularly, your gastric mucosa stops responding against proper acid production. And there is also an impairment in digestion."

He says that in clinical practice, it has been found that this common household medicine, which is often procured as over-the-counter or OTC medicine, meaning, without prescription, could cause Vitamin B12 deficiency, and magnesium deficiency.

What Does The Science Say About Pantoprazole Use?

As per a 2023 study published in the journal BioMed Research International, pantoprazole cause bone loss, which could be prevented by adding octreotide.

The study analyzed the serum levels of calcium, phosphorus, and ALP before starting the treatment, and at the end of 12 weeks of treatment on pantoprazole, significant decline in calcium levels were noticed, as compared with other groups. The study also found that octreotide significantly prevented the effect of pantoprazole on the serum levels of calcium and ALP.

The study also found that pantoprazole decreased femoral bone density and femoral BMAD. Besides this, another decrease was found in the femoral bone weight and volume as well as the trabecular volume.

Another study from 2021, published in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology pointed out that 12 patients had major fractures and showed changes in serum Mg2+ and Ca2+ levels over a period of 1 month as well as the animal study also showed ionic imbalance over 8-week treatment with pantoprazole. Bone density measured for the patient at the end of the 1-month treatment was found to be in the osteopenic category, together with the animal study which showed a decrease in femur bone strength for the animal treated with pantoprazole over a period of 8 weeks.

Are There Any Safer Alternatives To Pantoprazole?

Pantoprazole contain Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI), and prokinetic, long-term use of PPIs is associated with the risk of bone fracture. However, alternatives like Histamine H2-receptor antagonists or H2 blockers are effective alternative that do not cause bone loss, notes a 2020 study published in journal Bone, titled Comparative analysis of the risk of osteoporotic fractures with proton pump inhibitor use and histamine-2 receptor antagonist therapy in elderly women: A nationwide population-based nested case-control study.

The safer alternatives are:

Famotidine (Pepcid, Calmicid, Fluxid, Mylanta AR) is a potent H2 blocker used to manage acidity and heartburn. Studies show that famotidine is not thought to raise the risk of osteoporosis.

Other options: Ranitidine (Zantac - where available, as it was withdrawn in some markets due to safety concerns) and Nizatidine are other H2 blockers.

Note: Health & Me do not encourage discontinuance of any prescribed medicine by a doctor. Before making any change in your medicine schedule, please speak to your doctor/GP.

This flu season could be brutal, say the early clues that scientists have gathered. This comes as the world already struggles keeping up with the new variants of COVID, however, the COVID rates in the US appears to be low. Though researchers are expecting the virus to circulate more widely in the coming months as people gather for holidays.

This is also the time for common cold. Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center tells the New York Times that if you feel ill, but your symptoms remain only above the neck, that is, a stuffy nose, a sore throat, then it could just be a common cold.

However, if the symptoms lead to hacking cough, and down the neck, which makes your muscles ache and body tired, that it could be a flu or COVID. Due to the similarities in the symptoms, even infectious disease specialists also struggle to tell the difference.

Symptoms To Take A Note Of

COVID

How it begins: Initially, symptoms of COVID can mimic flu-like symptoms

What are the primary symptoms of COVID?

• Loss of taste
• Loss of smell
• Sore throat: the new variants are also causing razor-sharp pain in the throat
• Diarrhea or stomach upset

The biggest difference here is the dry and persistent coughing, which when you have a cold will not be dry in nature.

How it impacts? The COVID may vary from mild to severe

Since the pandemic, Covid has blurred the lines between seasonal infections. Current strains can trigger flu-like fatigue, fever, and cough. But the loss of taste or smell and digestive issues are stronger indicators of Covid.

For confirming COVID, test is the only key. There are now at-home tests available online and at drugstores too. An at-home test could detect both, a flu and COVID.

Common Colds

How it begins: The symptoms of common cold starts gradually.

What are the primary symptoms of Common Cold?

• Stuffy or runny nose
• Sore throat, but not razor-blade like pain
• You may feel pressure in the ears

Here, the biggest difference is also in cough, which is often mucus-filled and chesty. Whereas in COVID, the cough is dry.

How it impacts? While it is annoying in the beginning, especially due to the blocked nose and ears, the congestion clears up overtime and usually doesn’t stop daily activities.

Colds typically start with a tickle in the throat or pressure in the ears before progressing to nasal congestion and cough. Most people can carry on with their routines despite the discomfort.

Flu

How it starts? In many cases, the flu may catch you out of the blues, many describe the onset as sudden.

What are the primary symptoms of Flu?

• Fever
• Chills
• Muscle aches
• Exhaustion

While the cough here is also dry in nature, which may make one get confused with COVID, there is no razor-blade like symptom, which can be used as a marker to differentiate.

How does it impact? Flu often requires bed rest.

Unlike a cold, flu can leave you feeling completely wiped out. Body aches and high fever are distinguishing features, and recovery often takes several days of rest.