If you think you are old, think again.

You are not a passenger on this journey of ageing. The lifestyle you lead has a direct impact on how quickly your organs age.

That’s why it’s important to focus on key factors that protect your body while avoiding those that speed up the clock.

Protective factors

Vigorous exercise, eating fish (rich in omega-3s), emotional wellbeing, social connections, a sense of meaning and higher levels of education.

Accelerating factors

Smoking, drinking too much alcohol, eating lots of processed foods, particularly meat, and poor sleep.

Making positive choices is crucial as we enter an era where a routine blood test could provide a full report on your organ health, paving the way for more proactive and personalised medicine.

Research from Stanford University in 2019 suggested a simple blood test could be used to determine the relative age of your brain and organs, and in turn whether you are likely to live a long and healthy life.

An in-depth study of how proteins, the body’s building blocks, change over time in different organs suggests that different organs age at different rates. The research backs up what we know and see: ageing is not a smooth, linear process and certain molecules can speed it up.

Some tissues, particularly blood vessels, may also age faster than others, a new study published in the journal Cell shows.

Researchers compiled a list of proteins found in organs from people of different ages and found that there was an age-related increase in the expression of 48 proteins associated with disease. Early changes from the age of about 30 were also noted in the adrenal gland, which is responsible for the production of various hormones.

Between the ages of 45 and 55 there was a marked change in protein levels, most notably in the aorta, which is the main vessel carrying blood from the heart.

Based on samples from over 45,000 people from the UK Biobank, scientists have shown that lifestyle factors and medication have an impact on organ ageing and were associated with the future onset of a number of diseases.

These include heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Most notably, having an aged brain was strongly correlated with Alzheimer’s disease.

The more organs aged, the more mortality is affected, and conversely, youthful brains and immune systems were associated with longevity.

With the global cost of brain disorders projected to cost $16 trillion annually by 2030, safeguarding our minds is a health and economic priority.