The biological age' of a person's organs may vastly differ from each other, a new study finds.
A Chinese research team from the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) found that a person's organs can age separately from one-another, and have drastically different ages despite being in the same body.
The concept of 'biological age' is one that a majority of people are familiar with - the idea that stress, fitness and other lifestyle factors can cause a person's body to degrade at different rates.
People generally think of it as a general, overall age, though this research team instead thinks different parts of the body can all be categorized differently.
Researchers found that within a person's body, different organs can have different 'age' levels and affect each other in different ways. One interesting correlation is that a healthier gut can lead to unhealthy kidneys
Researchers, who published their findings Tuesday in Cell Reports gathered data from 4,066 people aged 20 to 45 for the study.
Each participant gave a blood sample, stool sample, underwent a physical examination and facial skin imaging.
Using the information gathered, researchers determined an estimated 'age' for participant's kidneys, heart, liver, sex hormone, skin and gut.
They also gave an age to a person's physical health, immune health and genomics depending on their findings.
The findings were then combined into nine categories: gut, heart, fitness, liver, nutrition, skin, immune, renal (kidney) and sex hormone health.
'Our study used approaches that can help improve our understanding of aging and—more importantly—could
