If a test could indicate the likelihood of dying within the next 10 years, would you take such a test?
An international team of researchers has discovered a link between the biological age of a person’s retinas and their risk of death. The results indicate that a simple eye test may provide doctors with a clue into how long you have left to live.
A study of almost 47,000 adults found that people whose retinas were “older” than their actual age were more likely to die over the next decade.
Researchers monitored the participants, all between 40 and 69 years-old, for an average of 11 years. Each person had their fundus — the back surface of the eye — scanned as part of the UK Biobank study. The international team compared each retina’s “biological age” with that person’s chronological age — discovering a “retinal age gap” in many participants.
Large gaps were associated with 49 to 67 percent higher risks of death from any cause other than cardiovascular disease or cancer. This was after taking into account potentially influential factors such as high blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), lifestyle habits, and ethnicity.
For each one-year increase in the age gap, scientists found a two and three percent rise in the risk of death from any cause or a specific cause, respectively.
The new findings, combined with previous research, add weight to “the hypothesis that the retina plays an important role in the aging process and is sensitive to the cumulative damages of aging which increase the mortality risk.”
“Our findings indicate that retinal age gap might be a potential biomarker of aging that is closely related to risk of mortality, implying the potential of retinal image as a screening tool for risk stratification and delivery of tailored interventions,” the study authors write in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
So what do you think? Would you take the test?
I certainly would.
While it would certainly be unnerving to learn that you have less than 10 years to live, I think the study suggests that armed with such info, a person could take proactive steps to increase their health.
I’d want to know if the test predicts I am going to die in 10 years. If it did, then I would be quite proactive in trying to improve my health.
Or maybe I could cheat death by getting a double eye transplant with eyes that perform better on this retinal scan test. Imagine if you could keep repeating this; a new set of eyes every few years, and thus never getting a prediction of dying within the next 10 years.
I may have just discovered the fountain of youth…
*source and image from StudyFinds
Oh my! Hmmm…. it would be morbid news to receive but if you could be proactive then to prevent it , it may be a good thing to know.
My son just told me this week that I need to live until I am 130 and he will live until he is 100 and then we can die at the same time. That kid pulls my heart strings a lot!
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sounds like you have a wonderful son, and he seems to like math! 🙂
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Yes, I he is wonderful, though I may be bias. 🙂And he is a math whiz! He is a lot like ne but He didn’t get that from me! LOL!
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that’s a good bias to have! I’m happy to hear he likes math!
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It is! Both my kids are womdetful and I am sure yours are too! 🙂
Though I still blame mine for the gray hairs I have.
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yes, my wife and are are lucky to have three wonderful sons (all in their 30s at this point!). but yes, some days are more challenging than others 🙂
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Oh but I figured by the time they hit their 30’s its smooth sailing. LOL!
Actually my sister has told me different, her kids are in their 30’s.
I like the quote that says, “I don’t have a favorite child. It it depends on the day.” 😉
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I think it gets easier, but you never stop worrying about them…
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Understand! My parents would agree!
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my mom kept reminding me, when I was in my fifties, to wear a jacket if it was getting cold outside…
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Oh gosh, yes! My Dad asks where my hat is for everyone knows all the heat goes out your head!
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that will probably be me some day, and in the not too distant future… 🙂
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😄
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I’d take the test. But if I spent all of my assets and wound up living for 20 more years, I’d be pissed. 🤣 If the test has real validity, life insurance companies might adopt it and it might be used in litigation to measure damages among many other uses.
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that’s always a concern, will we outlive our assets…
and that would be interesting if insurance companies started requiring such a test…
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That’s an aspect I hadn’t thought of when I decided I’d want to know because my plan would be to live like the estimate is accurate!
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get everything out of life that you can!
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What if the test shows that your retinas are younger than your chronological age? Then you might feel tempted to take more risks with your health, which could result in dying within ten years. But I think this study requires replication and vigorous debate. And as long as that debate is not censored, it could result in finding that the study is a load of hogwash.
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I guess there’s always a catch 22. But I guess many people who get a good health result, like a good blood pressure reading, might be tempted to take less care of themselves than they should. until it turns into a bad reading…
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Yes, just like government, the time for action is after everything goes bad.
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the classic knee-jerk reaction…
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You could also take the test, find out you have more than ten years left and be so excited you don’t pay attention stepping off the curb and get hit by a bus. Just sayin’.
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there is always that possibility that younger retinas lead to greater risk taking and not be as vigilant as you should be…
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Some of the younger retinas pay too much attention to their phones.
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indeed they do, and hence the possibility of the situation you describe…
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Another thought… blue light from phones/screens ages eyes.
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I guess I should cut back on my phone use. I wonder is that suggests that phone usage reduces our life span…
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I wonder too. But computers and tvs also give off damaging blue light.
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it’s hard to avoid…
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I wear blue light blocker glasses.
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one of my sons swears by his blue light glasses…
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Me too! DRAMATICALLY reduced my eye fatigue.
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Yes to all of the above but an overriding …Nope!
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oh well; it’s not for everyone 🙂
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It’s funny how we pretend death will never come up until it’s staring us right in the eye…
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🙂 quite true…
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I’m not sure—how’s that for a wishy-washy answer. I’m all for being proactive, but I can also see that some people might take it as a death sentence. It seems like a no-brainer that if a person found out they had cancer, they would undergo radiation or chemotherapy to try and beat it, but somehow that feels like a different situation to me. There are some things in life, I’d rather not know. Perhaps that’s the storyteller in me because I don’t care for stories that become predictable after I read the first few pages.
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I can see your logic.
but then sometimes those predictable books might have a surprise ending… 🙂
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i’m with pete on this one – i prefer to live knowing that we all have no idea how long our lives will be, so why not live our best lives anyway?
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what a wonderful philosophy to have!
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First, I have to contend with the wrinkles, grey hair, and general aches and pains that come with age. Now, I have to worry about having old ass retinas? Count me out. I will meet my end blissfully unaware and fully on my own terms.
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who knew that our retinas might be our downfall! and I like your attitude towards life!
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I researched this for a short story… You can’t get eye transplants – only corneas. Scientists are working on it though.
I’d probably take the test if it were free and available. I have a curious nature (downright odd, according to some…). And it might concentrate my planning.
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thanks for letting me know about he eye transplant; so much for the fountain of youth!
and I think odd is a good character trait!
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I just wouldn’t want to know. I worry enough as it is!
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good point; who wants potentially more bad news…
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I don’t think I’d want to take it. If the results suggested I was on borrowed time, I’d have a negative reaction and squander that time with worry instead of doing things to improve my health and enjoying/strengthening relationships with loved ones. And if it suggested I was okay, I might grow complacent. We should try to make the most of every second we have whether we feel the clock ticking or not. (And I’m already bad about that.)
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thank you for your thoughtful comment, Staci. It makes a lot of sense. Based on some of the comments, I’m starting to rethink my attitude towards this test!
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If knowing would help you change for the better, by all means, take it! I know it wouldn’t help me, though.
And if the eye transplants would work? Then I’d be on board. 😆
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one of the other commenters noted that eye transplants are not possible…
oh well… 🙂
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I would take the test. And then probably not believe the results 😂😂
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I think I might do the same, if I didn’t like the results! 🙂
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Ha. You are right. We all need hope!
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🙂
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I would definitely take it … the reason is as we age there are a lot of “elective” surgeries we can opt to have–or not.
Rather than, say, get artificial knee replacements or dental implants or hip replacements etc etc etc designed to last for decades, if I only had one decade left, I’d rather not spend a lot of it in surgery /rehab/ long recovery periods from optional procedures (not to mention the costs monetarily… but it would be nice to know when we should best opt to take our social security payments!) .
My mother in law died just 3 months after her knee replacement and, even tho it was successful, it strained her OTHER knee, so she wasn’t pain-free. We had NO idea she was going to die at age 76 but if we had we would have lived those last years differently, spending much more time with her.
I wish we HAD known, as hard as it would have been to take the news. 😦
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that is a shame that your mom died seemingly unexpectedly. and you are right, if we had some advance warnings of such an event, we could do things differently…
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Personally I would rather not know. I think the added stress of knowing would make my quality of life much worse. When death comes, it comes. I don’t spend much time thinking about it and I never worry about it so why mess with the status quo?
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as the saying goes, sometimes ignorance is bliss…
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I think I will if it will allow me to deal with the situation. Having said that, since it will call for changing my potentially harmful lifestyle, I should just change my lifestyle, right? Although, if the test reveals that I am no peril for the next 10 years, will I be less careful about my lifestyle and take more chances with my health?
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that’s a good point about how people might react if they get a good test result – will they be less vigilant about their health?
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Plus, you can change your eye color. I think that improved, healthier habits are likely to produce a longer, fuller life regardless if what your retinas tell you, so you really don’t need the test. Just improve (or keep) your habits anyway.
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that’s solid advice, just live a healthy life. But I wonder if the eye test could reveal some illnesses that pop up despite living a healthy lifestyle…
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Ah, like spot the colon cancer before the tests. That would be useful.
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I agree; if the test could do that, it would be helpful…
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I doubt I would take it. It’s like getting a Cancer Diagnosis and being told you have so much longer to live. If you can’t beat it, why do you want to know..and add mental stress?
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it is quite the dilemma…
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Oh gosh I have such a fear of death and finality…. I honestly don’t know if I could do it… on the one hand I agree with you about wanting to know so I can take advantage with the time remaining…. but gosh, I’d be a wreck… but honestly (literally working through my emotions as I write this lol) I feel like I’d be a wreck even if I didn’t know because then it’s like it’s looming…
maybe.. MAYBE, I’d get a friend or my sister to find out and then if it’s less than 5 years then I will get them to wink at me or something so I know to start taking life by the balls so-to-speak lol… hhaa I don’t know… gotta process this some more!
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thanks for your personal insights, BossyBabe! I guess the main advantage I see in taking the test is that if it revealed that I have less than 10 years to live, but that a change in lifestyle might reverse such a diagnosis, then I would want to know…
and I can see how it could be a motivator to live life to the fullest…
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Oh yes very good point that I did not think about- an opportunity to change your fate!
Also I have an update… I’m terribly addicted to wordle lol
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I am also addicted to Wordle, and I made the mistake of finding a version that has unlimited play, not just once a day…
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omg! no don’t tell me lol that’s the only thing we’d be doing!
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I’ll keep it my secret 🙂
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If that’s a thing, then … I think it’s pretty neat. Yes, I’d do the test. I think ’10 years’ is vague enough not to give you a heart attack but enough to give you a kick in the butt.
This reminded me of an online test back in the day that would give you the exact date of your death if you answered a couple of questions. Bogus, of course.
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I would just keep taking that bogus test until I got the answer I wanted 🙂
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Exactly what I did 😀
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👍
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Yes… but only because I don’t plan to live much longer. Finding out I’m biologically short on time might motivate me to get affairs on order with regard to my cats and distribution of assets. And to cancel some elective procedures.
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it could motivate you in other ways as well…
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To you idea…. corneal transplants use cadaver eyes so, in theory, their age numbers already passed.
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hmmm… so much for that…
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Lol… well, accidentally deaths still wouldn’t count. But there’s hot tobe some post mortem corneal aging!
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🙂
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I would take the test. Then, if I knew I would probably die in ten years, I could visit people I haven’t kept in touch with, write that book, do some things on my bucket list, etc. What’s that country western song, “Live Like You Were Dying.”
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I think I would try and see if there is something I can do to reverse whatever the diagnosis is that is giving me just 10 more years to live…
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Not I. I do not want to know. 🙂
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it’s a hard choice, and one I go back and forth on…
I would definitely take the test if I knew that a bad result could be reversed through better health care…
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Still, I”d probably worry what’s left of my life away. 🙂
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that is the possible downside…:)
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