Test to Become Available That May Predict How Long You Will Live

Scientists have created a blood test that can determine how fast a person is aging, and it may have the ability to estimate how long a person will live. Life Length, one company that sells these tests, is preparing to make the tests available to Britain’s general public this year. The test is not able to predict the exact number of years a person has to live; it only determines a person’s biological age by measuring telomeres— vital structure on a person’s chromosomes.

Some researchers predict these tests will become prevalent during the coming five to ten years. Although some scientists view these tests as groundbreaking, others believe that these tests create many ethical issues that should be governed by stronger ethical controls. These scientists fear that organizations trying to sell anti-ageing remedies will falsely use these tests to their advantage. The public’s reactions on the availability of the tests are just as mixed, with no clear indication of how well the tests will do once they are made public.

See Steve Connor, The £400 Test That Tells You How Long You’ll Live, The Independent, May 16, 2011.