As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we might feel we’re ageing faster than before. That’s not as strange as it sounds. Accelerated ageing can result from several factors, some of which have been highlighted by the pandemic. Exposure to infectious diseases, chronic stress and loneliness can all affect the ageing process, exacerbating health conditions and shortening lives.

As scientists become more adept at measuring ageing in the body, however, it is becoming clear that some people are remarkably resilient to these and other stressors — an observation that has fuelled research into how life experience might slow the ageing process.

Until about 20 years ago, scientists thought ageing was unmodifiable and happened at the same rate for everyone, says Luigi Ferrucci, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at the US National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. Although it did seem that some people remained healthier for longer than others who had lived for the same length of time, there seemed to be no way to change the physiological or cognitive declines that individuals experience as they get older.

That kind of thinking started to change in the 1980s, Ferrucci says, when researchers linked small genetic modifications in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans with substantially longer lifespans. This pointed to potential pathways for intervention¹. Subsequent research identified a variety of genes that had similar effects through different mechanisms in mice and other mammals. Some genetic mutations have been associated with extreme longevity in people as well.

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