Biological clock predicts life expectancy: study

A new international study shows that some people's biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.

Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain that why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.

Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analysis blood samples collected from 13,000 people and estimate their lifespan.

A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.

"You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young," Horvath said in a statement. "We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate."

The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.

"The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate," Horvath said, adding that "this is an important milestone to realizing this dream."