UK researchers have developed a new test that could reveal your true age. Photo: 7 News.

Scientists who were developing a blood test to see how our bodies age physically have found a whole new use for it.

They discovered their test can also predict the risk of someone developing Alzheimer's disease before they display any symptoms.

The simple blood test can also determine how young our body and mind really are and when we might die.

The test analysed the cells of 65-year-olds' and compared them to healthy youngsters. The UK scientists found 150 genes that are markers for how the body ages.





Professor Henry Brodaty at the University of NSW says the test could be revealing.

“This is a genetic blood test, which can determine how well tissues are aging, looking at brain, looking at muscle, looking at skin.”

Kate Swaffer was diagnosed with dementia at forty-nine. She believes early diagnosis, like a definitive blood test, would be a huge plus.

“It is great to have a blood test to know whether the brain is aging well,” she said.

The advantage of knowing more about your aging brain is that people can take some risk reduction factors into their life that would prevent dementia.

In the future this test could help doctors identify patients most at risk of ageing diseases and then fast-track them into trails to slow down and even prevent the onset. But Professor Brodaty says that is the future.

“If I could do a test of me today or on you today so say whether you are destined to get Alzheimer's Disease in the next decade would you want to know if there was no treatment available?”

In the meantime, he says it's how you use what you've got that counts.