A sweeping new genetic analysis of more than 900,000 people in the United States has revealed something profound: as we age, parts of our DNA physically change — and for some people, those changes happen up to four times faster than for others. We’ve read the research that trauma and environmental exposure can hurt us at the DNA and cellular level, harming our future offspring, but this new research will be useful for life hackers, people that want to try to live forever.
Life hackers like Bryan Johnson, a US tech entrepreneur (founder of Braintree, which acquired Venmo) has turned his body into a full-scale longevity experiment called Blueprint. This latest research might allow some people to figure out how they “optimize” differently to live as long as possible.
The study, published this week in the leading science journal Nature, examined repetitive stretches of DNA known as repeat expansions — short genetic sequences that copy themselves again and again over time. These repeats are already known to cause more than 60 inherited diseases, including Huntington’s disease, myotonic dystrophy, and some forms of ALS. What scientists hadn’t realized until now is just how common, dynamic, and genetically controlled this process is across the general population.
“We found that most human genomes contain repeat elements that expand as we age,” said Margaux L. A. Hujoel, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor at UCLA. “Some individuals’ repeats expand four times faster than others. That level of genetic control points to real opportunities for intervention.”
Researchers from Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, and UCLA analyzed whole-genome data from nearly half a million UK Biobank participants and more than 400,000 people enrolled in the U.S.-based All of Us Research Program. Using newly developed computational tools, the team measured instability across more than 356,000 repeat locations in the genome.
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What they found reshapes how scientists think about genetic aging. Repeat expansions were shown to increase steadily with age in blood cells, while 29 distinct genetic regions were identified that either accelerate or slow this expansion. Strikingly, the same DNA repair genes could stabilize one repeat while destabilizing another — a reminder that biology rarely behaves in simple, linear ways.
One discovery stood out. Expansions in the GLS gene, present in about 0.03% of people, were linked to a 14-fold increased risk of severe kidney disease and a threefold increase in liver disease risk — pointing to a previously unrecognized repeat expansion disorder hiding in plain sight.
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Why does this matter? Because these expanding repeats may become measurable biomarkers — early warning signs that disease processes are accelerating long before symptoms appear. More importantly, the naturally occurring genetic variants that slow repeat expansion may show researchers which molecular pathways to target with future therapies.
“This work tells us that genetic aging isn’t uniform,” Hujoel said. “And if we can learn how to slow it in some people, we may be able to slow disease itself.”
For a world grappling with aging populations and chronic disease, the message is clear: our DNA is not static — but it may be more steerable than we thought.
What is life hacking?
Life hacking is a modern catch-all for a growing movement that treats the human body and mind as systems that can be measured, tested, and improved. A life hacker uses tools from biohacking, data tracking, and behavioral science to pursue human optimization and self-optimization, often through the quantified self approach—measuring sleep, nutrition, stress, and performance to guide personal optimization and performance hacking. Increasingly, this mindset is focused on longevity hacking and anti-aging biohacking, with the aim to slow aging naturally, reduce one’s biological age, and in some cases even attempt to reverse aging.
Central to this effort are concepts like lifespan extension and healthspan optimization, which prioritize living healthier for longer, not just living longer. Researchers and biohackers alike track aging biomarkers such as DNA aging, telomeres, and epigenetic age to understand how fast the body is aging at a cellular level—and whether lifestyle, technology, or medical interventions can meaningfully change that trajectory.
We say eat well, exercise within reason, love your God, your nation and your family, and you will have a great life.
