Will You Die In 5 Years? Scientists Develop Death Test

Scientists claim to have developed a 'death test', which predicts the chances of someone dying in the next five years.STUDY: A simple blood test has been found to calculate a person's likelihood of dying.A simple blood test has been found to calculate a person's likelihood of dying inthe next half-decade, even if they appear perfectly healthy.Experts suggest there are four 'biomarkers' in the body, which indicate the risk of a "general frailty".A biomarker is a particular molecule found in the body that may signal a condition or disease.Those with certain levels of these biomarkers were found to be five times more likely to die within five years of the blood test.One in five with the highest biomarker scores died within the first year of the study.Currently, tests can be carried out to assess someone's risk of developing a certain disease.But the new 'death test', developed by Estonian and Finnish researchers, is the first to predict whether someone is at risk of general ill health."What is especially interesting is that these biomarkers reflect the risk for dying from very different types of diseases such as heart disease or cancer,"said Dr. Johannes Kettunen from the Institute for Molecular Medicinein Finland."They seem to be signs of a general frailty in the body. We believe that in the future these measures can be used to identify people who appear healthy but infact have serious underlying illnesses and guide them to proper treatment."Blood samples from over 17,000 generally healthy people were screened for hundreds of biomarkers, with participants then monitored over five years.During that time, 684 people died from a range of illnesses and diseases, with scientists finding similar levels of four biomarkers in all of them.Estonian researchers had originally discovered the link, before they asked a Finnish team to repeat the study, which was later published in PLOS Medicine.Professor Markus Perola of Finland's Institute for Health and Welfare said:"It was a pretty amazing result. First of all we didn't really believe it.It was astonishing that these biomarkersappeared to actually predict mortality independent of disease.These were all apparently healthy peoplebut to our surprise it appears these biomarkers show an undetected frailty which people did not know they had."But, Prof. Perola was unsure whether thetest would become popular.She added: "Would someone want to know their risk of dying if there is nothing we can do about it?"