The research is sprawling and interdisciplinary, but it is beginning to align around a provocative hypothesis: Shifts in everyday exposures may be accelerating biological aging, priming the body for disease earlier than expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve changed what we\u2019re exposed to considerably in the past few decades,\u201d said Patti, a professor of chemistry, genetics and medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sheer complexity of modern life makes it difficult to pinpoint specific culprits. But advances in rapid, high-volume chemical screening, machine learning, and vast population datasets have made it possible to look with unparalleled depth and detail into the human body and the world around it. These methods test thousands of variables at once, revealing some never-before-seen patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, researchers released findings from a 150,000-person study at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting<\/a> that took the cancer community by surprise. They found that millennials \u2014 born between 1981 and 1996 \u2014 appear to be aging biologically faster than previous generations, based on biomarkers in blood that indicate the health of various organs. That acceleration was associated with a significantly increased risk \u2014 up to 42 percent \u2014 for certain cancers, especially those of the lung, gastrointestinal tract and uterus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> NEW: The rates of cancer among millennials are rising, and researchers now think it can't be explained by genetics and lifestyle choices alone. Check out the latest in our young cancer series, by @arianaeunjung<\/a> @alvarovalino<\/a> and @dtkeating<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/YUosFbFpgq<\/a><\/p>— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) September 23, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>