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Scientists have long recognized the human brain appears to keep time to its own internal clock, its biological age speeding or slowing depending on a host of factors.

Someone with a higher education, for example, might have a younger-looking brain than someone without one, research has suggested. Surprisingly, dancing appears to keep the brain young. Meditation might do the same. And stress has been associated with an older-appearing brain.

Now, a new study led by a University of Florida Institute on Aging researcher has found the brain age of older adults with chronic pain had accelerated by an average of two years. This might have important health implications since previous research has associated accelerated brain aging with an elevated risk of poor mental and physical health, including Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

鈥淭he greater the pain intensity they were experiencing, the older looking their brain,鈥� said 网红黑料 researcher , a faculty member and the study鈥檚 lead author. 鈥淚n previous studies, each year of older brain age relative to your chronological age is actually predictive of about a 6 percent increase in the risk of death.鈥�

But Cruz-Almeida found that people who received treatments for their pain, from medication to even home remedies like a cold compress on an aching knee, had younger-appearing brains, suggesting that pain relief might slow that internal clock.

Meanwhile, individuals without chronic pain had on average a brain that appeared four years younger than their actual age.

鈥淥ur findings highlight the need to address chronic pain, not just in older individuals but in potentially everyone, as pain may have unintended consequences in the brain that we don鈥檛 yet fully understand,鈥� said Cruz-Almeida.

But, she added, 鈥淭here appear to be avenues or things that could be done to change brain age.鈥�

The study, published in the journal Pain, showed that people with a positive affect 鈥� those who have a happier outlook on life and were generally more upbeat, even when they have chronic pain 鈥� had younger-appearing brains.

鈥淭he pain experience is not just in your brain,鈥� said Cruz-Almeida. 鈥淚t鈥檚 related to social, environmental and lifestyle factors鈥� that might be managed to keep the brain young.

The study measured the volume of the brain鈥檚 gray and white matter in a group of 47 adults, ages 60 to 83, both with and without chronic pain, using magnetic resonance imaging scans. The MRIs essentially measured brain atrophy, which occurs naturally as people age, though with great variability.

Study volunteers were free of any neurological disorders and in good health, save for chronic pain in some.

Their brain scans were then fed into a machine-learning algorithm, developed by researcher James Cole, Ph.D., at King鈥檚 College London, who also is a co-author of Cruz-Almeida鈥檚 study. The algorithm is trained to calculate a brain鈥檚 biological age based on the loss of brain tissue volume. This algorithm was built using brain scans of 2,646 healthy individuals, ages 18 to 90. In essence, the algorithm recognizes what a brain typically looks like at a specific age in healthy individuals.

Cruz-Almeida said it was important to note that there is variability among the 47 older adults whose brains were scanned, including some individuals with chronic pain who actually displayed brain ages younger than their actual age.

鈥淣ot everybody ages the same way,鈥� said Cruz-Almeida. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people to think, 鈥極h, I have chronic pain. I鈥檓 doomed.鈥� This is not the case. That is not the message we want to get out. There is more nuance than that.鈥�

Cruz-Almeida is embarking on additional research using a larger sample of older adults. This future study also will look at ways to alleviate accelerated aging.

More research also is needed to answer a chicken-or-egg conundrum: Does the pain cause the brain to age, or does an older brain heighten someone鈥檚 experience of pain? Right now, scientists can鈥檛 say.

More than 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain. In fact, more Americans are affected by chronic pain than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

Cruz-Almeida is an assistant professor in the ; ; and which also is in the . Cruz-Almeida also serves as associate director of training and career development for the and as leader of the pilot and exploratory studies core of the

Co-authors of the study include , a professor and director of the UF Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence and a member of the UF Institute on Aging; director of the pain clinical research unit in the UF Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence and a member of the UF Institute on Aging; , an assistant professor in the UF College of Public 网红黑料 and 网红黑料 Professions鈥� department of clinical and health psychology and the UF College of Medicine鈥檚 department of neuroscience; , an assistant professor in the UF College of Public 网红黑料 and 网红黑料 Professions鈥� department of clinical and health psychology; and , a professor in the UF College of Public 网红黑料 and 网红黑料 Professions鈥� department of clinical and health psychology and director of the