In Brief: Body may be younger than it looks

Swedish neurologist Jonas Frisen has figured out how to use carbon-14 dating to precisely gauge the age of body cells, the New York Post reported.

His study, reported in this month's New Scientist magazine, found that as people age, cells are constantly dying off and being regenerated. That means many parts of the human body are years younger than a person's chronological age.

Frisen and his team found that the cells that work the hardest have the shortest life spans. Red blood cells, for example, last only 120 days. The lining of the stomach renews itself the quickest, with the cells regenerating every five days, the newspaper said.

The researchers are trying to figure out if and how brain cells regenerate. Studies are also being done to learn more about heart, liver, eye and fat cells, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International