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Science of Health at Columbia University

@cusciofhealth.bsky.social

29 followers 50 following 100 posts

We aim to revolutionize biomedicine by understanding and measuring health at all scales, from biological to psychological to functional. Website: tinyurl.com/y6khjbkf See our recent paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu8437

www.science.org

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Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · May 1

Excited to launch our new series: Join Dr. Cohen as he breaks down the fundamentals of health science in our first episode—making complex biology simple, one concept at a time.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Aug 11

A beautiful profile of our work on intrinsic health, by David Craig at Columbia News. magazine.columbia.edu/article/secr...

The Secret Science Behind Feeling Great

Columbia biologists propose a more holistic framework for measuring health — asking not what ails you, but what makes you thrive.

magazine.columbia.edu

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 8

4/4 Most intriguing prediction: intrinsic health metrics should capture early changes in an organism's health state far upstream of disease onset, potentially enabling truly preventive interventions. Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 8

3/4 The paper predicts that measurements of intrinsic health should: 1) decline with age, 2) predict multiple health outcomes better than individual biomarkers, and 3) show diminishing returns as more proxies are integrated. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 8

2/4 Falsifiable: If proxies for resilience, plasticity, performance, and sustainability show no coherent patterns of correlation, our hypothesis of a unified health construct would be invalidated. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 8

1/4 Scientific theories make testable predictions. Our intrinsic health framework hypothesizes that energy, communication, and structure are sufficiently integrated that a common health construct can be reliably measured. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 7

Peer review is breaking down. As an editor, it's nearly impossible to find reviewers. Editors end up needing to review articles themelves, outside their field. A flood of dubious-quality research is overwhelming the system.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 4

5/5 The future: instead of just slowing aging processes, we might enhance the emergent properties that maintain health throughout life. Instead of targeting aging, let’s just target health. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 4

4/5 Most exciting for longevity science: this approach suggests new targets for intervention—not just individual damage types, but the integrated field-like state that maintains resilience across biological scales.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 4

3/5 This connects aging hallmarks: while they appear separate (senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction, etc.), they're unified by their impact on the integrated field of intrinsic health that emerges from biological systems working in harmony.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 4

2/5 The framework explains why aging appears differently across individuals: your intrinsic health—the emergent field from energy, communication, and structure—declines with age, but not necessarily in lockstep with birthdays, and differently across individuals.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 4

1/5 What if aging isn't primarily about damage accumulation, but the declining capacity of your body's integrated health field? Our research introduces 'intrinsic health'—potentially revolutionizing how we understand and measure biological aging. #LongevityScience 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 3

4/ This is why @NIH should fund more cross-cultural, systems-level research. The future of healthy aging might be hiding in populations we've barely studied. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 3

3/ We need to study human biology across the full spectrum of human environments and lifestyles. Otherwise we're optimizing treatments for problems we created. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 3

2/ If inflammaging only occurs in specific environments, what other "aging universals" are actually modern artifacts? This finding cracks open entire new research directions. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 3

The Future of Aging Science 1/ 🚀 Breaking: The hallmarks of aging aren't as universal as we thought. Our 4-population study shows aging biology is far more flexible and context-dependent than textbooks suggest. 🧵

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 1

4/ This matters because we're building medicines based on incomplete pictures. What if the "diseases of aging" are really diseases of mismatch? Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Nonuniversality of inflammaging across human populations - Nature Aging

Analyzing readouts of inflammaging across four cohorts, Franck and colleagues identify strong variation and observe that inflammaging, in its known form, primarily emerges in industrialized—but not no...

www.nature.com

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 1

3/ The Tsimane have 30-40% gastrointestinal infections, 86% eosinophilia, yet minimal heart disease, diabetes, or dementia. Their inflammatory aging looks NOTHING like ours.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 1

2/ We found "inflammaging"—supposedly universal—only exists in industrialized populations. Indigenous groups with high infections show completely different inflammatory patterns with age.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jul 1

The WEIRD Problem 1/ 🧵 Most aging research comes from WEIRD populations (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic). Our new paper shows this creates massive blind spots in understanding human aging.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 30

NEW PAPER: What if "inflammaging" isn't universal? Our new study shows Indigenous nonindustrialized populations with high infections but low chronic disease defy industrialized aging patterns. The hallmarks of aging might vary by environment and lifestyle. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Nonuniversality of inflammaging across human populations - Nature Aging

www.nature.com

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 28

The 'disease-first' approach to medicine is like having mechanics who only know how to fix broken parts, but don't understand how the whole car works. Our new 'intrinsic health' framework changes that.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#ScienceOfHealth #SystemsThinking

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 25

4/4 Imagine healthcare that builds health rather than just fighting disease. That's the future our Science of Health program aims to create. Read the full paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 25

3/4 This isn't just philosophy. Our framework provides a roadmap for creating practical health metrics that integrate multiple biological systems, potentially giving us early warning signs long before disease appears.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 25

2/4 Think of it like this: Your body creates a "health field" similar to how a battery, wire & coil create a magnetic field. We can't see the field directly, but we can measure its effects—robustness, resilience, performance & sustainability.

Science of Health at Columbia University @cusciofhealth.bsky.social · Jun 25

1/4 The Paradigm Shift: For too long, medicine has defined health as "not sick." Our new paper in Science Advances proposes a revolutionary approach: "intrinsic health" as a measurable biological state that emerges from energy, communication & structure in our bodies. Read more…🧵

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