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As we age, the molecules and structural components within our cells (their organelles or tiny “organs” such as the energy-producing mitochondria) become damaged by stress, overuse, exposure to sunlight and other radiation, toxins and even by byproducts of our metabolism. Jazwinski and Kim recently outlined a new way to model biological aging as the disintegration of a complex network of interconnected systems and functions in the human body (more on that later!). Deming and MD Regents Chair in Aging at Tulane University, and Sangkyu Kim write in a 2017 paper investigating markers of biological aging. “What has become clear over the past decade or so is that the contributors to these disorders at the cellular level are damaged molecules and organelles,” S. But these diseases likely have a stronger association with the biological process of aging than with the chronological, passage-of-time one. This is because the primary risk factor for developing these diseases is aging itself. )ĭiseases as varied as macular degeneration, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis and arthritis have come to be known as diseases of aging. (Although hint: We may be able to maintain or even increase cognitive function as we age, thanks to our very “plastic” brain, if we engage in healthy aging behaviors like learning something new every day, exercising and meditating. We might think of less effective cognitive function – forgetfulness and slow learning. When we think of aging, we might think of reduced functional ability – most 70 year olds we know aren’t climbing mountains or running sprints, and the ones who are intrigue us in viral Youtube and social media videos because of their rarity. There are many unwanted changes that we associate with getting older. “Any measure of biological age must be better than chronological age at predicting mortality.” – Jazwinski & Kim, 2017 Aging may be inevitable – but what happens to your body and mood as you age is partly up to you. You could be 50 but look (both on the inside and outside of your body) like you are 42… or 63. At 90, you might “look” like you are 80 in terms of how your body functions… or you might look like you are 110. At 100 years old, your risk of dying is nearly the same as at 101, 105 or even 110 !Īfter you hit 90, it is your biological age, or the toll that the biological aging process has taken on your body in particular, that is a much better predictor of your health and mortality. The relationship between your chronological age and your mortality even plateaus as you hit your 100’s. The idea that you are “one year closer to death” becomes less and less true as you age, particularly with each birthday you have after you hit 90. This is true especially as you approach a century of life. It turns out that your chronological age, or how old you are based on the passage of time, is a poor indicator of your health and even, past a certain age, a poor indicator of survival or mortality. īut your biological age can also help predict your longevity. That’s good news for most of us, because most people would rather live healthier than live longer. What’s more, researchers are finding that your biological age relative to your chronological age is a better indicator of your healthspan, or the estimated length of your highly functional and disease-free life. What is exciting is that unlike your chronological age, which you can’t do much about except to accept get older and wiser, you can change your biological age with the health-related decisions you make in your daily life.
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It can be defined in terms of what researchers call frailty indices – in what areas does your body work less well today than it did last year, or a decade ago? Do you have a shorter working memory? Are you less insulin sensitive? Do you have a lower lung capacity? Your biological age is a measure of how the biological aging process has impacted your body. Welcome to the concept of biological age. “Even to the untrained eye it has always been apparent that different people age differently.” – Jazwinski & Kim, 2019 Jump down in this post to calculate a metric of your biological aging here. That will probably be true for the rest of your life, unless you find a way to freeze time (or cryopreserve yourself!).īut what if you could change your age? What if by fasting, eating healthy and exercising, for example, you could change how old you are? If you are chronologically 34 years old today, you’ll be 35 years old next year. We’re stuck with what we’ve got and it steadily increases year after year. Whether we easily reveal our chronological age to others or keep it close to our chests, we can’t deny time.