“Your biological age is a critical component in the entire ageing process, and again, can be very different from your chronological age.” – DEEPAK CHOPRA
How old would you be if you didn’t know your age? Do you feel younger or older? Everyone ages differently according to genetic, lifestyle, psychological and physical factors. People with healthy habits and a happy disposition are more likely to be biologically younger than someone who abuses or neglects themselves. Lack of exercise, binge drinking, smoking and a high body mass index has been shown to accelerate biological ageing from teen years according to a study, The role of adolescent lifestyle habits in biological ageing. Though our chronological age on our birth certificate is fixed, our biological age is adaptable according to our beliefs and behaviour.
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There are four broad categories of ageing
1 Chronological
Fixed number of years we’ve been alive
2 Biological
Adjustable age calculated according to our biomarkers and behaviour
3 Appearance
A subjective opinion of how old we look
4 Psychological
The age that we feel
BIOLOGICALLY BETTER EACH BIRTHDAY True age tests
We can estimate our biological age through many measures. A general lifestyle questionnaire can give a vague indication of our inner age. These tests deduce that you are biologically older the worse your weight, exercise, diet, vices, sleep and stress levels. An in-depth online biological assessment can be accessed at youngeryouprogram. com/basa/
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For a scientifically accurate assessment that can monitor progress or degeneration over time, nothing beats the biological tests and programs offered by companies such as Elysium and Inside Tracker (insidetracker.com). Biological age is calculated through blood or saliva tests. Morgan Levine PhD told GOOP, “We use ten clinical measures that capture health and functioning in multiple systems (immune, metabolic, cardiovascular, kidney and liver). The clinical biomarkers include c-reactive protein (CRP), total cholesterol, albumin, creatinine, hba1c (your average blood sugar), alkaline phosphatase, and urea nitrogen”. Awareness of these biomarkers and more can reveal disease tendencies to guard against. For example, someone with poor cardiovascular results could focus on strengthening that area. Utilising this goldmine of individual data, Inside Tracker offers science-backed customised suggestions regarding diet, exercise and supplements to optimise wellbeing.
Biological bummers
- Chronic health conditions
- Excessive alcohol
- Exposure to environmental or chemical toxins
- Frequent stress
- High blood sugar or cholesterol
- Insufficient sleep
- Low or no exercise
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Obesity
- Smoking
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Meditate
Try meditation for pro-ageing medication. We could om ourselves to immortality as studies show that just 15 minutes of meditation daily boosts telomerase, which lengthens longevity telomeres. Telomere shortening was reduced with loving kindness meditation, according to recent research in Psychoneuroendocrinology. “People who meditate regularly are biologically younger,” says Dr Kara Fitzgerald, author of Younger You. Meditation also builds a younger brain, according to an 18-year study by the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Studying a Buddhist monk’s brain in contrast to a control group revealed that meditation reduced the monk’s brain age by up to eight years.
Whole-food, plant-based diet (WFPB)
Eating your veggies can support a stronger, longer life in line with a slew of studies. One recent study in
The Lancet Oncology discovered that a low-fat plant-based diet increased telomere length, indicating a longer life. The phytonutrients and low saturated fat in a WFPB diet “maximises the antioxidant potential within our cells by providing essential vitamins, including vitamins A, C, and E. It also helps to eliminate harmful carcinogens and gerontotoxins (ageing toxins) within our bloodstream and has been shown to lengthen telomeres, which prevents cellular damage,” according to a 2020 scientific review led by dermatologist Jason Solway. Plant-based diets may also protect against common conditions in the elderly such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to a new review by The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. In older adults, the healthful Plant-based Diet Index was associated with lower risk of frailty in a 2022 study printed in GeroScience.
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Exercise regularly
Putting one foot in front of another could keep our foot out of the grave. As Hippocrates prescribed, “Walking is man’s best medicine.” Keeping active keeps our brain and body biologically younger as supported by many studies. Regular exercisers had biological ageing markers nine years younger than sedentary folk in a 2017 study in Preventive Medicine. Study author Larry Tucker explained, “Adults who participate in high levels of physical activity tend to have significantly longer telomeres than their counterparts.” Cultivating a regular exercise habit is key to slowing ageing, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham and King’s College, London. Results showed that regular movers had youthful immunity, muscle mass and cholesterol levels.
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Sleep soundly
How do you feel and look if you miss a night’s sleep? Sleep is nature’s nurse. Without offline snooze time to recharge, we age rapidly. New mums who slept less than seven hours a night were biologically up to seven years older than mums who got sufficient sleep, according to a new study in Sleep Health. Disturbed sleep also ages us as obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has been linked to an increase in diabetes, heart attacks, hypertension and strokes. Research led by Dr Rene Cortese conclude that “OSA-induced sleep disruptions and lower oxygen levels during sleep promoted faster biological age acceleration compared to the control group.” Sleep specialist Dr Judith Carroll in her review Sleep and Biological Ageing said disturbed sleep “increased cellular senescence, shortening telomere length, altering the expression of telomerase activity and accelerating epigenetic aging.”
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Stress less
“Stress is potently pro-ageing,” says Dr Kara Fitzgerald, author of Younger You. Subduing stress is essential to decelerate ageing. Stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol compromise our immune system while degenerating our brains and bodies. Stressed subjects were twice as likely to develop disease in a study of nearly
800 nuns and priests. Stress ages us, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which found stressed women’s immune systems aged an extra 10 years. Ageing biomarkers all increased with stress in a 2022 study led by Lilian Polksy, which revealed that chronic stress contributed to “DNA damage, telomere shortening, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and cellular senescence”.
