What is Your actual age?
Click the link below to calculate your "estimated" biological age, then keep reading!
If you're 45 years old, that means that you've completed 45 rotations around the sun. But chronological age is different than biological age.
Humanity has been interested in slowing the aging process and finding the "fountain of youth" since the dawn of time. Conversations about longevity are especially relevant now, as life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased by more than a year since 2020.
The biology that drives the aging process is being demystified right in front of our eyes to the point that it's conceivable to think about slowing the pace of aging, turning the clock back and altering the course of someone's lifespan.
Biological Versus Chronological Age
Chronological age is how long you have existed. Biological age is how old your cells are.
Sometimes these two numbers are the same, but everyone ages at different rates.
Your "healthspan" is the period of life where you are free of any aging-related disease. The key is slowing down the aging process, to push back the onset of aging-related diseases.
Aging-Related Diseases
For many diseases, the most important risk factor is biological age, meaning that if your cells are older, they are more susceptible to a variety of diseases, such as:
Lung disease
Chronic bronchitis
Pulmonary fibrosis
Diabetes and other metabolic disorders
Cancer
Cardiovascular disease
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease
For most people, if you live long enough, you're going to get an aging-related disease like hypertension. There is a quantifiable alteration and deterioration in function as you age.
Aging on a Cellular Level
You can see some signs of aging with the naked eye — gray hair, wrinkles, limited mobility — but aging really happens on a cellular level.
As your cells age, they eventually enter a phase called senescence, when they lose their ability to regenerate and repair themselves. Environmental factors like stress, or genetic factors like family history can trigger senescence in your cells.
Telomeres
Chromosomes are structures that carry your DNA, which is the blueprint for your cells. Telomeres are groups of molecules called nucleotides on the ends of your chromosomes that act like bumpers, protecting your chromosomes from deterioration.
Every time your cells divide for normal repair and regeneration (which is all the time), your telomeres get shorter, which means they get shorter as you age. Research suggests that if you have shorter telomeres, you are more likely to die early or develop a disease like a neurodegenerative disorder. In fact, there are people with short telomere syndromes (STS) who have genetic mutations that result in rapid aging due to short telomere lengths.
DNA Methylation
Humans have an estimated 30,000 genes, which carry the instructions for making proteins that make up your body and carry out all of its functions. Genes can be turned on or off like light switches. When your cells replicate and repair, a process called DNA methylation can occur. DNA methylation doesn't alter or mutate your genes, but instead changes how you express your genes.
In short, DNA methylation can turn your genes on or off.
Examining DNA methylation is part of epigenetics, the study of how your genes are expressed based on your lifestyle and environment. This is important, because you don't age in a vacuum. A variety of external factors contributes to how you age, including lifestyle, stress and even access to health care.
DNA methylation can also be a very precise predictor of your biological age.
"Someone who has diabetes will have a very different DNA methylation pattern than someone who doesn't. Someone who smokes cigarettes will have a different DNA methylation pattern than someone who doesn't," says Douglas E. Vaughan, MD, chair of Medicine and the Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-director of Potocsnak Longevity Institute at Northwestern Medicine.
DNA methylation can be reversed by lifestyle changes. You can alter your fate with diet and exercise.
The Science of Longevity
There may be simple solutions to help you reverse your biological age (by a small amount) and improve your overall health and wellness. There’s more flexibility with your biological age—which is both good and bad. While you might have the power to reverse it and shave a few years off of your biological age, you can also speed things up and end up feeling older than your chronological age because of poor health.
What influences our genes is our lifestyle, everything from what we eat to how much sleep we get every night. This is how we live, how we breathe, how we eat, what kind of stress we’re exposed to and how we deal with that stress, our community engagement, our relationships, our ability to feel love, moving our bodies, etc.
How to reverse your biological age
An eight-week clinical trial investigated how diet and lifestyle intervention can be used to reverse biological age. The treatment, which included diet, sleep, exercise, relaxation guidance, and supplemental probiotics and phytonutrients, was later associated with a 3.23 year decrease in biological age.
The regimen participants followed:
A very specific diet consisting of a wide variety of colorful and cruciferous vegetables; low glycemic fruits; and some animal protein, particularly eggs, as well as foods dense in polyphenols, such as cumin, turmeric, green tea, and mushrooms.
Adequate hydration
Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes a day five days a week at a perceived exertion of 60-80% of one’s maximum
Regular meditation, breathing exercises, or other relaxation practices
At least seven hours of sleep per night
Two supplements: a greens powder, and a simple probiotic
Every piece in the intervention was designed based on what favorably influenced DNA methylation. The whole program was built to turn off bad genes, like genes associated with cancer or even inflammation, and turn on good ones.
The best time to start implementing diet and lifestyle changes to impact your biological age is in your 30s as changes in the aging journey really “kick in” during our 40s.
Other Things You Can Do
Intermittent fasting (I personally fast 14 hours a day) - regular periods of caloric restriction improves autophagy, which is a process of cellular clean-up that can prevent abnormal cell behavior.
Reducing your exposure to radiation and environmental toxins - don’t smoke, read the labels of all your body and skincare products, get rid of industrial chemicals whenever possible (use this website to find safe products).
Do not use artificial fragrances in your home -avoid plug-in scents in the home and car.
Remember, you are not a victim of your genetics! Take control of your health.
References