It’s a new year! And that means that each of us is becoming one year older.
How does that make you feel? Are you excited? Or are you cringing at the thought and perhaps annoyed that I even brought it up?
For the young – a new year and each added birthday is an exciting and celebratory time.
But at a certain point in our lives many of us don’t want to focus on the added year to our age. We see the number that represents how many years we’ve been alive and we get nervous, anxious, or something else. (if this thought is really triggering for you feel free to read about EFT tapping 🙂)
A wise woman told me many years ago that celebrating birthdays and aging is a wonderful thing – and it sure beats the alternative. She is turning 93 this year.
On the other hand feeling nervous or even ambivalent about aging is totally understandable.
After all, aging is the leading risk factor for disease.
But is your health really determined by your age?
In the health arena there are actually two different terms related to age:
Chronological age: the number of years you have been alive
Biological age: how old your cells appear to be based on their current condition
Your biological age can be the same, more, or less than your chronological age.
In general your biological age reflects inflammation and wear and tear on your cells. It is a reflection of a number of factors including genetics, accumulated lifestyle factors, and other determinants such as demographics, diet, and exercise habits.
If your biological age is higher than your chronological age – well that means you are aging faster than expected. If your biological age is lower than your chronological age (which it hopefully is) then you are actually young for your age and aging slowly and gracefully.
Experts don’t necessarily agree on how to measure biological age or if the current measurements available are accurate .
BUT – most experts agree on ways to potentially improve your biological age.
Truthfully there is no single factor, and no guarantee that healthy living will improve your biological age or change the rate at which your biological age will change.
Nonetheless, there are a number of things you can do to improve overall health and thereby increase the likelihood of slowing your biological aging:
Maintaining a healthy diet (eg Mediterranean or ancestral)
Cultivating healthy relationships
Managing stress (try tapping!)
Consistently getting a good night’s sleep (6-8 hours per night)
Regular Exercise
Seeing a steady decline in biological age as compared to chronological age is the goal. Keep in mind that as you age, variance increases. At 16, your biological age is likely to be close to your chronological age. But at 60, there’s a wider spread – and it’s best to be on the lower end of the curve.
So how do you determine your biological age? Stay tuned for a more in depth exploration of that…
In the meantime – I had fun trying this biological age calculator. It’s obviously not accurate and mostly just reflects how healthy your lifestyle is – but it is a great way to evaluate your habits and get feedback about your health.
It is true that you can’t do anything about the number of years you’ve lived on this planet, but you can improve your biological age (reduce the damage in your cells) over time by maintaining as healthy a lifestyle as possible.
