How Old Are We Really?

Comedian Chris Rock once said, “If a woman tells you she's twenty and looks sixteen, she's twelve. If she tells you she's twenty-six and looks twenty-six, she's probably near forty.” 

Funnily, there is some truth in his words. Researchers published a study in July 2015 whose results can basically be summed up as – if you think you look older and you feel older than you are, it is because you probably are older [1]. So what does this actually mean?

 

source: http://bit.ly/1P5YWBG

Researchers followed approximately 1000 individuals from birth up until the age of 38. Eighteen different biological markers such as cholesterol levels, gum health, DNA and body mass index, among others, were monitored over a period of 12 years (from age 26 to 38). The aim was to see the rate of change in these parameters in different people. The results showed that their sample of adults with a 'chronological age' of 38 had 'biological ages' varying from 28 to 61!

UP TO 20 YEARS DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ‘BIOLOGICAL’ AND ‘CHRONOLOGICAL’ AGE

 
In other words, a 38-year-old sometimes had the cholesterol profile and cardiovascular tissue structure of a 61-year-old. The scientists also calculated the ‘pace of aging’, i.e. how much organs changed in one chronological year. While some people showed zero years of biological change per chronological year, others showed three years of biological change in the same time. So people with an older biological age had a more rapid pace of aging. This higher biological age was also associated with feeling less healthy and looking older at age 38 [2].

Unfortunately we do not know yet whether drug treatment or lifestyle changes can impact biological aging, but we certainly now know why some 80-year-old people can still go skiing!

[1] Belsky et al., Proc Nat Acad Sci, 2015
[2] http://1.usa.gov/1UApYET

by Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam, PhD Alumna AG Sterzer
This article originally appeared 2016 in CNS Volume 9, Issue 1, The Aging Brain