Bio Aging

How old is your body really?

A question always comes to our mind. Why does someone look so much younger than someone of the same age? Our age is actually the number of completed years since we were born.

If the number of years determines the way we look than all people of the same age would have looked the same age. But that doesn’t happen.

The reason we look different is because of something called our bio aging or our biological age.

What is biological age?

The biological age actually indicates the age of a person. While the calendar age is just a pure indication of time spent in completed years. Biological age also takes in to account three factors.

Health status
Physical fitness
Mental capacity

In part, aging is hereditary. But many other influences also play a role – such as environmental factors, personal lifestyle and living conditions. 

Hence to a very large extent the process of aging can also be reversed.

The difference between your calendar age and your biological age can be as much as 25 years in very extreme cases. The difference depends largely on your lifestyle.

"Only about 30 percent are determined by the genes," says Prof. Christoph Bamberger. Hence by changing your lifestyle you can look much younger than your actual age.

The so-called telomeres can serve as an indicator for the biological aging process. They sit like caps on the end of our chromosomes, protect the DNA strands in our cells and can be understood as "markers" for our biological age, because:

Every time our cells divide to create more, they shorten telomeres. Until they are completely broken down and no more new cells can form. So, short telomeres also mean older cells, i.e. an older person.

However, how often our telomeres shorten not only depends on the calendar age, but also on which genetic predispositions we carry and what external factors affect us. 

Current research is looking at these factors and how they affect telomere shortening. It is particularly interesting to see whether and how age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's or diabetes develop.

What life style changes can one make to reduce biological age?

As mentioned above genes contribute only 30 percent of our biological age. The rest seventy percent is due to our lifestyle. Mentioned below are the lifestyle changes required to reduce your biological age.

Your Diet:-

Follow the Mediterranean diet. Yes people living in this region are found to live longer and look younger. This diet is known to increase the size of our telomeres. As mentioned above the longer the telomeres the younger you will look.

The Mediterranean diet consists of fish, vegetables, green salads and olive oil.  The diet is known to prevent formation of wrinkles and many age old related diseases.

Also a glass of wine during dinner time is known to make you look younger. Read about foods that reverse aging here.

Regular Exercise

Those who suffer from a lack of exercise paralyze their metabolism. The consequences can be obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or damage to the musculoskeletal system. All of this affects your biological age.

Engage in Regular cardio exercise like brisk walking, jogging, running etc. Any exercise that makes your heart beat fast will make your heart stronger.
Also as you enter your forties, you need to engage in weight training at least twice a week.

As we age we tend to loose muscle which is basically proteins. Now proteins are made up of amino acids. When we are sick our body uses amino acids for healing. Hence as we age we need these acids to heal from disease.

Hence do weight training for twice a week. Read about aerobic exercise for skin here.

Quit Smoking

According to most experts smoking cuts your life expectance by at least 15 years. That means you will look 15 years older than your actual age.

Smoking releases a lot of free radicals in our bodies. This radicals are known to damage the skin and to increase the formation of wrinkles on our skin.  

Smoking also leads to dehydration which is known to form wrinkle around the eyes. Also when we smoke we tend to put stress on our face which can form early wrinkles. Read about smoking and aging skin here.

Drink Alcohol in moderation

Though we recommend to have a glass of red wine during dinner, it’s also necessary to quit any other form of alcohol.

Alcohol consumption leads to dehydration. Dehydration leads to dry skin. And dry skin leads to formation of wrinkles.

Hence drink alcohol in moderation and if you drink a glass of wine everyday then quit other forms of alcohol.

Also alcohol generates a lot of calories in your body which can be avoided. Read about drinking alcohol and aging here.

Drink lots of water

Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water if you want to look young. This is the easiest thing to do, if you want to look young. Drinking water will keep your body hydrated. This will prevent the formation of hand and eye wrinkles.

Stay Relaxed

The aging process is also influenced by insomnia and frequent stress. Mental stress can not only trigger depression, but also weaken the immune system, lead to painful tension, increase the risk of diabetes, put a strain on the heart or promote gastrointestinal diseases.

Also insomnia or lack of sleep can make you look dull and gloomy.

Try to relax and sleep well to reduce your biological age.

The above six steps will improve your health status, physical fitness and mental capacity. This will reduce your biological age and make you look younger than most people of your age. Read about stress and skin aging here.