Ageing: Chronological vs Biological

 
Many of you already know that death isn’t as a result of the passing of years; there’s no mechanism for the passage of time to cause a person to die. There’s no such thing as ‘dying of old age’. Death only occurs by damage, dysfunction or disease. To the extent that you can prevent these three factors, you are essentially immortal.

One way we can measure these factors is through Biomarkers of Ageing. Biomarkers of ageing are various measurements that can give you an idea as to the level of degeneration of your body. In some we have sufficient data to be able to determine a measure called ‘Biological Age’. As opposed to ‘Chronological Age’ (how long you’ve been here on Earth), biological age is a measurement of the physical state of your body.

We all know people who look after themselves very well by eating nutritious food and exercising regularly who appear to be much younger than the candles on their Birthday cake suggests. We also know those who eat poorly, smoke, burn the midnight oil regularly and do not exercise who look decades older than other people of their chronological age.

To be able to age well biologically, you need to know where you stand presently. By knowing your health status you can then assess your biological age compared to your chronological age. If your biological age is higher than your chronological age, you should consider taking remedial action fairly promptly to address the situation. Even if your biological age is younger than your chronological age, you shouldn’t be too complacent, but ensure you are maintaining good habits (or start incorporating them if you haven’t already) to keep this score low. A good age range to try to maintain or re-attain is somewhere under 35, preferably 30.

I’ve put the first of a series of biological calculators over at the HPC-UK website; the first one is based upon blood pressure, a measure many of you will have probably had tested recently. It’s an important one as heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the UK.

I will try to put up calculators for a battery of tests that can be taken easily at home or obtained from your Doc’ or local chemist. Some tests do not have sufficient data to be able to generate a biological age score, but I will make those tests into a traffic light format so you will have an idea of whether the score is good (Green); meh (Yellow); or maybe start dialling for an ambulance (Red)…

The blood pressure calculator can be found here: http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html