What’s the secret to longevity?
Well, one theory suggests focusing on your biological age. In fact, a recent study has found that adhering to a specific checklist may slow biological aging by an average of six years.
Biological vs. Chronological Age
Before we delve into reversing your biological age, it’s important to understand exactly what that is.
While your chronological age refers to the number of candles on your birthday cake, biological age is more about the status of your cells.
While the years impact your chronological age, environmental factors like stress, diet, and pollution can impact your biological age.
To put it simply, the focus of anti-aging isn’t about reversing your chronological age. Rather, it’s more about your biological age. How so?
Well, the older your biological age, the more prone to age-related conditions like heart disease, dementia, cancer, and diabetes.
“Biological age takes into account chronological age, genetics, lifestyle, other diseases, and other health things, such as nutrition,” explained Dr. Joyce Oen-Hsiao to Medical News Today.
Dr. Oen-Hsiao is an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine and Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation Services, Yale New Haven Hospital Heart & Vascular Center. They added that a person’s biological age depends on the damage the body accumulates over time, related to illnesses and lifestyle.
So, how can we reverse our biological age and stay young forever?
A Longevity Checklist
Per a recent study, researchers set out to explore the association between cardiovascular health and biological aging using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, gauging how a healthy heart may influence our bodies’ ability to function at a younger biological age.
So what are Life’s Essential 8 that determine just how heart-healthy individuals are?
The checklist includes:
- getting quality sleep
- abstaining from tobacco use
- engaging in regular physical activity
- maintaining healthy blood sugar levels
- eating a healthy diet
- maintaining a healthy BMI/weight
- maintaining healthy cholesterol levels
- keeping blood pressure in the normal range
8 Habits Reverse Biological Aging
“We found that higher cardiovascular health is associated with decelerated biological aging, as measured by phenotypic age. We also found a dose-dependent association – as heart health goes up, biological aging goes down,” – Nour Makarem, Ph.D., study senior author
According to the findings of the study, which are set to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023, participants with the highest Life’s Essential 8 score, which means high cardiovascular health, were found to have a biological age that was, on average, six years younger than their chronological age.
On average, their chronological age was 41, yet their biological age was 36. Sadly, those with low cardiovascular health had an average chronological age of 53, yet their average biological age was 57.
Granted, the new research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Yet, Dr. Makarem, who is also an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, believes that following Life’s Essential 8 may not only improve your cardiovascular health, but can also slow down your biological age. This is then associated with longer life and lower risk of death.
How Life’s Essential 8 Affects Biological Aging
Speaking to Healthline, geneticist Moshe Szyf, PhD, who was not involved in the study, shared that these 8 habits may trigger biological changes in the body that “reset epigenetic programs to a more youthful state.”
For example, we all know that it’s important to get regular quality sleep. After all, this is when your body rests and resets itself. So, it’s easy to understand how this can improve both cardiovascular and biological health.
Then there’s staying away from tobacco use. This makes sense as both traditional cigarette smoking and vaping have been found to pose serious health risks.
Next, we exercise, which is typically what the doctor orders as staying active keeps us fit and promotes heart health.
There’s also the importance of maintaining healthy BMI, blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels. Any disruption to these has been linked to heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, all of which are leading causes of mortality worldwide.
Following Life’s Essential 8 won’t only better your heart, but it may also add years to your life.
References
- https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/?_ga=2.252499981.569559676.1693429947-1069604919.1693247687#!/10871/presentation/9306
