Aging stats
“IDON’T care about living forever! Who wants to be alive for so long anyway? I’ll be happy if I die at 70.” I hear such words often enough to know that people actual mean it. They don’t want to live forever. 70 is enough. But the trouble is that’s exactly how they feel until they’re 69. Of course, the quality of life is an intrinsic part of longevity. It is not for us to argue what a well-spent life is; that is not for us to judge. My concern is to investigate how life is prolonged given choices to improve it. “I don’t care if I die at 70!” may very well be the excuse to live fast and in excess.
What’s your real age? Doctors have long since known that a man has two ages.
The first and obvious is chronological age. It is calendar age, the age based on your birth certificate. From Day 1 to the present is the record of your cruel, inexorable slide to the grave. If a woman looks older or younger than she does, we have touched upon the other and less obvious – physiological age. Now the doctor will tell you that physiological age is your true age. It is after all the actual state of your body, a product of lifestyle choices, the environment, and genetics. It does not lie. Physiological age is referenced on your heart and blood vessels, your liver and kidneys and other viscera, your bones and joints, your brain and the rest of you that you cannot fool. If you’ve been smoking one pack a day for 20 years, is it fair to complain why you have a cough that has never gone away? If you’ve been on a heavy (greater than 80 grams per day) steady ration of alcohol for decades, is it fair to be surprised that the doctor has just told you that your liver is enlarged and that you’ve got a “fatty liver”? This is a life is based on the principle of “GIGS”– Garbage In, Garbage Stays.
A related website (https://www. sharecare.com/static/realage) gives an on-line analysis of your real age based on a questionnaire that you are requested to answer. The longevity test is given free of charge. One article on that website noted observations and estimated how our activities or vices help add or subtract from our true age. Some were reported as follows:
• Smoking reduces your real age by 8 years.
• A person with low blood pressure (~ 115/75) is about 25 years younger than someone with high blood pressure (over 160/90).
• Healthy gums and teeth can make real age 6.4 years younger.
• Women on estrogen replacement therapy when appropriate and under physician care can be 8 years younger from real age.
• Regular exercise that combines burning calories, building stamina, and building strength can reduce real age by 9 years.
• In highly stressful times, real age can be as much as 32 years older; strong social networks and using stressreduction strategies can take away 30 of the 32 years.
• Wearing seat belts regularly can make real age younger by 3.4 years.
• Regular sex within a monogamous relationship reduces real age by 1.6 years.
• People who remain intellectually involved through out life have a real age 2.4 years younger.
• Regularly taking vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, vitamin D, folate and Vitamin B6 can make real age younger by 6 years.
• People who are proactive about their chronic conditions and seek highquality medical care can be 12 years younger than real age.
While we may quibble with the numbers, there is nevertheless an addition or reduction to true age by changing behavior. It is reasonable to adopt the recommendations with the intention to look younger. But the point here is to detoxify the system and renew the lifestyle so that one feels and becomes younger as well.
The conquistadores were wrong. The Fountain of Youth is within us.