Age is really not just a number

Well I was born on … 

It sounds like simple arithmetic, but your body is like a motor car, it isn’t the year it was made that matters … but how many miles it has done, how hard it has been driven and if it has been serviced and well maintained! Wear and tear is the critically issue. Let’s call this wear and tear your biological age in distinction to your chronological age – the years since you were born. Ideally your biological age is lower than your age at last birthday i.e. your body’s working parts are well maintained. 

 Biological wear and tear - inflammaging

The 3 measurable elements of harmful ageing change are: inflammation over time [known as inflammation-aging], loss of functionality and early organ damage that has the potential to lead to organ failure. 

Inflammaging is the process that promotes dementia, cancer and cardiovascular disease, underlies macular degeneration in the eye [AMD], lowers immunity, and interferes with all essential tissue repair functions. The most reliable way of measuring this is doing a profile of the glycan molecules attached to our immunoglobulins.  

The result is a high, average or low degree of inflammaging, a calculation of biological age and certain patterns may suggest a risk of cardiovascular problems, or diabetes, or cancer that can be followed up. 

Loss of functionality: The critical functions are mental or physical and the message is ‘use it or lose it’. Further - if you have lost it then you need to do some work to build it back! Stress, anxiety and depression can be identified with simple questionnaires; minimal cognitive impairment [MCI] that precedes dementia by years is established by formal testing eg the Montreal Cognitive Assessment that I use in my program. Physical aptitudes are strength, balance and neuromuscular coordination and there are standard tests. Here is a link to my online questionnaire that covers essential functions. Each of us has also to keep up to date with visual or hearing tests, and dental health. 

Organ damage: All our critical organs; brain, heart, liver, kidneys and our structural components like bone and muscle can wear out or deteriorate significantly. We are used to checking on these functions with annual blood tests, and measures of sugar, cholesterol and so on. Blood pressure [BP] is a silent killer and can change without any symptoms. I recommend monthly testing over the age of 60. Sit quietly for 5 minutes then use an upper arm digital BP monitor to do 2 measurements with a third measure if there is significant variation between the first two. The lowest measure should be recorded. Anything more than 130/80 [either figure] that is sustained, merits treatment to reduce cardiovascular risks. The current view of expert bodies is that BP and cholesterol and sugar for example should all be tightly maintained in the normal range for say a 40 year old with no ‘allowance’ for ‘ageing’. Loss of bone after the age of 50 can be 1-3% in postmenopausal women and will reach that figure after 60 in many men, too. A bone density scan age 60-65 is worthwhile if you can obtain it to see if you are in a high risk group of spine or hip fracture. 

If you are interested in knowing your biological age there is more information here.  

Getting back on track 

 The good news is that if you identify a less than optimal result on any of these checks then simple lifestyle changes or safe medical options will get you back to safe ground. My recording of my free webinar ‘Live Stronger, Live Longer’ is available here. 

Working on your State of Mind, State of Body and State of Health can maintain your quality of life. your independence and keep you out of a Care Home. 

 Happy Christmas ,

 Nick