Were you not able to answer this question? Now you can find out your body’s real age at a clinical analysis laboratory, thanks to a genetic profile designed to determine one’s biological age.
This test will tell us whether your biological age is younger or older than the age determined by your birth date.
In other words, a person may be 50 years-old and be 55 biologically, or be 45 years-old and be 40 biologically.
How is biological age measured?
Telomeres are important in finding out a person’s ageing process. These are the parts of DNA that are located beside the chromosomes. Chromosomes are structures that hold the genes, DNA and genetic material.
Telomeres play a crucial role, as they help maintain the chromosome structure and protect the genes. As time goes by, cells divide. This causes telomeres to reduce in size and therefore do not protect the genetic material as well and, therefore, the cell dies.
This is a normal ageing process, however, there are diseases that affect the telomeres, increasing the speed at which they divide and, consequently, speeding up and increasing ageing.
It is very important to take care of our telomeres. So that when we test to measure our biological age, we can see the size of our telomeres. This allows us to establish the damage that a person has accumulated in their body over their lifetime, and to be optimised.
This test can provide us with essential information on whether to continue with the same habits or change up our daily routine, depending on the results. This is a simple procedure that we will proceed to explain.
How do we perform the test to discover your biological age?
The test is a blood test that allows us to measure the length of telomeres, that is, parts of the DNA that are located in the chromosomes and help us to find out each patient’s biological age.
Who can have the biological age test done?
Anyone can have the biological age test done. However, it is recommended for certain people due to their hereditary or genetic background or their lifestyle. It is recommended for:
- People who wish to lead a healthy life
- People who want to know their real biological age to be able to change their daily routines
- Specialists, to assess regenerative medicine treatments
- To evaluate whether changes in the daily routine, whether exercise or diet, delay the shortening of telomeres
- People who, after recovering from an illness, want to know how much they aged
Recommendations to improve your health
The habits that we should implement to improve our biological age include a healthy and balanced diet, reduce stress levels, perform moderate exercise and get enough sleep.
Diet
The Mediterranean diet is considered as one of the best worldwide. This is one of the most desirable diets, people who follow it have around 30% less chance of having cardiovascular problems.
Stress
During chronic stress, we suffer its perception and how to handle it, and we suffer acute stress temporarily, but they both have a negative effect on the longevity of our cells.
Exercise
Moderate aerobic exercise, three times per week, for 45 minutes a day, is the best option for telomeres and to share the ageing process.
Sleep
The correlation between lack of quality sleep and an increased speed of telomere shortening, specifically the smaller ones, is a reality. People over 70 who have insomnia are the ones who have the shortest telomeres.
