How old are you, really?

There are two numbers to consider when it comes to aging. Your chronological age – which is the birthday you do or don’t celebrate each year, and then there’s your biological age which is more difficult to determine. Your biological age is all about the rate of aging that happens internally and is determined by the health of your cells. While you may experience the classic markers of aging like gray hair or fine lines, biological aging is less visible because it takes place inside your cells – and unlike chronological aging, everyone ages biologically at different rates.

Knowing your biological age is a more effective way of figuring out the rate at which you’re aging. Rather than determining your age by the amount of birthdays you’ve had, what’s going on internally at a cellular level is a much more accurate assessment of how old you really are (or how old your body feels!).

Factors that can determine your biological age

Telomere length

Researchers have found that telomeres – a portion of DNA found in your chromosomes – can give them an idea of a person’s biological age. Telomeres act as a protective cap which shields your DNA from damage, and the longer your telomeres are, the more protection they can give. As your cells replicate, the telomeres get shorter.

The more you age, the more cellular replications you have gone through, and the shorter your telomeres become. While it’s natural that telomeres shorten with age, accelerated telomere shortening in humans can lead to impaired longevity and scientists have shown that stress can have an impact on telomere length.

Stress

The wear and tear of the body that results from the ongoing activation of the stress response can significantly affect how we age. Stress takes a toll on the body, and studies show that this wear and tear (aka the body’s ‘allostatic load’) can reduce longevity and accelerate aging.

Epigenetic markers

Your genes that you’ve inherited from you parents are made up of DNA, and that DNA contains the blueprint that makes you, you. Your DNA sequence can not only tell us about your physical characteristics, but it can also predict your risk for inherited health complications. It was once believed that DNA couldn't be modified or changed, but it’s now widely known that our genes can be ‘switched on or off’ by environmental and external factors. This DNA regulation is known as ‘epigenetics’ and encompasses a variety of mechanisms that control which genes are activated and when.

As time goes on, changes can happen in the way your DNA is set up, and these changes can be influenced by your genes, how you live and what you're exposed to in your environment. Scientists have noticed that some of these changes in specific parts of DNA, tend to follow a certain pattern as you get older. One way to determine biological age is by measuring DNA methylation, a process that switches certain genes off.

Gene expression in genes associated with aging

Our genes contain the information needed to build proteins. When a gene is "expressed," it means the instructions within that gene are being used to make a specific protein. Gene expression is crucial because it determines which proteins are produced in our cells, and these proteins perform various functions that keep the body functioning properly.

There are around 1,500 genes that are associated with aging. These genes impact and influence the predictors of aging, including blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI. Becoming aware of these genes can help us better predict biological age and intervene if necessary.

Deterioration

The way you support your body as you age can either speed up deterioration and loss of functionality, or slow it down. It’s no surprise that as we age, we’re more susceptible to frailty, but if we don’t take the right measures to protect our long-term health – our internal environment won’t be well equipped to carry us through our golden years with functionality.

How can you lower your biological age?

Research shows that lifestyle changes can have a profound effect on our biological age – and not surprisingly, it’s the regular housekeeping that can essentially help you age backwards, like eating well, exercising and reducing stress. One study found that in just 8 weeks, a group of women managed to reduce their biological age by an average of 5 years – and here’s how they did it.

• Participants were instructed to increase their intake of plant-based foods like leafy greens, beetroot, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, and they were also told to include liver and eggs into their diet.
• They supplemented with probiotics, greens powders and adaptogens.
• Slept for at least 7 hours each night and exercised for at least 30 minutes each day.
• Practiced breathing exercises
• They were instructed to drink at least 8 glasses of water and fast for 12 hours after their last meal of the day.

In addition to covering the basics, you can effectively support healthy aging at a cellular level with MitoQ.

Age better with MitoQ

As we get older our mitochondria naturally start to decline in function (at a rate of around 8% per decade from our thirties and beyond). We don’t notice it immediately, but we start to have less energy, we don’t recover from exercise as quickly, and our immune systems may need some extra support

We can start to look older as our skin cells don’t have as much energy to produce as much collagen and elastin, and less visible changes happen inside us, too. We may start to notice small things like mental fogginess , for example, as our brain and circulatory system lose energy. Over time we can experience a slow breakdown of our cellular machinery. This starts to impact on how well our cells function and on our overall energy.

MitoQ is an advanced antioxidant that accumulates inside the mitochondria, flooding our cells with the antioxidants they need to function optimally. Our replenished mitochondria can help our cells to function normally and help to reduce the free radical damage known to accelerate the aging process. By empowering your mitochondria with MitoQ, your cells may start to act like they did when we were younger, and the damage caused by aging may be slowed.

Learn more about the science of MitoQ here.