“You are only as old as you feel.”
“30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30, 70 is the new 50.”
In the first 20 years of your life, aging feels like it is something that happens to other people. Then something happens that makes you realize that you are other people. It may be a grey hair. It may be a creaky knee. It may be when you choose getting up early on Sunday morning to staying out late Saturday night.
The indications of age can tell us much more than an actual number might. My hairdresser recently told me that some 16 year olds have grey hairs. She may have been saying this to make me feel better, but let’s just go with it.
Harvard Scientists have discovered that there is a new biological clock other than the one on your driver’s license. It is a new ribosomal DNA clock that can reveal insight into the way the body ages. This may account why you may have some friends whose energy has not wavered no matter how many birthdays they have had, while other friends are struggling to stay awake reading this.
Wake up, latter group, wake up.
The true age of someone’s body is what scientists will call the biological age. In mice, the rDNA clocks showed a different biological age to their chronological age, which was seen as promising. Calorie restricted mice showed a younger age than their biological age.
The good news behind this idea is that our age is somewhat actionable. We may get more wrinkles, but our personal choices can affect how we move through life. Factors like environment, diet and exposure to toxins can have a great deal more sway than we think. (1)
rDNA could be an internal clock that could be impacting how we are aging. Biological age is actually a better predictor of health and all-cause mortality. (2)
There are things we can do to lengthen our telomeres at the cellular level, reversing biological aging and slowing the aging process.
Who doesn’t want a little more of that?
Here are some scientifically tested ways to get your rDNA to be a totally different number than your chronological age.
Unless you are 20. Then you might have to wait a few years.
1) Stress less. Are you in a lifestyle that supports stress? Your telomeres have 10 more years on them, according to a study done at the University of California. Mindfulness and meditation are big business right now and here’s another reason to get quiet: it can make you younger.
2) Diet and exercise. You know this already. We can move on.
3) Sleep. It is so easy to ignore this pillar of health, because who has time to sleep when we have to meticulously meal prep, work our abs and keep our relationships strong? Older people who sleep at least seven hours a night have the telomeres of middle aged people. This makes sense, because sleep is when our bodies go into repair mode. Rest up!
4) Get social (and not on the Internet). Getting out of our bubbles and out from behind our computer screen is crucial to getting that biological age way down. Loneliness is not only bad for the soul, but bad for our telomeres as well. To lengthen your telomeres and get your rDNA on track, contact the people who make you smile.
There is Botox and Spanx and a whole host of products meant to deny age and health. Your rDNA is your truth telling clock that requires a good lifestyle to keep ticking.