How Old Are You?

Everyone has a biological and a chronological age. Unfortunately, through lifestyle choices, many people have a biological age that is older than their chronological age. With a few, simple lifestyle changes, anyone can decrease their biological age to the same or younger than their chronological age.

Be Happy

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found that optimistic people had a 50% decreased risk of early death compared with those who leaned more toward pessimism. The results, published in the August 2002 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, make sense: Those with a positive outlook on life are probably less stressed, better equipped to deal with adversity and, consequently, healthier. Optimists also tend to have lower blood pressure than pessimists, which, again, is most likely related to how positive thinkers respond to stress.

Exercise

Maintaining aerobic fitness through middle age and beyond can delay biological aging by up to 12 years and prolong independence during old age, concludes an analysis published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Aerobic exercise, such as jogging, improves the body’s oxygen consumption and its use in generating energy (metabolism).

Have More Sex

There’s decent evidence that sex helps keep us healthy, and thus increases longevity. But according to researchers, it’s not necessarily an actual biological response generated by sex that makes us live longer. What’s more likely is that having intimate sex means you are less stressed, happier and better rested–all factors that can lower blood pressure and protect against stroke and heart disease.

Eat Healthy

Five Healthful Tips (according to Dr.Michael Roizen on Oprah.com)

1. Use nine-inch plates: Eating on a smaller plate can add three years to your life.
2. Use paper coffee filters: Caffeine makes you younger. Drinking coffee every morning made with a paper filter—which raises good cholesterol and cuts down on bad—can add six months to your life.
3. Take aspirin every day: Check with your doctor first, but if it’s okay, taking an aspirin every day can make you two years younger. This simple addition decreases the age of your arteries and reduces the risk of breast, colon and prostate cancers.
4. Eat chocolate!: Only chocolate with real cocoa (dark chocolate) will do, but if you eat one ounce every day, you increase the level of healthy fat in your diet.
5. A little fat before dinner: Whether it’s nuts, dark chocolate or olive oil on a piece of bread, a little fat before you eat slows down your stomach and makes you feel full longer.

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