Do you know if the age of your body is proportional to your real age ? In some cases, the physical state of a person does not match the age indicated on their birth document and there are scientific studies that support this claim.
There are young people with physical problems of a sedentary person of 50 years, and elderly people with so much energy that they make you think that time never affected them.
Does exercise have something to do with it? Find out how this is associated and know what your real age is based on your physical performance.
Does exercise make you younger?
According to a study published by the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology , going for quiet bike rides to break out of routine helps the body improve its performance and can make you live up to ten years longer than sedentary people of the same age (Harb et al. ., 2019)
The study was conducted for the first time at the Cleveland Clinic between 1999 and 2015 and involved 126,356 women and men (with an average age of 54 years) in a stress test that measured how the heart responded to the stress of exercise to estimate performance.
To estimate people's physical or performance age, which is determined based on stress tests with exercise, heart rate, and physical capacity, the researchers analyzed these data with the metabolic equivalents of the participants. Having a higher exercise capacity and an accelerated return to heart rate after exercise was linked to a younger performance age.
The study found that more than half of those between the ages of 50 and 60 (55% of the men and 57% of the women) were physiologically younger than their chronological age after exercising as habit.
After 9 years of follow-up, 9,929 of the participants who were older than their chronological age of at least 10 years died.
How to calculate your physical age?
It is beneficial to know what your physical age (or performance) is since through it you can observe any physical risk or clearly understand why your body behaves in some ways.
Currently, it is not possible to calculate physical age in a simple way: you would have to undergo a study similar to the one named throughout the article, since traditional doctors do not yet have the appropriate equipment. The good news is that research like this opens the door for this type of study to be carried out soon in any health center.
For now, you need to take care of this: Until your physical age calculation is available, do what you can to improve and maintain your fitness over the years. Not only will you look good and feel better, you can also live longer.
conclusion
According to this research, your performance age or the physical form in which you are, more accurately predicts the age at which you will die than your chronological age. In this sense, leading a sedentary life can make you up to ten years older than your real age.
References
Harb, S., Cremer, P., Wu, Y., Xu, B., Cho, L., Menon, V., and Jaber, W., (2019) Estimated age based on exercise stress testing performance outperforms chronological age in predicting mortality. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. doi: 10.1177 / 2047487319826400
