What if you could be younger than you actually are? Researchers are now saying that our biological age is more telling about our health than our real age.
How can someone my age have a different biological age?
Your biological age is determined by your genes, what you eat, how you exercise and what environment you’re exposed to throughout your life. These different factors combine to create certain risks as we age, whether that’s for cancer, cognitive degeneration or any other age-related decline.
Researcher and professor Morgan Levine at Yale Medical School has developed an algorithm for analysing blood samples to produce the biological age, which can determine the patient’s risk for disease and death. If your biological age is lower than your chronological age, you’d be at a much lower risk, whereas if your biological age is higher, you’d be at a greater risk for disease and death. The test looks at nine specific biomarkers that are influential in determining lifespan, including blood sugar, kidney and liver measures, and immune and inflammatory measures.
Levine says that not everyone is at the same risk of developing diseases such as cardiovascular disease or dementia, and the biological age can give doctors a better idea of the patient’s health, compared with others of their same chronological age. (1)
What if I’m not as biologically healthy as I want to be?
While it might be scary to realise that your biological age is higher than it should be, it’s not the end of the road. What makes this test unique, is that it is testing things you can actually change about your health, by means as simple as eating different foods. One of the simplest ways to decrease your biological age is by focusing on nutrition to reduce inflammation and support your immune system, which can help lower your risk of age-related ailments.
Simple nutritional changes to lower your biological age
To reduce chronic inflammation, you should look at adding three groups of food to your diet: foods with inflammation reducing properties, prebiotics and probiotics.
Foods that reduce inflammation have high concentrations of antioxidants and polyphenols (protective plant compounds), such as:
- Tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Spinach, kale, collard greens
- Almonds, walnuts
- Salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines
- strawberries, blueberries, cherries, oranges (2)
Prebiotic and probiotic foods also help reduce inflammation by supporting your gut health, as poor gut health can create or irritate chronic inflammation. (3)
Prebiotic foods feed the good bacteria that lives in your gut, your microbiome, keeping it helping so it can fight off the bad bacteria that steal vital nutrients from your food and damage your gut wall.
Prebiotic foods:
- Onions
- Garlic
- Oatmeal
- Asparagus
- Wheat bran
- Apple (skin on)
Probiotics are live bacteria that add to your microbiome, fortifying your immune system.
Probiotic foods:
- Kefir
- Yogurt
- Sauerkraut
- Tempeh
- Miso
- Kombucha
- Pickles
- Cottage cheese
To learn more about the connection between good gut health, inflammation and the immune system, take a look at this article in our Science section about lactoferrin, a key player in gut health. While you can find lactoferrin in milk and other dairy products, they are not the most effective source of the nutrient. To increase your lactoferrin intake, you could add an undenatured whey supplement to your diet, as it can provide up to 15 times the lactoferrin as other commercial whey supplements. (4)
Foods to support the immune system
By including these inflammation-reducing foods in your diet, you’re already well on your way to improving your immune system, because believe it or not, 80% of our immune system resides in our gut.
You’ve got the classic immune-boosting citrus fruits, of course, but here are a few others that might surprise you:
- Red bell peppers: contain twice as much vitamin C as citrus fruits
- Broccoli: vitamins A, C, E, antioxidants, fibre — one of the healthiest vegetables, especially if left raw
- Garlic: also a prebiotic, fights infections, lowers blood pressure, immune-boosting sulphur compounds
- Yogurt: greek yogurts with active cultures stimulate immune system to fight diseases, vitamin D boosts body’s natural defences
- Green tea: flavonoids and EGCG are powerful antioxidants that enhance immune function
- Some shellfish — crab, clams, lobster, mussels: these types of shellfish are full of zinc, which is essential for proper immune cell function
What’s the takeaway?
The important thing to remember is that it is never too late to start improving your health, and you could be giving yourself a second chance at a healthy life by changing a few simple things in your diet. Try to limit inflammatory foods like refined carbohydrates, fried foods, soda, red meat or processed meats and trans-fats found in margarine or lard. (2)
In their place, add foods that support your gut health and your immune system, all of which work to reduce inflammation and keep your cells functioning as best they can. By also making a habit of light cardio and strength exercises like walking, cycling, pilates, yoga, tai chi, swimming or jogging, you can decrease your biological age and reduce your risk of disease and increase your longevity. Read more about how exercise can increase your longevity in in this article. (5)
