by Hilary Brueck – Insider
The buzzy term “biological age” suggests there may be a more complex and precise, scientific answer to the straightforward question “how old are you?” — one that can’t simply be answered by measuring the amount of time a person has spent on Earth.
Longevity scientists, doctors, and geneticists are starting to coalesce around the idea that it’s possible people may have a “biological age” which can be different from their “chronological age,” the number measured from the day they were born.
According to the National Institute on Aging, our “biological age means the true age that our cells, tissues, and organ systems appear to be, based on biochemistry.”
But the idea that there is one, specific, numeric biological age to pinpoint for each of us is still controversial, in large part because it is difficult to say for sure that there’s a “normal” way our cells should look at any given age, or that being “biologically young” is actually any different from staying healthy and fit as we age.
