Are you ageing as gracefully as you should be? And what effect is your diet, level of activity and mood having on your body?
A new calculator can reveal your body's true age, the effect your lifestyle is having and how many years it might be shaving off your life.
The test takes into account factors such as weight, the amount and intensity of exercise undertaken, cholesterol, eating habits, levels of happiness and alcohol consumption. And it can reveal a very different picture to a chronological age. A 30 year old, for example, can have the health age of a 50 year old, or older, dependent on their lifestyle choices.
TAKE THE TEST HERE TO LEARN YOUR BODY AGE
For example, a 30-year-old woman who is 5'4" tall, weighs a healthy 9st (57kg), exercises at a medium-high intensity four times a week, eats a good diet and drinks seven units of alcohol a week, has a body age of 30. Take out the exercise and this jumps to 32. Add 10 cigarettes a day and 20 units of alcohol a week (around two bottles of wine) and this rises again to 35.
A 50-year-old man who is 5'9" (175cm), weighs 13 stone (83kg), does low intensity exercise such as walking for five hours a week, has a moderate diet, drinks two pints of lager a night (roughly 28 units of alcohol a week) and is relatively happy, has a body age of 56. Add in high blood pressure and high cholesterol and this rises to 63.
The 'Vitality Age Calculator', as it is called,
also reveals the measures that could reduce your reduced body age.
Sports stars, for example, are testament to the fact that a healthy lifestyle can knock years off the ageing process. Former athlete Lord Sebastian Coe, 57, has a vitality age of 54, while 27-year-old Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis scored just 23 when she took the test. Developed by PruHealth, it is based on an algorithm derived from an analysis of over 5,000 studies relating to death, and was developed in conjunction with leading academics.
The research found that the biggest factors which pushed up body age were a lack of physical activity and being overweight.
And to make matters worse, two thirds of the study participants were in denial, believing they were in good or excellent health, despite showing two or more risk factors that could have increased their chances of getting a life-shortening disease.
Because of this denial, people aren't making lifestyle choices that could reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke or diabetes, such as quitting smoking, eating a better diet or taking up exercise.
The study found that 69% of smokers refused to give up and 64% of people were unwilling to change their eating habits. Nearly one in five were overweight and the same amount had high blood pressure.
Dr Katie Tryon, PruHealth head of clinical Vitality, said: "We all lead busy lifestyles trying to squeeze in as much as possible and thinking about your health can sometimes take a back seat. Often when you’re feeling up against it, it’s tempting to compensate by having a glass of wine or cigarette, or take a few shortcuts by grabbing an unhealthy snack or skipping the gym, but it’s these lifestyle choices that ultimately impact on our health. People are living longer, but not longer, healthier lives, so this will show people the real state of their health and help them decide if they need to introduce some better habits.
By taking small steps today can dramatically improve wellbeing over the long-term, regardless of your current state of health, and truly understanding the implications of your choices is the first step."
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
