KEEP YOUR BRAIN YOUNG

Are your behaviors and attitudes aging your noggin or protecting it and keeping it sharp? These signs can tell you-plus, five ways to turn back your brain's clock.

- LISA MULCAHY

It's a common sensation: feeling either younger or older than your age.

A person may be 42 but, during an afternoon of playing laser tag with their kids, feel as if they're 12 again. Or after a tough day of juggling meetings, supermarket slogs, and an emergency vet appointment, they may fall into bed feeling closer to 70.

When it comes to our brains, science shows that this age disconnect is an actual thing: Our brains can essentially age at a different rate than our bodies do. Depending on your health, lifestyle, and personality, you could be much younger (or older) in brain years than you realize. How can you tell whether your brain is fresh and vital or getting more senior by the second? Check out these signs, both good and bad, that can help you determine your true brain age, then read on for ways to keep your brain sharp or reverse course and make healthy changes now.

3 Signs that STAYING YOUNG

As research has shown, these signals indicate that your noggin is doing well.

You feel younger than you are

The age you feel, as opposed to your biological age, is known as your “subjective age.” And if your subjective age is lower than the number of years you've actually racked up here on Earth, that's a good thing! A study from South Korea found that people who felt younger than their ages showed fewer signs of physical brain aging as the years went by-in other words, having a youthful subjective age can positively affect the mechanism of how the brain works and how fast it ages structurally.