What is your biological age and how can you lower it?

DOCTORS SUGGEST A BETTER WAY TO JUDGE HOW LONG WE COULD LIVE THAN COUNTING THE NUMBER OF CANDLES ON OUR BIRTHDAY CAKE. LARA OWEN FINDS OUT MORE

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IT’S no secret that wellness fads come as quickly as they go.

From the low-fat diets of the Noughties to today’s ice baths and intermittent fasting - society loves indulging in the newest health trend, and biohacking is just about the biggest buzzword in the wellness world right now.

You may have heard of it via the numerous podcasts that now discuss cell health and biological age or perhaps you saw Bryan Johnson’s hit Netflix doc Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever.

The wealthy American entrepreneur has put his body and fortune on the line in an attempt to defy aging and extend his life.

But what really is biohacking? How do you find out your biological age? And does it really determine how long you'll live for?

Here, doctors specialising in stem cell and longevity research explain what biological age really means, how to lower it and why it’s fast becoming the ultimate wellness metric in modern medicine.

What is biological age?

This is a measurement of how well your body is functioning - based on factors such as lifestyle, stress and cellular health - and is different to chronological age, as it isn’t fixed, and (perhaps thankfully) you might be able to reverse it.

According to longevity experts, biological age provides a more accurate picture of health span than the candles on our birthday cake.

Increasingly, it's being treated as something we can influence.

CEO of Cellcolabs, Dr Mattias Bernow, who provided the stem cells for biohacker Bryan Johnson, explains that this measurement is, “a marker of how old your body seems based on your health, lifestyle and cellular function.”

In other words, you might be 50 on paper, but living like someone aged 35... or 65.