Staying youthful gracefully

Telomere length is a biological clock that few know about. Cate Montana unearths the truth about this biomarker of aging

- 

“Aging gracefully.” We've all heard the phrase. And who hasn't hoped to be on the receiving end of such an observation someday?

In our youth-obsessed society, there are even online tests you can take to compare your biological age (your age at the cellular level) and life expectancy to your actual chronological age. (I just took one and, in five minutes, was pleased to see my biological age is 15 years below my actual age. And I can expect to live to 101.8.)

Unsurprisingly, aside from gender and ethnicity, such tests zero in on the exact same things that actually lead to a long and healthy life: sleep quality, diet quality, smoking and drinking habits, amount of regular exercise, family health history, medications, regularity of checkups, anxiety levels, relaxation methods, happiness quotient and marital status.

Long gone are the days when researchers thought our genes were the sole determiner of our longevity. Today we know only 15–25 percent of aging is determined by how long our grandparents and their predecessors lived.

Lifestyle is totally where it's at when it comes to determining longevity. That said, there are a number of scientific indicators of aging—12, to be exact.

The 12 hallmarks of aging

We tend to think of graying hair, a thickening waistline, increasing aches and pains, and lower energy levels as signs of aging. But highly specific biological processes involved in aging contribute to its outward signs:

1 Dysbiosis, the imbalance of microorganisms in the body, especially the gut.

2 Genomic instability, a high frequency of mutations within one's genome.

3 Telomere shortening, the decrease in length of the "caps" that protect the ends of DNA strands (chromosomes) in the cells.

4 Epigenetic changes, or changes in gene expression due to behavior and environment.