From time to time, we compare ourselves to our peers, trying to find out who looks younger, or we wonder how people whose age we know can look so young by looking at their appearance, and we feel sorry for those who have a profile above their age.
So how do some people look younger than they are, while others look older? At this point, scientific findings and researches take up the answer to this question in many ways and raise the curious ones.
Aging is a biological process and therefore every living thing will naturally age. Meanwhile, the curious thing is how physical appearance changes from person to person, but appearance is not the only thing that changes with age.
In a study conducted in the Netherlands, it was proven that the cognitive abilities of people who look at least 5 years younger than their real age are more advanced than other people. They were also 25% less likely to suffer from age-related diseases such as hearing loss, osteoporosis and cataracts. However, it was determined that the risk of age-related diseases was much higher in people who showed older than their real age.
The organs, mind and body of people who look younger than they actually are are much healthier in this direction. The reason for this is that the concept of age is not calculated in a single way, but has two different types.
To understand why some people look older and others younger, it is necessary to focus on these two age types, chronological and biological.
While chronological age is the number of years we are alive; Biological age refers to the age of our cells and tissues. It is not possible to change the chronological age, but it is possible to move the biological age forward or backward with the effects of factors such as diet, exercise, smoking, and sleep quality. At this point, it can be said that our habits have a great impact on the aging process.
Changes in our genetics are key to determining biological age.
At this stage, researchers looking at two different phenomena first examine telomeres, which are part of chromosomes. Every DNA sequence in our body comes together with a combination of chromosomes that carry genetic information. Scientists, on the other hand, state that these telomeres shorten with increasing chronological age.
Another process that affects biological age is how our DNA ages.
In other words, DNA methylation, we think of DNA as something fixed and unchanging, but this is not true. Some of our genes are “on” while others are “off”. In other words, it would not be wrong to think that an open gene is active and a closed gene is not active.
This process, which turns genes on and off, is called “methylation” and the methylation process is monitored to determine biological age. At this stage, it can even be detected which organ in the body is aging faster.
Contrary to popular views, calculating biological age is not easy. Although some sites on the Internet state that they are successful in estimating this age, medical tests should be performed in the presence of a healthcare professional for accurate determination.
Based on these cases, Dermatologist Tamar Nijsten and her colleagues requested that a 27-member review committee examine 2679 portraits of people aged 51 to 88.
These 2679 participants did not use make-up, cream or jewelry during the photo shoot. The differences between the estimated age of the participants and their chronological age were evaluated on these photographs, taking into account their gender.
Agreeing to appear 5 years younger than their chronological age, the participants performed much better on cognitive tests and were also 24% less likely to develop COPD and osteoporosis.
It was found that those who look older than their age may have a much higher risk of death than those who look younger than their age. However, no correlation was found between perceived age and osteoarthritis and age-related visual impairment.
Another study with similar results was conducted in Copenhagen on 20 thousand men.
It has been determined that people with more facial wrinkles, baldness and gray hair have a higher risk of having a heart attack; In a Japanese study of 273 men and women, people who showed less than their age also had a much lower risk of developing heart disease later in life.
The way we age is mostly related to genes and beyond human control.
However, there are some things we can do to prevent the signs of aging, even for a few years, and slow down this process. Eating healthy, exercising, coping with stress, avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption, keeping sleep patterns in balance, not being overexposed to the sun, consuming enough water and most importantly, the physical environment are some of the factors that can prevent these signs of aging to some extent.
By this physical environment, we mean the work environment and the places where we spend time. At the same time, the effect of harmful substances in the polluted air on the human body has a very important role in making the person look younger or older than they are.
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