How Much Do We Age in a Day?

The best time to start getting healthy was twenty years ago. The second best time is now… 

How much will I age today?

What if I do certain things over the course of the day and I age a little less or I do certain other things and I age a little more?

And what if I stack up a series of one or the other of these days day after day?

Imagine how this might compound over time!

I never gave this too much thought until last week when I read a study published earlier this month in Nature Aging about differences between chronological aging and biological aging. Maxwell Elliott is the lead researcher and you can go read the full study here. 

Chronological aging refers to how long we've been alive (years, months, and days). Biological aging refers to how old we present across multiple factors relative to others who share our chronological age.

Elliott and team measured Pace of Aging in 1,000 people over 20 years (26-45), tracking markers related to cardiovascular, metabolic, renal, immune, dental and pulmonary systems.

This term Pace of Aging really got my attention.

How much are we aging each day, week, month, year?

The researchers focused more on implications of the data relating to science and policy but I am more interested in us as individuals.

Thinking About It for a Minute

So let’s forget about summarizing or analyzing the study, which is what I was planning to do, and instead we just think for a minute. 

Let’s assume:

1. People age more or less than one day per day depending on multiple factors including biological predisposition, health habits past, present, and future, current health state, and chronological age.

2. The sooner we begin behaving healthy, the sooner we begin aging more slowly.

3. Slowing the pace of aging might increase longevity and quality of life, decrease disease risk, decrease cognitive decline, and improve our attitudes towards life and the future.

Now, let's say we behave in ways that lead us to slow our Pace of Aging starting now and we age only 0.75 days per day going forward. 

Over the course of a year, we’d only age 9 months, and over the course of 40 years, we’d only age 30.