We publish a preview of an article in the new Corriere Salute. You can read the full text on the issue at newsstands for free on Thursday 17 June or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
Age is just a number. We say this to console ourselves when the candles no longer fit comfortably on the birthday cake, but it seems there is more than one fund of truth in not giving too much weight to the age; the biological age counts a lot (see the following pages, ed), but perhaps even more is the psychological age. What we feel in short, which weighs more than that written on the identity card or that we can read in the wrinkles on the face: this is supported by a large US study whose results were used to create a questionnaire that calculates the subjective psychological age thanks to the answers to fifteen questions (you can do it for free online at https://app.young.ai/psychoage). Just yet another curious test to understand if we are still young inside? Quite the contrary, because feeling fewer years on your shoulders is associated with better health and a longer life expectancy; moreover, many of the factors that affect the subjective age can be controlled and modified, so it is possible to learn to feel younger and, therefore, to become a little bit younger.
Not a game
Establishing the psychological age is not as simple as asking someone “How old are you feeling?”: The answer can vary according to mood and circumstances, specifies Alex Zhavoronkov, the researcher of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California who developed the test. Zhavoronkov applied artificial intelligence to the project’s huge amount of data Midlife in the United States, conducted by the National Institute of Aging about ten thousand people who have been followed and interviewed several times over the span of twenty years to understand how psychological, behavioral and social factors affect health and well-being as we get older: each time the volunteers answered a thousand questions on countless topics and the mass of data was then fed to the computers, which then identified the most decisive elements in determining the subjective age allowing to create the test in fifteen questions.
Exercise
On the key factors it is mostly possible to intervene: one of the most relevant in influencing the age we feel is the degree of physical health measured through questions that investigate the ability to engage in vigorous training or the need to follow therapies, for example those for high blood pressure, says Zhavoronkov. For example, those who are more active have a 30-50 percent higher chance of feeling younger even twenty years later. That physical exercise and movement in general are critical, especially as we age, is confirmed by Francesco Landi, president of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG): Sedentarity is the first determinant of psychological age but also of biological age and both are more important than age for health. Feeling younger means being more active, exercising in turn leads to less feeling the weight of the years: a virtuous circle that unfortunately this last year and a half of the pandemic has interrupted for many, limiting the possibilities of physical activity and movement also and above all. for the elderly.
You can continue reading the article on the Health Courier on newsstands for free on Thursday 17 June or in PDF on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
June 15, 2021 (change June 15, 2021 | 18:03)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED