Biological+Age

= BIOLOGICAL AGE  = =**__I. INTRODUCTION__**= ====Throughout our life we have often seen people with the same age, and we have been wondering why they look different and what things make the differences between those people, especially if they live in the same area, like city or neighborhood, and some times they can have the same social activities, such as sharing the same friends, having a a good job and a family among other things. ==== ====In this essay we shall try to establish these differences, our aim is determine the definition of Biological Age. Moreover, we will develop the factors than influence our lives and can affect our biological age. Finally, we will present a test that can help us a determiner our biological age. ====

media type="youtube" key="PwtuZsHVd_I?fs=1" height="385" width="640"
=__II. WHAT IS BIOLOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL AGE ? -. __= ====It is very important to know how to distinguish these two terms. This distinction is summarized in that **//chronological age does not correspond with biological age.//** ==== ====First of all, let´s see what is the concept of Age. According with the American Heritage Dictionary, Age is ¨ //The length of time that one has existed; duration of life// ¨ Therefore,this definition belongs to chronological age. In other words, that is the age in years. It is a very important administrative criteria marking important events in our life like our retirement. Therefore **it has a legal or social value rather than biological**.Time by itself has no biological effect. Changes occur in our life throughout the time. ====

====On the other hand, Biological Age " //is determined by physiology rather than chronology: factors of biological aging include changes in the physical structure of the body as well as changes in the performance of motor skills and sensory awareness//". In others word, is the age that corresponds to the functional status of our bodies compared to standard age patterns. Therefore, **it is a physiological concept**. Having knowledge about it could be more informative about our real age. ====

In order to illustrate this differences, we can show the following video.

media type="youtube" key="FYletAMCmzU" height="390" width="480"

=**__III. FACTORS THAT CAN HELP TO IMPROVE OUR BIOLOGICAL AGE. __**=

The next step is to analyze what factors determine our biological age. Throughout our life, our body will suffers changes. The most important changes are related to
 * Heart : the heart muscles begins to thicken, so the pumping decrease.
 * Immune system﻿ : ﻿ is less strong as we get older
 * Lung aging: It is believed that the capacity of our lung decrese in about 40% between ages 20 and 70
 * Brain aging: our capacity of understanding gradually is reduced
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Body fat, our body gain weight until middle age, then it begins to decrease.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Muscles and bones aging . Every year, our body loses muscle mass and our bones are weaker.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Therefore, if we want to reduce our biological age, we should do activities that help us to reduce this changes, in other words, if we want to make this changes slow, we should follow some advises.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">III.1 Eating Habits. __
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Although there are not perfect receipt that remain us youthful, eating habits can really help us to create a difference in the physical appearance, mental fitness and biological changes that happens within our body.It is said that we are usually what we eat. When we eat healthy food, we feel healthy. Our skin tends to retain the juvenility for long. Healthy food can help us to confront the stress and pressure of our daily routine. Specialists recommend try to eat this kind of food:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Dark Green Leafy Vegetables//**: Dark green leafy vegetables such as broccoli and spinach are a rich source of vitamin C, carotenoids and anti-cancer substances such a sulphoraphane and genistein.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Tomatoes//:** they are a good source of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant and anticancer agent that helps to prevent cell aging. Lycopene is equally vital for the eye health.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">//**Soybeans**:// Soybeans contain isoflavones ( hormone like substances that help to prevent aging due to hormone imbalances). They are also believed to be helpful against hormone sensitive cancers such as those of the breast and prostate gland. We should eat a soya product at least twice a week.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Garlic//** : Garlic has many properties like antioxidant, antiseptic, antibacterial and antiviral. It can help to reduce the cholesterol and triglycerides, reduce blood stickiness, dilate blood vessels and improve peripheral blood flow.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Ginger://** Not only help the nervous system but also improve digestion. Ginger has antioxidants.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Avocado ://** Avacado help to reduce the bad cholesterol called LDL in body. Avocado is a good source of vitamin E and can help to maintain healthy skin and prevent skin aging. A 2005 study in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry reported that avocados contain enough lutein to stop cancer growth in a lab experiment. Lutein also contributes to eye health.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Some fruits like figs and berries//** help to avoid fatigue and they are a good sorce of antioxidants known as flavonoids - powerful antioxidants that our body can use to make repairs and prevent some of the damage caused by aging.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Nuts and Seeds//:** Nuts and seeds are rich in vitamin E, selenium, zinc and essential fatty acids. Try to consume at least 30g daily e.g. sprinkled on salads, vegetables and cereals. Selenium is needed to produce antibodies for healthy skin and thyroid function as well as being vital for the action of many important antioxidant enzimes in the body.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">//**Carrots**:// they are a good source of beta carotene - antioxidant that fights aging and help to our vision. It is also important for keeping our immune system strong.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Dark Chocolate://** it contain flavanol that help preserve the healthy function of blood vessels. Maintaining youthful blood vessels lowers risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">//**Red Wine**:// can help to our heart and skin to reduce aging because it contains resveratrol.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**//Water//**: Water helps us to get rid of the toxins and unwanted waste materials from your body. It is said that drinking at least 8 glasses of water every day is necessary to remain healthy. In order to remain healthy and young, we should include the food mentioned items in our diet.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**III. 2 EXERCISES**__.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Working ou**t is an important way to reduce our biological age. There are a lot of advantages for our body if we practice some exercise. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">For instance, doing __//**cardiovascular exercise**s//__, such as aerobics, jogging, cycling, improve our heart rate and can increase the size of our heart. In addition, this kind of exercises not only help us to burn calories but also reduce the amount of cortisol. This are strees hormones that affect our thiroyd, therefore, our abdominal fat.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In addition, __//**anaerobic exercises**//__ are excellent source to improve our muscle muss. It said that it is start reducing when we get older. Because of that, doing anaerobic exercises we will received help in order to fight with it. An example of anaerobic exercise is the liftweight, or some other sport where we need to make a big effort in a short time, like using machines that offer resistance. In short, anaerobic exercises use resistance therefore we can build muscles.

=**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">IV. THINGS THAT CAN AFFECT OUR BIOLOGICAL AGE. __**=

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">On the other hand, // bad habits // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">affect our biological age. Many people think that is impossible to reduce o stop our biological age. It depend on our lifestyle. Actually, there are many different environment factors that are related at aging. First of all, // stress // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">can be considered the worst thing for our body. For instance, we can see the pictures of many world leaders in two times, at the before starting to be president and in the end. You will see a huge difference. The stress began to break their bodies down.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Secondly, the // environment // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">is another important thing that can contribute to aging and to feeling less youthful. The sun and pollution both not only impact your skin, but also with long term exposure, they can get into your body and begin to wear down your organs too.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Besides, what we choose to put into our body is also going to play a role in how old we are. In fact, // we are what we eat. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> A bad diet can affect seriously not only our body but also our health. For example, if we eat a lot of trans fat we will gain weight but in a bad way. That means you will be fatter. If you are fatter, you will have big risk of getting some disease like cholesterol or develop diabetic. In fact, there are many sickness that can appear if your immunological system is not strong because of your diet. Therefore, whatever kind of disease that we have are going to affect our biological age.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Finally, // our sedentary life style //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">is another important factor that fight again our possibility to reduce our biological age. We can have the same bad results if we have a sedentary life style. For instance, if we do not do any exercises and we only eat, we will be fatter. Therefore, we will be exposed to the same risk that in the last case. When you exercise, you keep your bones and your muscles strong, helping you to stay active and mobile long after you might think you should.

=**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.03em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">__V TEST. HOW WE CAN CALCULATE OUR BIOLOGICAL AGE.__ **=

=
<span style="font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">In order to estimate our Biological Age, there are several test that can help us. For instance, you can visit the following web pages: =====

https://login.realage.com/login/?Dest=/raap/realage-test&ref=ra_test
=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__**VI. CONCLUSION**__. =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In conclusion, our Biological Age in not the same than our chronological age. In fact, our real age is our Biological Age. It will depend on our life style. The main factors that most influence in our real age are food habit, how active we are in our daily lives, and our ability to control stress. Actually, all of them are interrelated and we decide how they will work. Although we can not stop the advance of the time, we can control its effects. Therefore, we are the only people who will decide how old we want to seem.



=__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY **__=

<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] ,. //http://www.answers.com/topic/biological-age-1//

<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">[]

<span style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://www.lifemojo.com/health/biological-age-definition/articles

=
<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px;">[] =====

=
<span style="font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> <span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; padding-right: 10px;">[]  =====

=
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">﻿  ===== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; padding-right: 10px;">[]

<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">[]

=
<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px;">[] =====

=
<span style="cursor: pointer; font-size: 1.03em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">https://login.realage.com/login/?Dest=/raap/realage-test&ref=ra_test =====