Gauging how well-preserved a person is, or what’s come to be called their “biological age,” is something scientists have puzzled over for years, says Daniel Belsky, Ph.D., a professor at Columbia University’s Aging Center. Longevity researchers have been studying this mismatch for years and have determined that, yes, a person may be 70 based on their birth certificate, but they could have the heart of a 50-year-old or the muscle tone of someone who’s 60. There’s often a gap between a person’s actual age and how old a person appears to be based on how well their cells and organs function.
And we’ve all seen the reverse - someone whose years of hard drinking, smoking, or poor eating habits look to have taken their toll. We all know someone like this, a senior who seems just as vibrant and energetic as they did decades before. Strangers who met him almost always just assumed he was 10 to 15 years younger. He was sharp and articulate too, with impressive comedic timing and a fondness for pranks. He was never stooped like other octogenarians, he retained a lush head of salt-and-pepper hair that he kept neatly combed, and on his long daily walks, he was sure-footed and moved at a brisk clip. Once my grandfather got up into his 80s, it became very hard for anyone outside the family to guess how old he really was.
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