Interestng. Not sure I agree with all of it, but food for thought.
Is your body working well for its age? Norwegian scientists have come up with a simple test that enables you to find out
Your birthday is a reminder of how many years you have notched up so far, but how can you measure how well your body is defying the march of time?
For years scientists have analysed how longevity can be predicted using various biological measures, from the length of one’s telomeres — the “bumpers” that protect the ends of your chromosomes — to methylation, the process by which DNA gradually transforms in different cells and tissues (the recent announcement that women’s breast tissue ages at a faster rate than other parts of their bodies was the result of one such study).
Now scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have developed a simple test by which you can estimate your own “fitness age”, or how effectively your body is functioning for its years. The lead author of the study, Professor Ulrik Wisloff, director of the KG Jebsen Centre of Exercise in Medicine, says that the low-tech calculation is “the single best predictor of current and future health”.
After evaluating the fitness, weight and health measurements of almost 5,000 subjects between the ages of 20 and 90, Professor Wisloff and his team used the data to come up with an accurate formula to estimate someone’s maximal oxygen uptake, or VO2max, a measure of how efficiently the body delivers oxygen to cells. Although VO2max declines with advancing years, the drop can be slowed with regular exercise. And a favourable VO2max for your age is linked to a host of health benefits, not least better cardiovascular function and less risk of heart disease and health problems linked to obesity. It correlates closely with longevity and is a strong indicator of physical youthfulness or ageing.
Outlining their findings in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, the researchers say that you need your waist circumference in centimetres, your resting heart rate (see below), details of how often and how intensely you exercise and your age and sex. Fill in your details online at ntnu.edu/cerg/vo2max and, hey presto, you are told how old you are in gym years. Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at Loughborough University, says the new test appears to be a cheap and effective measure of health. “It is a method of comparing yourself with the average fitness in each age group which is very useful,” he says. “Your level of fitness does correlate with disease risk and your maximal oxygen uptake is linked to your risk of death.”
How fit you are is increasingly thought to be a stronger predictor of general wellness than, say, weight or BMI alone. Adults aged 60-plus with good aerobic fitness lived longer than unfit people of the same age, regardless of how much body fat they were carrying, according to a study conducted by the University of South Carolina. Others have linked physical fitness to lower levels of high cholesterol, raised blood pressure and osteoporosis. “The lower your VO2max or cardiorespiratory fitness, the greater the risk is of you developing cardiovascular and heart disease,” says Dr John Babraj, lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Abertay. “A low level of fitness is also associated with longer stays in hospitals following surgery in older people, as well as a greater propensity for other conditions like diabetes.”
The Norwegian scientists admit that their calculator is not scientifically exact but they say it provides a useful “rough estimate of cardiorespiratory fitness”. In reality the outcome will be for some a wake-up call. A 45-year-old man who exercises moderately and has a 36-inch waistband and a resting heart rate of 72 beats per minute would have a fitness age of 55, for instance. For others, it can provide welcome relief that the Grim Reaper is farther away than they thought. Researchers came across one 70-year-old subject with a fitness age of 20.
And my own result was something of a welcome surprise. Keying in my details I was informed that my estimated V02max is 49 and my “fitness age” is 21 — infinitely preferable to my chronological age given that my 45th birthday is looming ominously.
The best news is that you can reverse the fitness clock. Years can be knocked off if you step up the frequency and intensity of your workouts. “Scientists know that someone who exercises several times a week and puts in progressively more effort can greatly reduce the rate at which their fitness naturally declines with age,” says John Brewer, professor of sport at the University of Bedfordshire. “Consequently you can have a fitness level of someone who is much younger and the health prospects of someone half your age.”
Is your body working well for its age? Norwegian scientists have come up with a simple test that enables you to find out
Your birthday is a reminder of how many years you have notched up so far, but how can you measure how well your body is defying the march of time?
For years scientists have analysed how longevity can be predicted using various biological measures, from the length of one’s telomeres — the “bumpers” that protect the ends of your chromosomes — to methylation, the process by which DNA gradually transforms in different cells and tissues (the recent announcement that women’s breast tissue ages at a faster rate than other parts of their bodies was the result of one such study).
Now scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have developed a simple test by which you can estimate your own “fitness age”, or how effectively your body is functioning for its years. The lead author of the study, Professor Ulrik Wisloff, director of the KG Jebsen Centre of Exercise in Medicine, says that the low-tech calculation is “the single best predictor of current and future health”.
After evaluating the fitness, weight and health measurements of almost 5,000 subjects between the ages of 20 and 90, Professor Wisloff and his team used the data to come up with an accurate formula to estimate someone’s maximal oxygen uptake, or VO2max, a measure of how efficiently the body delivers oxygen to cells. Although VO2max declines with advancing years, the drop can be slowed with regular exercise. And a favourable VO2max for your age is linked to a host of health benefits, not least better cardiovascular function and less risk of heart disease and health problems linked to obesity. It correlates closely with longevity and is a strong indicator of physical youthfulness or ageing.
Outlining their findings in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, the researchers say that you need your waist circumference in centimetres, your resting heart rate (see below), details of how often and how intensely you exercise and your age and sex. Fill in your details online at ntnu.edu/cerg/vo2max and, hey presto, you are told how old you are in gym years. Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at Loughborough University, says the new test appears to be a cheap and effective measure of health. “It is a method of comparing yourself with the average fitness in each age group which is very useful,” he says. “Your level of fitness does correlate with disease risk and your maximal oxygen uptake is linked to your risk of death.”
How fit you are is increasingly thought to be a stronger predictor of general wellness than, say, weight or BMI alone. Adults aged 60-plus with good aerobic fitness lived longer than unfit people of the same age, regardless of how much body fat they were carrying, according to a study conducted by the University of South Carolina. Others have linked physical fitness to lower levels of high cholesterol, raised blood pressure and osteoporosis. “The lower your VO2max or cardiorespiratory fitness, the greater the risk is of you developing cardiovascular and heart disease,” says Dr John Babraj, lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Abertay. “A low level of fitness is also associated with longer stays in hospitals following surgery in older people, as well as a greater propensity for other conditions like diabetes.”
The Norwegian scientists admit that their calculator is not scientifically exact but they say it provides a useful “rough estimate of cardiorespiratory fitness”. In reality the outcome will be for some a wake-up call. A 45-year-old man who exercises moderately and has a 36-inch waistband and a resting heart rate of 72 beats per minute would have a fitness age of 55, for instance. For others, it can provide welcome relief that the Grim Reaper is farther away than they thought. Researchers came across one 70-year-old subject with a fitness age of 20.
And my own result was something of a welcome surprise. Keying in my details I was informed that my estimated V02max is 49 and my “fitness age” is 21 — infinitely preferable to my chronological age given that my 45th birthday is looming ominously.
The best news is that you can reverse the fitness clock. Years can be knocked off if you step up the frequency and intensity of your workouts. “Scientists know that someone who exercises several times a week and puts in progressively more effort can greatly reduce the rate at which their fitness naturally declines with age,” says John Brewer, professor of sport at the University of Bedfordshire. “Consequently you can have a fitness level of someone who is much younger and the health prospects of someone half your age.”
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