How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?

There was a Dutchman who wanted to officially change his age by 20 years.  The reason was he was in his 60s but only felt in his 40s.

"We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can't I decide my own age?" he said.

But the court disagreed, highlighting that many rights in law are based on a person's age, and changing it at will could cause many problems.

Perhaps we would all like to knock off a few years but can’t.  On the other hand, perhaps we should focus on our biological rather than chronological age?

What does biological age mean?

Your biological age is a measure of how the biological ageing process has impacted your body. It can be defined in terms of what researchers call ‘frailty indices’ – in what areas does your body work less well today than it did last year, or a decade ago?

Do you have a shorter working memory? Are you less insulin sensitive? Do you have a lower lung capacity?

Unlike your chronological age, which you can’t do much about except to accept as you get older and wiser, you can change your biological age with the health-related decisions you make in your daily life.

What’s more, researchers are finding that your biological age relative to your chronological age is a better indicator of your healthspan, or the estimated length of your highly functional and disease-free life. That’s good news for most of us, because most people would rather live healthier than live longer.

But your biological age can also help predict your longevity. It turns out that your chronological age, or how old you are based on the passage of time, is a poor indicator of your health.

To determine how old you really are, you need to know how well various components of your body are working. You also need to know how well they are working together. If one component of your ageing network becomes dysfunctional, it brings other components down with it.

For example, a poor diet, obesity and lack of physical activity can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes.

The good news is that you can still modify your environmental and lifestyle factors to compensate for ageing factors that you may have inherited from your parents. Exercise, nutrition and sleep are 3 key factors that should provide a focus for your health and wellbeing.

You can actually measure your biological age  here . Would you be happier telling people your biological age? Why not give it a try?

It may give you confidence or give you cause to reflect on what it’s telling you.