Your physiological age may not be the same as your chronological age. Certain systems — cardiovascular, pulmonary, cognitive, and more — could be wildly younger or older. To determine your “physio age,” we’ve created a DIY calculator, borrowing pages from the playbooks of Dr. Joseph Raffaele, a New York City age-management physician, and arguably the two most important ongoing population studies of aging, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and the Dunedin Study out of New Zealand. It’s not a perfect indicator of the age of your insides. But, considering that it doesn’t depend on high-tech diagnostic hardware, it’s pretty damn close.
TEST #1: PULSE PRESSURE
Using your most recent blood pressure measurement, subtract diastolic pressure, the low number, from systolic pressure, the high number. This will get you a rough measure of the flexibility/stiffness of your arteries, the key measure of cardiovascular system aging.
SCORING:
PULSE PRESSURE MJ CARDIO AGE
32 or below 20 years old
33-35 25 years old
36-38 30 years old
39-40 35 years old
41-42 40 years old
43-44 45 years old
45-47 50 years old
48-51 55 years old
52 -54 60 years old
55-57 65 years old
58-60 70 years old
61-63 75 years old
63-65 80 years old
TEST #2: STEP TEST
Step up and down onto a roughly 12-inch-high box or step for three minutes, then while you’re still standing immediately take your pulse ( i.e., the number of beats in one minute). You’ll get a read-out on how both your cardiovascular and pulmonary systems are doing.
SCORING MJ CARDIO-PULMONARY AGE
Below 102 20 years old
102-103 30 years old
104–108 40 years old
109 and above 50 years old
** There is no heart-rate score that corresponds to an MJ Cardio-Pulmo Age of 60. In the Canadian Home Fitness Test, from which this data is loosely drawn, pulse rate after the step test actually declined for the 60-year-olds, not because they were fitter than their younger counterparts, but because their maximum heart rate had dropped so much.
TEST #3: WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE
Measure your waist, and make sure to take the measurement at your true waist, not at your belt line, but level to your belly button. (Don’t hold your breath, either.) Because men typically wear their belts below the waist, a belt size of 36 might correspond to a 40-inch waist. Your score gives you a handle on your metabolism, how much systemic inflammation is driving your aging process.
SCORING MJ METABOLIC AGE
36 in. or less 25 years old
37–39 in. 35 years old
40 in. 45 years old
41 in. 55 years old
42 in. and above 65 years old
TEST #4: COGNITIVE PROCESSING SPEED
A venerable neuro-psychological test, Trail Making B, measures how quickly you can process information. For an explanation of the test and how to take it, go to alzheimers.about.com. According to the instructions, a partner is supposed to administer the test, but you can easily do it yourself. Print out the exam (scroll down to Trail Making Test Part B), but don’t look at it closely. Start a stopwatch and begin connecting with a pencil the numbers and the letters in the proper sequence (if you make a mistake, correct it and keep going; the clock keeps ticking). Hit stop once you’re done. Your elapsed time will give you your Cognitive Age.
SCORING MJ COGNITIVE AGE
Below 50 seconds 20 years old
50–54 30 years old
55–60 40 years old
61–65 50 years old
66–80 60 years old
81 and above 70 years old
FINAL TALLY: YOUR MEN’S JOURNAL PHYSIOAGE
Add up your results from these four tests, and divide that number by four. This is your PhysioAge. If you’re not happy with the results, don’t worry. PhysioAges are malleable. Find out how you can lower your scores here.