You may have observed how frequently our concept of age needs readjustment. Just found a great paper by Hayslip and Panek (1993) who categorise age in a number of different ways.
Chronological Age:
The length of time since birth which forms the basis of many peoples views on how ‘young’ or ‘old’ they are. But this can be contrasted with biological age.
Biological Age:
This is the physical age of ones body. If a healthy diet and exercise is maintained, body organs and processes may appear to be those of a much younger chronological age. The opposite also applies.
Social Age:
This is defined by the habits, behaviours, interests and attitudes of a person. People in their sixties may share the attitudes and interests of their children and identify with people with chronological ages of 20 to 30. Ever heard the expression ‘young at heart’. Act young, be young.
Psychological Age:
This refers to our adaptive behaviours and the way we cope with situations. If you do not become fixed in your attitudes and are able to change and adapt to different situations your psychological age may be that of an adventurous twenty something.
Trying to describe age is subjective. Hence the concept of functional age has come into favour. Functional age is obtained by measuring performance on the above four ranges. This is a useful way of thinking about age as it defines us in our actual ability rather than how long we have been alive.
Can you calculate your functional age? The good thing with this, is you can take steps to improve it. Lets share some ideas on how to improve functional age. Using great, natural or herbal skin care products definitely fits into that plan.
For centuries we have known that exercise is essential for good health – it gets the heart pumping and increases circulation. We know this is fact because after a 5 mile run our cheeks are glowing red and our heart rate is up. Improved circulation ensures that all the cells in our body get the nutrients and oxygen they need.
