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LifestyleHealth & Wellness

How to reverse ageing? 2 women in their 60s on shaving decades off their biological ages

Journalist Sandra Parsons, 63, and entrepreneur Alison Cork, 61, describe how they put the brakes on their biological ages and live better

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In her book, former restaurant critic Alison Cork, 61, reveals how she lost more than 30kg over 4 years while lowering her biological age by 20 years. She and another author describe how they put the brakes on ageing. Photo: Alison Cork
Anthea Rowan

American biohacker Bryan Johnson invests big money – an estimated US$2 million yearly – trying to turn back his body clock. His quest for eternal youth includes specialised nutrition, supplements and personalised medicine – from stem-cell injections to DNA editing.

You do not have to be rich or a risk-taker to slow the ageing process, though. There are more accessible options that are a lot less costly, and may be even more successful, as two British authors reveal in books that describe how they cut decades from their biological age.

Chronological vs biological age

Essentially, your chronological age is how long you have lived; your biological age is how old your cells and organs are. Johnson, for example, is 47, but reportedly has the heart function of a 37-year-old and the fitness level of an 18-year-old.
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The number of years you have lived represents an “incomplete account of the ageing process”, says Professor Cathal McCrory, a co-principal investigator of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, or Tilda, at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

“Consider two same-aged peers of 50. The number of years that have passed is technically the same for both of them, but the ageing experience may be very different. Even identical twins age differently, despite sharing 100 per cent of their DNA,” he says.

Biohacker Bryan Johnson is 47, but reportedly has the heart function of a 37-year-old, and the fitness level of an 18-year-old. Photo: Magdalena Wosinska
Biohacker Bryan Johnson is 47, but reportedly has the heart function of a 37-year-old, and the fitness level of an 18-year-old. Photo: Magdalena Wosinska

British journalist and author Sandra Parsons exemplifies how to slow ageing. She has engineered her “real” age – 63 – down by 40 years or so.

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