What's Your Real Age?

BY MICHAEL ROIZEN, M.D.
From "RealAge"

MY FRIEND Simon was one tough cookie. A self-made man, he had a drive and determination that was hard to match. Yet he had severe arterial disease and a terrible circulatory problem.

       I was afraid Simon, a lifelong smoker, might not be my friend for much longer. One day I asked him, "Simon, how old are you?"

       "Mike," he grumbled, "you know I'm 49."

       "Did you know that all that smoking has made you older? For all practical purposes, your age is 57."

       No man in Simon's family had ever lived to the age of 57. Suddenly my message hit home.

       I believe that the difference between your calendar age and your real age results largely from your health behaviours. You can calculate your physiological age compared with the rest of the population by giving these activities specific numerical values and then adding them to or subtracting them from your calendar age.

       I have devised a system that applies statistical techniques to more than 125 different health factors. By tallying all the answers to the full survey and then factoring in a multiplier for your chronological age group, you can determine your physiological, or real, age.

       If you answer the following questions, you'll get a rough idea of whether you're aging more quickly or more slowly than your peers.

       Since it is impossible to get a thorough measure of real age in only ten questions, you may want to take the full survey in my book.