{"id":43369,"date":"2025-05-23T19:39:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T15:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=43369"},"modified":"2025-05-23T19:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T15:39:27","slug":"the-diy-guide-to-checking-how-well-youre-ageing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/the-diy-guide-to-checking-how-well-youre-ageing\/","title":{"rendered":"The DIY guide to checking how well you\u2019re ageing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Standing on one leg while brushing your teeth isn\u2019t a full ageing check-up. Here\u2019s why walking speed, brain flexibility and overall wellbeing score matter more.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

A few years ago, a social media trend challenged people to see if they could stand up from the floor without using their hands. Now, it\u2019s all about how long you can balance on one leg while brushing your teeth. These quirky \u201ctests\u201d promise to tell us how well we\u2019re ageing \u2013 but do they really?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>Ground Picture\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

When we talk about \u201cageing well\u201d, we\u2019re usually referring to both physical and psychological wellbeing. That includes feeling good (hedonic wellbeing) and finding meaning and purpose (eudaimonic wellbeing). Engaging in activities and monitoring ourselves plays a role in both.<\/span><\/p>\n

But ageing isn\u2019t just about how strong your grip is or how fast you can walk. It\u2019s a complex mix of physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes \u2013 and no single test captures the whole picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Physically, one simple measure that gets a lot of attention is walking speed. According to one famous study, people who walk faster than 1.32 metres per second were less likely to die in the next three years \u2013 jokingly framed as \u201ctoo fast for the Grim Reaper to catch\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the flip side, a slower walking speed \u2013 below 0.8 metres per second \u2013 can be a sign of sarcopenia, a condition involving reduced muscle mass, muscle strength and physical function. These are all important indicators of age-related decline.<\/span><\/p>\n

But while these markers are useful, they\u2019re not easy to measure at home. Most research relies on specialist equipment and your local GP probably doesn\u2019t have a grip-strength dynamometer sitting in a drawer. But they could time how long it takes you to stand up and sit down five times from a chair.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to do a DIY MOT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So, what can you realistically do to track your own ageing?<\/span><\/p>\n

To truly understand how you\u2019re ageing, it helps to think beyond physical health. Mental sharpness, emotional resilience and social connection matter just as much. One helpful idea is to assess your cognitive fitness, which includes skills like attention, memory and flexibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some cognitive tests you can try at home:<\/span><\/p>\n

Trail making test: connect numbers and letters in sequence (1, A, 2, B, etc.) and time how long it takes. This measures your ability to switch between tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stroop task: challenges your ability to ignore competing information. Try saying the colour of a word, not the word itself \u2013 like saying \u201cred\u201d when you see the word \u201cblue\u201d printed in red ink. It\u2019s harder than it sounds!<\/span><\/p>\n

Dual-task challenge: walk at your normal speed while counting backwards from 100 in threes. If your walking speed changes significantly, it could indicate cognitive strain.<\/span><\/p>\n

These kinds of tasks test how well your brain handles competing demands \u2013 a key ability that becomes even more important as we age. This skill is known as cognitive flexibility, and it helps you adapt to changing situations, switch between tasks and manage distractions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trying out these tests is great, but how do you know if you\u2019re improving? After all, when you have spent time trying to improve your walking speed, or Stroop ability \u2013 or even rubbing your head, patting your belly while saying the Finnish alphabet out loud \u2013 it\u2019s important to know if you are seeing benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some measures, like single-leg stance, can vary wildly from day to day \u2013 or even hour to hour. You might get better just from repeating it, which doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re ageing better, just that you\u2019ve practised.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others, like grip strength, change very slowly even with regular strength training. And some improvements are task-specific: getting better at the trail making test doesn\u2019t necessarily make you sharper at doing Wordle.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it helps to complete the test a few times at the start, then retest yourself once a month or so \u2013 again, doing it a couple of times \u2013 to track any improvements. Cognitive changes may be slower to notice than physical ones, so regular checks can help reveal progress over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

More of a puzzle than a test<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no single test or score that can capture how well you\u2019re ageing. Think of it more like a jigsaw puzzle. Physical health, mental agility, emotional balance, social connection \u2013 they all matter, and they all interact. And, of course, even if you perform well now, some changes in the future may be beyond your control. No test can fully predict what lies ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the day, maybe the best sign of ageing well isn\u2019t how fast you walk or how long you can stand on one leg \u2013 it\u2019s how you feel about your life. Are you feeling engaged, content, connected?<\/span><\/p>\n

Tools like the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience can help you take stock of your emotional wellbeing. This short, 12-question survey asks about your everyday feelings \u2013 from joy and calm to sadness and frustration \u2013 offering insight into both the pleasurable (hedonic) and meaningful (eudaimonic) sides of wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ageing well isn\u2019t about beating a stopwatch or acing a memory test. It\u2019s about knowing yourself \u2013 your body, your mind and your values \u2013 and making small, meaningful changes that help you feel more you.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, go ahead, stand on one leg if you like. But don\u2019t forget to check in with your brain, body, emotions and your sense of purpose too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marco Arkesteijn<\/span>
\nAberystwyth University <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alexander Nigel William Taylor<\/span>
\nAberystwyth University<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 23 May 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing on one leg while brushing your teeth isn\u2019t a full ageing check-up. Here\u2019s why walking speed, brain flexibility and overall wellbeing score matter more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":43370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8348],"tags":[5956,37632,4273],"class_list":["post-43369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-conversation","tag-ageing","tag-educate-me","tag-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Health-1.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-bhv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43371,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43369\/revisions\/43371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}