{"id":47144,"date":"2026-11-03T11:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=47144"},"modified":"2026-11-03T11:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:41:08","slug":"chemistry-of-the-number-is-age-really-just-a-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/chemistry-of-the-number-is-age-really-just-a-number\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry of the Number: Is age really just a number?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health & Lifestyle<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kaajal Luckraz, Pharmacist<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday- Fri-nally!<\/p>\n

Not cheugy-mummy and Papa attended a high school reunion this month. Although everyone was in the same year, it was impossible to say so by just looking at everyone. Everyone stands the test of time differently\u2026.<\/p>\n

I see this more and more, in my Pharmacy. Standing in a queue, it is increasingly hard to tell a fit fifty-five-year-old from a tired forty-year-old. Skincare, sunscreen, hair colour, cosmetic procedures, better dentistry and a culture of gym memberships have blurred the visible signs. A face is now a poor witness to age. Is the more honest record written on a prescription slip, or inside the body\u2019s underlying chemistry?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What ageing looks like at the molecular level<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ageing is not one process but several that overlap and feed each other.<\/p>\n

* Oxidative stress.<\/strong> Every cell burns fuel in its mitochondria, and that burning leaks reactive oxygen species, unstable molecules that damage proteins, fats and DNA. Young cells mop them up efficiently. With time, the mopping slows and the damage accumulates.<\/p>\n

* When sugar lingers in the blood, it sticks to proteins and fats and forms advanced glycation end-products, aptly abbreviated AGEs. They stiffen collagen in skin and arteries, which is why chronically high blood sugar ages both the complexion and the circulation. I have counselled many diabetic patients whose skin and vessels looked older than their years.<\/p>\n

* Cellular senescence.<\/strong> Cells that have stopped dividing but refuse to die linger in our tissues and release inflammatory signals. Researchers sometimes call this “inflammaging”, a slow, low-grade inflammation that quietly raises the risk of heart disease, dementia and diabetes.<\/p>\n

* Epigenetic drift.<\/strong> Chemical tags on our DNA, called methyl groups, switch genes on and off. The pattern of these tags changes predictably with time, and scientists have built “epigenetic clocks” from them.<\/p>\n

None of these processes run at the same speed in everyone. That is the point: it is why some of us age visibly, while others seem untouched.<\/p>\n

* Your birth certificate gives your chronological age<\/strong>. It is fixed, and yet, it tells us surprisingly little about your health.<\/p>\n

* Your biological age<\/strong> is a measure of how well your body is actually functioning compared with others of your years. It is estimated from blood markers, epigenetic patterns, organ function and physical performance. Two people aged fifty can differ by a decade or more in this measure, depending on genetics, diet, sleep, stress, smoking, alcohol, activity and the diseases they carry.<\/p>\n

* Then there is metabolic age<\/strong>, a term many people first meet on a bathroom scale or at a gym. These devices estimate your basal metabolic rate and compare it with the average for each age group. If your number is above the average for your age, the scale tells you that you have the “metabolic age” of someone younger, and the reverse if it is below.<\/p>\n

* Functional age<\/strong> is what your body can do. Grip strength, walking speed and getting up from a chair predict survival and independence remarkably well, and if often a better measure than a blood test.<\/p>\n

* Organ age<\/strong> \u2013 this comes with newer research that suggests the heart, kidneys, brain and liver can age at different rates within the same person.<\/p>\n

* Cognitive age<\/strong>, determines how sharp your memory is, how fast you process information and your attention span as compared to peers.<\/p>\n

* The pharmacokinetic age<\/strong>– my favourite! Kidney and liver function decide how a person clears drugs, so a 65-year-old with weak kidneys may need the dose of a much older patient- and that depends on the drug as well. This is the age that matters most when I check a prescription.<\/p>\n

As a pharmacist, I must be frank here. True metabolic health is a different matter, and it is measurable: fasting glucose and HbA1c, blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, waist circumference, and increasingly, markers of insulin resistance. When several of these drift out of range together, we call it metabolic syndrome. This is not just my opinion. It is among the strongest predictors of heart attack, stroke and type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

Two thousand years ago, Seneca the Younger argued that life is long enough if we use it well, and that we lose it mostly by squandering it. Call it lived age<\/strong>: how much of your time was truly experienced rather than merely spent. Two people can both be forty-five years old — one with forty-five distinct years of curiosity, friendship, and purpose behind them; the other with a single year repeated forty-five times.<\/p>\n

So which age truly matters? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer is that we should not treat an age at all — we treat a person<\/p>\n

Chronological age alone is a blunt instrument. A healthy seventy-year-old and a frail seventy-year-old should not receive identical advice, yet too often they do. Medicine has long used age as a shortcut for deciding who gets screened or prescribed what. Biological age promises to refine that. I welcome the idea, but with caution. Biological age tests are an exciting area of research, yet the commercial versions marketed directly to consumers vary widely in quality. A single number, however impressive its graphics, should not drive prescribing.<\/p>\n

Metabolic health, on the other hand, gives us targets we can act on. We know that bringing down blood glucose, blood pressure and LDL cholesterol reduces real events: fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes, fewer amputations. We know that preserving muscle through resistance exercise and adequate protein protects mobility and independence into old age. These are interventions with evidence behind them.<\/p>\n

What a pharmacist would tell you<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before buying any anti-ageing supplement, know that no pill has been proven to slow human ageing. Be wary of products promising to “reverse your biological age”. The basics remain stubbornly effective:<\/p>\n

* Move daily and lift something heavy twice a week. Muscle is a metabolic organ.<\/p>\n

* Eat real food, with less sugar and refined starch, and enough protein. And less pesticides.<\/p>\n

* Sleep seven to eight hours. Sleep is when the body repairs.<\/p>\n

* Do not smoke and keep alcohol modest.<\/p>\n

* Know your numbers: blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, waist. Test them regularly after forty.<\/p>\n

* Review your medicines with your pharmacist every year. What suited you at fifty may not suit you at seventy.<\/p>\n

So the next time you take an online aging test or ask an AI to assess your photo\u2014now you know. And whichever anniversary you choose to celebrate, cake, anyone?<\/p>\n

Kaajal Luckraz attained her MPharm degree and qualified as a pharmacist at King\u2019s College London.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 30 October 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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