Are We Growing Old Before Our Time?
A new study in the world’s top medical journal, Nature Medicine, has asked a disturbing question. Are our children becoming biologically older than we were at their age?
Scientists studied 154,000 young adults in the UK. They found a strange trend. At the same calendar age of 40, a person born in 1970 is biologically older than a person born in 1955. Especially men.
And this biological age matters. People who were biologically older than their real age had a higher risk of getting cancer before the age of 55. The risk was highest for lung, stomach and intestinal cancers.
What does biologically older mean?
In our Vedas, we never measured age by birthday. We measured age by 'Bala, Ojas and Jara'. Bala is strength. Ojas is resilience. Jara is decay. Modern science has now made a blood test for this same idea. They call it PhenoAge. It is not a costly test. It is made from nine routine things in your blood report — your inflammation, your sugar, your kidney health, your blood cells, and your nutrition. In ancient Vedic medicine , we call this 'Rasa-Rakta Pariksha.' Your blood is the mirror of how you have lived. And here is the truth the study reveals: The people who were biologically older were not unlucky. They had higher weight, more smoking, poorer diet, less exercise and more stress. So, we are not ageing faster because of some new gene. We are ageing faster because our lifestyle is making us old early. Ayurveda calls this ' Akala Jara ' — untimely ageing. Not 'Kala Jara' — the natural ageing due to time. Akala Jara happens due to 'Prajnaparadha' — the mistakes of our intellect — wrong food, wrong routine, wrong habits. A 35-year-old who weighs too much, sleeps less than five hours, smokes, eats too much processed food daily, and never walks, his blood will show him as 48. Not because his calendar moved fast, but because his internal fire 'Agni' is low and his 'Ojas' is low.
We think disease begins at 50. Cancer, heart attack, and diabetes appear suddenly. Vedas said: Disease begins 20 years before it is seen. 'Purvarupa'comes before 'Rupa'. The soil becomes weak for years before the seed of disease grows. This study proves the same. The ground for cancer that appears at 45 is being prepared at 25 and 30.
Cancer does not appear suddenly in a healthy body. It appears in a body where low-grade inflammation has been simmering for years. So what is the solution?
Not expensive anti-ageing pills. Our rishis gave us the prescription thousands of years ago. Science is now just proving it with blood tests.
Ahar Shuddhi: Eat right. Seasonal, home-cooked, less processed. This alone lowers your biological age. Then 'Nitya Vihar,' move every day. Walk, yoga, Surya Namaskar. Sleep for 7-8 hours. Your body repairs in sleep. Next is Vyasana Tyaga: Say no to addictions like smoking and alcohol. The study showed lung ageing was the fastest. Prevention cannot begin when disease is diagnosed at 50.It has to begin when health is being lost at 25.The clock is not just on your wall. The clock is in your blood and human cells
Atharva Veda prays: “Jivema Sharadah Shatam”— May we live a hundred autumns.
It is not a prayer for just a long life.It is a prayer that even at 80, our biological age remains young. That our Jara remains Kala-Jara, not Akala-Jara. Slow your lifestyle, and you will slow your ageing. And perhaps, you will also slow up early cancer or non-communicable diseases.
Authored by: Shashank Joshi
Scientists studied 154,000 young adults in the UK. They found a strange trend. At the same calendar age of 40, a person born in 1970 is biologically older than a person born in 1955. Especially men.
And this biological age matters. People who were biologically older than their real age had a higher risk of getting cancer before the age of 55. The risk was highest for lung, stomach and intestinal cancers.
What does biologically older mean?
In our Vedas, we never measured age by birthday. We measured age by 'Bala, Ojas and Jara'. Bala is strength. Ojas is resilience. Jara is decay. Modern science has now made a blood test for this same idea. They call it PhenoAge. It is not a costly test. It is made from nine routine things in your blood report — your inflammation, your sugar, your kidney health, your blood cells, and your nutrition. In ancient Vedic medicine , we call this 'Rasa-Rakta Pariksha.' Your blood is the mirror of how you have lived. And here is the truth the study reveals: The people who were biologically older were not unlucky. They had higher weight, more smoking, poorer diet, less exercise and more stress. So, we are not ageing faster because of some new gene. We are ageing faster because our lifestyle is making us old early. Ayurveda calls this ' Akala Jara ' — untimely ageing. Not 'Kala Jara' — the natural ageing due to time. Akala Jara happens due to 'Prajnaparadha' — the mistakes of our intellect — wrong food, wrong routine, wrong habits. A 35-year-old who weighs too much, sleeps less than five hours, smokes, eats too much processed food daily, and never walks, his blood will show him as 48. Not because his calendar moved fast, but because his internal fire 'Agni' is low and his 'Ojas' is low.
We think disease begins at 50. Cancer, heart attack, and diabetes appear suddenly. Vedas said: Disease begins 20 years before it is seen. 'Purvarupa'comes before 'Rupa'. The soil becomes weak for years before the seed of disease grows. This study proves the same. The ground for cancer that appears at 45 is being prepared at 25 and 30.
Cancer does not appear suddenly in a healthy body. It appears in a body where low-grade inflammation has been simmering for years. So what is the solution?
Not expensive anti-ageing pills. Our rishis gave us the prescription thousands of years ago. Science is now just proving it with blood tests.
Ahar Shuddhi: Eat right. Seasonal, home-cooked, less processed. This alone lowers your biological age. Then 'Nitya Vihar,' move every day. Walk, yoga, Surya Namaskar. Sleep for 7-8 hours. Your body repairs in sleep. Next is Vyasana Tyaga: Say no to addictions like smoking and alcohol. The study showed lung ageing was the fastest. Prevention cannot begin when disease is diagnosed at 50.It has to begin when health is being lost at 25.The clock is not just on your wall. The clock is in your blood and human cells
Atharva Veda prays: “Jivema Sharadah Shatam”— May we live a hundred autumns.
It is not a prayer for just a long life.It is a prayer that even at 80, our biological age remains young. That our Jara remains Kala-Jara, not Akala-Jara. Slow your lifestyle, and you will slow your ageing. And perhaps, you will also slow up early cancer or non-communicable diseases.
Authored by: Shashank Joshi
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