According to Dr. Roizen, it's relatively easy for a 60-year old to reduce his or her age by five to eight years and only somewhat more difficult to reduce it by fifteen or sixteen years. What's more, the effect magnifies with age. In other words, at 70, you could have a biological age of 44 or 45. Most people start aging between 28 and 36 years of age, according to Dr. Roizen. After that the lifestyle choices you make determine to a large degree how fast or slow you age.
Some people show a dramatic decline and others show practically none.
RealAge is a calculation of your relative risk of dying versus that of the population as a whole. The RealAge program applies this process to a whole range of behaviors and conditions, using complex statistical techniques to blend them together and arrive at your biologic age. It's a complicated process, but all you have to do is answer a series of questions. If you complete the questionnaire online the computer does the calculations for you. If you use the charts in the book, you add up the plus and minus scores yourself.