Can You be Biologically Younger than Your Chronological Age? An Overview of Biological Ageing

The ageing of the population is rapidly escalating worldwide irrespective of unpredictable health challenges like climate change, emerging infectious disease, a microbe that develops drug resistance. India is also experiencing rapid socioeconomic progress and urbanization and the result of this demographic transition is population ageing. Even though there is an increase in life expectancy, there is no increase in health span, and thus increased life expectancy leads to ‘expansion of morbidity'. Longer life expectancy with the expansion of morbidity could enforce a challenge to geroscience as well as a substantial health burden and a threat to the national economy.  In normal ageing, chronological age equates to biological age but certain disease conditions accelerate biological age. Similarly, intervention with physical activity, anti-ageing nutraceuticals would slow down the rate ageing process and provide powerful benefits for longevity. The current review article is based on MeSH and free-text terms in databases such as PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Science Direct.  This article aims to provide an overview of the concept of biological ageing with emphasis on the pathophysiology of ageing, quantification of biological ageing and the anti-ageing strategies.