If You're Over 70 and Can Still Do These 7 Things, Your Body Is Aging Exceptionally Well – Transcript

00:00After 70, you're told to watch three numbers: your blood pressure, your cholesterol, your weight. They matter, but they're not the best predictors of how well you're aging. In one study of nearly 140,000 adults, a single measure beat blood pressure at predicting who would die.

00:18It wasn't a blood test. It was how hard they could squeeze their hand. So, here's the real question. If the best clues aren't on your medical chart, where are they? They're in how you move. Your birth certificate says you're 70-something. >> >> Fine. That's one number. But, your body keeps a second number, and it can sit 10, 15, even 20 years away from the date on your passport, in either direction.

00:42You can measure it yourself, today, in your own living room. All you need is a sturdy kitchen chair, a timer on your phone, and about 13 ft of floor. Seven everyday abilities. >> >> Each one quietly tracks a different system inside you. Your muscles, your nerves, your heart, your inner ear, even the part of your brain that plans ahead.

01:05And these aren't fitness magazine guesses. They come from studies published in The Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Tens of thousands of older adults followed for years. One of those tests lasts 10 seconds.

01:23People who couldn't pass it had an 84% higher risk of dying over the following years. And the seventh ability? Most people over 70 haven't tried it in a decade. It pulls every other system into one single movement. That's why it comes last.

01:39So, grab a pen. Write the numbers 1 through 7 down the side of a piece of paper. Let's find out how old your body really is. Picture two people sitting side by side in a doctor's waiting room. Both 75. Same birth year.

01:54>> >> Same town. Maybe they even went to the same school. One of them will most likely still be living on her own at 90, shopping, gardening, arguing with the grandchildren about politics. The other may struggle to get to the corner store by 80. Same age on paper, completely different bodies underneath. Doctors have a name for this gap. They call it functional age. Some researchers call it biological age.

02:20Either way, the idea is simple. Your cells don't read calendars. They respond to how they've been used and how they've been looked after. >> >> And here's the part most people never hear. The best way to estimate that hidden number isn't an expensive blood panel.

02:35It isn't a gene test you mail off in an envelope. It's watching what you can do. How fast you walk, how hard you grip, how steadily you balance, how you get up off the floor. Because every one of those movements is a stress test. It asks your heart, your muscles, your nerves, and your brain to cooperate all at once, in real time.

02:58If any one of them is struggling, the movement shows it. Now, a quick and honest word before we start. Everything you're about to hear comes from large studies of groups of people. These abilities are signals, not sentences.

03:11A low score doesn't mean something bad is going to happen to you. A high score doesn't make you bulletproof. What they do is point to where your body is strong and where it might need some attention. And the best part? Almost every one of these abilities can be improved, even in your 80s, even in your 90s. We'll get to exactly how near the end.

03:33Okay, number one. Ability number one sounds almost too simple. Can you still walk at a brisk, comfortable pace? Not race walk. Not power walk with your elbows going. Just your normal walking speed. The pace you'd use crossing a parking lot.

03:51Some geriatricians now call walking speed the sixth vital sign, right alongside blood pressure, pulse, temperature, breathing rate, and oxygen levels. That sounds like an exaggeration.

04:03It isn't. In 2011, a team led by Dr. Stephanie Studenski at the University of Pittsburgh pulled together nine large studies. Nearly 35,000 people, all aged 65 or older, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

04:21They wanted to know one thing. >> >> Does how fast you walk say anything about how long you'll live? It did. And by a lot. For every small step up in walking speed, just a tenth of a meter per second faster, the risk of death dropped by around 12%.

04:38And people who walked at about 1 m per second or faster, that's a little over 2 miles an hour, tended to live longer than average for their age and sex. But here's the bit that surprised even the researchers. Walking speed on its own predicted survival about as well as models that combined age, sex, chronic diseases, smoking history, blood pressure, body weight, and past hospital stays. One stopwatch.

05:05Roughly as informative as half a medical file. So, how fast are you? Here's how to check. Find a hallway or a stretch of sidewalk. Measure out 13 ft. That's about 4 m.

05:19Put a mark at the start and a mark at the end. Now, this matters. Start walking a few steps before the first mark, so you're already moving at your natural pace when you cross it. Then have someone time you from the first mark to the second. Or time yourself. Walk the way you normally walk. Not your best effort. Your usual.

05:39If you cover those 13 ft in about 4 seconds or less, you're walking at roughly 1 m per second. That's the zone linked with better than average life expectancy. Around 5 seconds puts you near the middle of the pack for people in their 70s. And if it's taking you closer to 7 seconds or more, that's worth a conversation with your doctor, not a panic. A conversation.

06:01Write your time next to number one. Now, here's something that should give you a jolt. A few years ago, researchers at University College London looked at walking speeds from more than 3,000 people over 65 in England. They compared them to the speed you need to get across a road at a crosswalk before the walk signal runs out. That's set at about 1.2 m/s.

06:24Roughly three out of four men couldn't walk that fast. Among women, it was closer to five out of six. Think about that the next time you see someone stranded on the island in the middle of the road. The crossing was designed for a body most people over 65 no longer have. So, why does walking slow down in the first place? It isn't just your legs getting tired.

06:46Something more specific is happening. When you're young, a lot of your walking power comes from your calves and ankles. Each step ends with a strong push-off from the ball of your foot. It's like a little spring launching you forward.

07:01With age, that ankle push weakens. And your body quietly compensates. >> >> It starts pulling you forward from the hips instead. Your stride gets shorter. Your feet lift less. You shuffle a little more than you used to.

07:17Researchers call it a shift in where the power comes from, moving up the leg from the ankle to the hip. And most people never notice it happening. It creeps in over years. That's why walking speed is such a good summary. To walk briskly, your heart has to pump enough blood. Your lungs have to keep up. Your muscles have to produce power. Your nerves have to fire on time.

07:40Your joints have to cooperate. And your brain has to coordinate the whole thing without you thinking about it. If any link in that chain weakens, your speed drops. Walking pace is the whole body voting. Now, >> >> what it doesn't tell you, a slow walk on one bad day doesn't mean much. A painful knee or a sore hip can slow you down without meaning your heart or brain are in trouble.

08:02>> >> And some people simply amble because they enjoy it. That's why the test asks for your usual pace, and why it's the pattern over time that matters most. If your walk was quick and easy, good. But don't relax just yet, because the next ability is the one people overestimate more than any other. Most assume they're fine.

08:21>> >> The numbers suggest a lot of them aren't. Ability number two. Can you still open a brand new jar without reaching for a dish towel, a knife, or the nearest grandchild? Or carry two full bags of groceries from the car to your front door without stopping to put them down?

08:38That's grip strength. And it sounds trivial. Who cares about jam jars? Well, cardiologists do. Quite a lot, it turns out. Remember the hand squeeze from the very start? This is that study.

08:51In 2015, The Lancet published results from something called the PURE study. Nearly 140,000 adults across 17 countries. Rich countries, poor countries, cities, villages. Every one of them had their grip measured with a simple handheld device, and was followed for about four years.

09:10For every 11 pounds of grip strength lower, the risk of dying from any cause went up by roughly 16%, and this is the line that made headlines. Grip strength was a stronger predictor of death than systolic blood pressure. Think about that.