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A simple balance test can show your real biological age

Is your body older or younger than your chronological age?

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A couple doing balance practice.

Your chronological age is the number of years you’ve lived, but that isn’t the greatest predictor of your health. Doctors often consider your biological age to determine your overall health or longevity.

There is no universal formula for determining someone’s biological age. Doctors usually consider one’s family health history, diseases, conditions, sleep, diet, and exercise habits. They can also determine someone’s biological age by checking their balance, grip strength and endurance.

A new study by the Mayo Clinic found that your ability to balance on one foot is an indicator of bone, nerve, and muscle strength and can help determine your biological age.

"Balancing on one leg requires multiple components of physiological function that each typically declines with age, including strength in the leg and postural stabilizing muscles, neuromuscular coordination, and intact sensory information and reflexes," Prof David Proctor, aging and exercise expert at Pennsylvania State University, told BBC Science Focus.

"Attempts to prevent or slow the loss of muscle strength and balance in older age could mean the difference between remaining functionally independent and early admission to a nursing home!" he continued.

The researchers asked people between the ages of 50 and 80 to balance for 30 seconds on each leg with their eyes open and closed. The team found that for every additional 10 years of age, swaying increased by 6.3% if their eyes were open and 10.5% if their eyes were closed.

So, if you are over 50 and can stand on one leg for 30 seconds without significant wavering, you’re probably doing well for your age. But if you experience considerable wavering, then you should work on training your neuromuscular system.

The study comes two years after researchers in Brazil found that older adults who cannot stand on one foot for 10 seconds or more are nearly twice as likely to die in the next 10 years. The inability to stand on one foot shows that the body has lost neuromuscular strength, but it also makes one vulnerable to falling.

“Remember that we regularly need to stay in a one-legged posture, to move out of a car, to climb or descend a step or stair and so on," the study’s author, Dr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, a sports and exercise physician and director of research and education at the Exercise Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX in Rio de Janeiro, said according to NBC News. “Aged people falling are at very high risk of major fractures and other related complications," Araújo wrote. "This may play a role in the higher risk of mortality.”

The same researchers found a similar test that predicted one’s risk of death. Araújo and his colleagues released a study in 2016 that found that one’ ability to sit on the floor and then stand up without using their knees or handles for support was a good indicator of longevity.

You begin the test with a score of 10 and subtract points on your way up and down for doing the following:

Hand used for support: -1 point

Knee used for support: -1 point

Forearm used for support: -1 point

One hand on knee or thigh: -1 point

Side of leg used for support: -1 point

Those who score in the lowest range, 0 to 3, had up to a 6 times greater chance of dying than those in the highest scores (8 to 10). About 40% of those in the 0 to 3 range died within 11 years of the study.

If you are having trouble with any of these exercises, you can improve by training your neuromuscular system through swimming, running, or cycling. Training programs are also available to help increase neuromuscular fitness. As with any exercise program, please consult a physician before attempting rigorous exercise.

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Titanic crew member's firsthand account of ship's sinking is an incredible video artifact

The rediscovered BBC clip from 1979 is a historic treasure.

"Signed Photo by Millvina Dean. Youngest Survivor of The Titanic Disaster" by Jimmy Big Potatoes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

The "unsinkable" Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912.

The sinking of the Titanic on April 14, 1912, is one of the most talked-about tragedies in modern history, and not only because of the James Cameron film. When a ship that's been marketed as "unsinkable" literally sinks on its maiden voyage, it's automatically a riveting story, even without any other details.

But the details matter. Each life lost and each life saved on that fateful night was a unique human whose story impacted everyone connected to them.

We don't need a Jack and Rose romance to be transfixed by stories from the Titanic. One thing Cameron's film did well was show what it must have been like as the ship hit the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. and sank in slow, dramatic fashion for the next two and a half hours, but hearing an account from someone who lived it brings that event to life in on a whole other level. When we're watching a movie, even about a true historical event, our brains can easily pretend it's not real. Hearing it described by someone who lived it doesn't allow for that sort of mental game.

There are no living survivors of the Titanic left to share their stories anymore, but we do have recordings of them. One of those recordings came from a 1979 interview with Frank Prentice, the ship's assistant purser.

The film footage from the BBC archive shows Prentice describing the moment the ship hit the iceberg—how it felt like slamming on the brakes in a car—and the part he played in helping people get onto the lifeboats. (There was space for 800 people on the lifeboats, but only 500 made it into them in the chaos and confusion. Even if they'd filled every space, that would have barely saved a third of the 2,240 passengers and crew on the ship.)

Prentice's delivery sounds so calm, belying the traumatic experience he's describing from 67 years prior. But at the end of the segment, the interviewer asked if it bothered him to talk about it. "I should probably dream about it tonight," he replied. "Have another nightmare. You'd think I'm too old for that but you'd be amazed."

Anyone who knows the full story of the Titanic likely wouldn't be surprised that reliving that horror would have an impact no matter how much time had passed. Only 705 people total survived the sinking, either being lucky enough to snag a space on a lifeboat or rescued from the water in time. More than 1,500 perished. Those who survived were fortunate, but they had to experience and witness so much fear and loss.

Even close to seven decades after the fact, we get a glimpse of that pain in Frank Prentice's interview.

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David Attenborough's remarks after receiving lifetime Champion of the Earth award are a must-watch

Sir David Attenborough says we must see ourselves as citizens of one planet in order to solve our problems.

UN Environment Programme/YouTube

David Attenborough is an international treasure.

There are few absolutes in this world, but here's one of them: Sir David Attenborough is a priceless human treasure and anyone who disagrees is tragically wrong.

The 95-year-old broadcaster, writer and environmentalist has been educating and entertaining us by producing and narrating documentaries for decades, his soothing voice and gentlemanly British accent creating conservation champions the world over. David Attenborough loves the natural world and he makes others love it too by sharing its wonders and its beauty, in addition to its vulnerabilities due to human activity. His passion makes it nearly impossible to walk away from an Attenborough documentary without a deep desire to do something to protect our planet.

His long life of passionate dedication to conservation is why the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has honored Attenborough with the prestigious Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement award. Having co-created well over 100 documentaries in his life, including recent groundbreaking series such as "Planet Earth," Attenborough has continued his illustrious career well into his 90s. And as the world has careened toward the damaging impacts of climate change, he hasn't let up in his push for humanity to alter our path before too much of that damage becomes irreversible.

“Sir David Attenborough has devoted his life to documenting the love story between humans and nature, and broadcasting it to the world,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

“If we stand a chance of averting climate and biodiversity breakdowns and cleaning up polluted ecosystems, it’s because millions of us fell in love with the planet that he showed us on television.”

In an interview with Andersen, Attenborough explained that we will never solve the environmental crisis without the recognition that the world must work together as a unified body.

"We are living in a new era in which nationalism is simply not enough," he said. "We must wave goodbye to it. We must feel that we are all citizens of this one planet, because unless we do we won't solve the problems."

"We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them—all we lack is unified action," he said. "These problems cannot be solved by one nation, no matter how big that single nation is."

Andersen asked how we can get that message across to people. Attenborough excels at going beyond the scientific facts and speaking to people's hearts, and he explained how to capture people's attention and help them see why conservation is important.

"The most evocative pictures you can present are pictures of animals," he said. "They are understood around the world. A picture of a gorilla with its baby moves the hearts of every single human being on this planet. And we now have the technical devices in which we can present these things so that people can see what fantastic riches the world has. And you can explain how we depend upon them, how we are part of them, and that when we are saving them, we are saving ourselves."

Attenborough explained that we've seen great success with whale populations, which had dwindled to near extinction 50 or 60 years ago. People and seagoing nations around the world got together and decided to put a stop to practices that were killing off the whales.

"And we did," he said. "And now there are more whales in the sea than anybody alive as human beings have ever seen before. It's a wonderful success story."

Andersen asked Attenborough what message he wants to send to young people.

"The message is that it can be done. The message is that it is possible. The message is that the natural world has more resources than we can possibly imagine. We've worked out how to kill them. Now we could give them a chance for them to come back and save themselves and save us."

Attenborough closed out his interview with praise for the organization honoring him with the Champions of the Earth award.

"United Nations—two of the most important words in any language," he said. "And more important now than they have ever been.

Watch the interview:

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Adele once went undercover in disguise to compete in an Adele impersonation contest

BBC America/YouTube

Adele gave a group of fans the surprise of a lifetime.

Adele is one of the most beloved singers in the world, both for her rich, resonant singing voice and for her genuine, down-to-earth personality. Her first album, "19," launched her into stardom, but her second album, "21" rocketed her into the superstar realm in 2011.

Since then, fans haven't been able to get enough of her. And in 2015, Adele gave a small group of fans the hugest surprise—by becoming one of them.

The surprise was orchestrated by BBC show host Graham Norton, who had gathered a group of Adele impersonators and tribute performers to film a (fake) contest show called "My Adele." What they didn't know was that Adele herself would be among the contestants, wearing a prosthetic nose and chin and a wig. She gave herself a fake name—Jenny—and lowered her voice so as not to give away her identity. She even gave herself a fake backstory as a woman who worked as a nanny and who had been doing Adele gigs for four years (though gigs had been few and far between lately).

Her commitment to the gag was impressive, as was her ability to keep a straight face as the contestants talked to her. She pretended to be incredibly nervous, and her fellow contestants were just so sweet and supportive—which just made the moments of realization and stunned expressions on each of their faces when she actually began to sing all the more delightful. You can dress up her face and hair, but you can't disguise that iconic voice.

The whole thing is just sheer joy all around. Watch:

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