Same age. Different face. Different outcome. This study stopped me in my tracks. Researchers studied more than 1,800 Danish twins over age 70 and asked independent raters a surprisingly simple question: “How old does this person look?” The twin who looked older was more likely to die before the twin who looked younger. Even more interesting, perceived age was associated with physical and cognitive functioning and leukocyte telomere length. Now, this does NOT mean wrinkles make you unhealthy. And it certainly doesn’t mean looking younger causes you to live longer. It means something far more interesting to me: The face may reflect aspects of the same underlying biology affecting the rest of the body. And as a facial cosmetic surgeon, that completely changed the way I thought about aging. Because two people can have the exact same chronological age… while appearing to age very differently. Which raises the much bigger question: If we age biologically at different rates, can we actually influence that rate? That’s where we’re going next. 👇 Before we do: Do you think your biological age is younger or older than your chronological age? Christensen K, et al. BMJ. 2009;339:b5262. PMID: 20008378. #BiologicalAge #Longevity #HealthyAging #AgingScience #AntiAging