Essentially, everyone has two ages: a chronological age, how old the calendar says you are, and a biological age, basically the age at which your body functions as it compares to average fitness or health levels.
从本质上讲，每个人都有两个年龄：一个是时间年龄，即日历上显示的你的年龄；另一个是生理年龄，即与平均健康水平相比，你身体机能正常的年龄。
"Chronological age isn't how old we really are. It's merely a number," said Professor David Sinclair at Harvard University. "It is biological age that determines our health and ultimately our lifespan. We all age biologically at different rates according to our genes, what we eat, how much we exercise, and what environment we live in. Biological age is the number of candles we really should be blowing out. In the future, with advances in our ability to control biological age, we may have even fewer candles on our birthday cake than the previous one."
哈佛大学的大卫·辛克莱教授说：“时间年龄并不是我们真正的年龄。它只是一个数字，生理年龄决定我们的健康，最终决定我们的寿命。根据我们的基因、饮食、锻炼和生活环境，我们的生理以不同的速度衰老。生理年龄是我们真正应该吹灭的蜡烛的数量。在未来，随着我们控制生理年龄的能力的提高，我们生日蛋糕上的蜡烛可能会比之前更少。”
To calculate biological age, Professor Levine at Yale University identified nine biomarker that seemed to be the most influential on lifespan by a simple blood test. The numbers of those markers, such as blood sugar and immune measures, can be put into the computer, and the algorithm does the rest.
为了计算生理年龄，耶鲁大学的莱文教授通过一项简单的血液测试确定了九种可能对寿命影响最大的生物标志物。这些标记的数量，如血糖和免疫指标，可以输入计算机，剩下的由算法完成。
Perhaps what's most important here is that these measures can be changed. Doctors can take this information and help patients make changes to lifestyle, and hopefully take steps to improve their biological conditions. "I think the most exciting thing about this research is that these things aren't set in stone," Levine said. "People can be given the information earlier and take steps to improve their health before it's too late."
也许这里最重要的是这些指标可以修改。医生可以利用这些信息帮助患者改变生活方式，并希望采取措施改善他们的生理状况。莱文说：“我认为这项研究最令人兴奋的一点是，这些事情并不是一成不变的。人们可以更早地获得信息，并在为时已晚之前采取措施改善健康。”
Levine even entered her own numbers into the algorithm. She was surprised by the results. "I always considered myself a very healthy person. I'm physically active; I eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet. But I did not find my results to be as good as I had hoped they would be. It was a wake-up call," she said.
莱文甚至将自己的数字输入算法。她对结果感到惊讶：“我一直认为自己是一个非常健康的人。我经常锻炼身体；吃我认为相当健康的食物，但结果并不令我满意。这是一个警钟。”
Levine is working with a group to provide access to the algorithm online so that anyone can calculate their biological age, identify potential risks and take steps to improve their own health in the long run. "No one wants to live an extremely long life with a lot of chronic diseases," Levine said. "By delaying the development of mental and physical functioning problems, people can still be engaged in society in their senior years. That is the ideal we should be pursuing."
莱文正在与一个小组合作，提供在线访问算法的机会，这样任何人都可以计算自己的生理年龄，识别潜在风险，并采取措施长远改善自己的健康状况。莱文说：“没有人想与一堆慢性病相伴一生。通过延缓精神和身体功能问题的发展，人们在晚年仍然可以参与社会。这是我们应该追求的理想。”