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  • You know your favorite color, mine is blue, your favorite snack, mine is pizza bagels,

  • and you know your age...or do you?

  • VSAUCE! Mic-Woops!

  • Nope! Wrong channel!

  • Hey, there! Welcome to Life Noggin!

  • Psst, You can get turned into a Life Noggin character... Seriously!

  • Find the Gleam contest link in the description to enter!

  • Are you sure you know how old you are?

  • I can trace my origin back to the exact moment the Creator made me, March 23rd 2013 at 5:27pm,

  • and, of course, I incubated for year until my dad decided this whole idea wasn't stupid.

  • But figuring out your true age is a lot more complicated for you humans.

  • There's your chronological age, which is how long you've been alive for and what you use for birthday celebrations.

  • But there's also your biological age, which is how old your body and cells actually are.

  • This reflects your health and can indicate your life expectancy, but it's more difficult to determine.

  • Biological age is a measure of how fast you're aging by taking into account age-related changes and damages that accrue inside your body as you get older.

  • The more changes and damages, the older your biological age.

  • Your biological age can be similar to your chronological age or remarkably different.

  • It depends on aspects of your lifestyle, like diet, stress, exercise and sleeping habits, and living environment.

  • I realize that if you're a teenager almost all of those are bad.

  • But, In order to find out your biological age, scientists use biological markers, which are often referred to as biomarkers.

  • Triangle Bob, stop sniffing the biomarkers!

  • Biomarkers are any characteristic of the body that you can measure, like blood pressure or the results of an x-ray.

  • But there are certain ones related to the different processes that occur as you get older that scientists can use to determine someone's biological age.

  • One of them is telomere length.

  • Telomeres are found at the ends of your chromosomes, but each time the cell divides, they shorten.

  • So an older cell has much shorter telomeres than a brand new one.

  • But this can be difficult to measure.

  • Another age-related biomarker is DNA methylation, also known as your epigenetic clock.

  • While a genetic change alters your DNA and affects what chemicals your genes produce,

  • an epigenetic change determines whether or not a gene is turned on.

  • This can be caused by your lifestyle.

  • One way epigenetic changes happen is by DNA methylation.

  • This is a process where methyl molecules are added to your DNA, which turns the genes on or off.

  • As you age, certain genes become methylated that would be better off not,

  • while other genes lose their methyl groups that would be better suited with them.

  • This results in things like gray hair, wrinkles, and joint pain.

  • Everything a 30 year old looks forward to!

  • Studies have found that patterns of DNA methylation

  • which can be measured from a blood sample,

  • accurately predicted chronological age.

  • And many researchers and companies have used this method to develop their own epigenetic clock or wellness test

  • where you can discover exactly how old you are.

  • At the very least, it could be an excuse to have another party!

  • Happy 2,785th birthday, Triangle Bob!

  • His body's been through a lot!

  • So, my question to you, the beautiful person watching, how old do you feel?

  • Leave some funny or honest answers in the comments below now! I'll respond to some!

  • Click here to watch this video on treating cancer or click here to watch this video!

  • Do all the things that help this channel grow and check out lifespan, the team that powers life noggin down in the description!

  • As always, my name is Blocko. This has been Life Noggin. Don't forget to keep on thinking!

You know your favorite color, mine is blue, your favorite snack, mine is pizza bagels,

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