I am 50 – going on………… 35!

Yes – you read that right!!

We are all obsessed with chronological age – celebrating anniversaries, blowing candles, cutting cakes. But look around you – has everyone around you aged uniformly?

Twenty years ago, I was a fairly unhealthy 35 year old. A freak soccer accident played havoc with my right knee – needing reconstructive surgery. My exercise levels dropped, and I quickly put on 10 kgs.

Things changed for the better when I turned 40. I re-discovered my passion for the outdoors and learnt to play tennis.  I will never climb Mt. Everest and will never win even my condo tennis tournament – but that doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm. A recent high point was when an online test declared my health age at 35 years! There are large numbers of self-administered online tests that estimate your health age based on your physical characteristics, activities and lifestyle – you might like to try one just for fun.

Analytics today have evolved to the extent of scientifically predicting your chance of having a cardiac event in the next 5 years. Several “Risk Assessment” algorithms have been put out by some of the best names in medicine  - Johns Hopkins’s ACG, the Framingham panels, the Minnesotta Tiering methodology, Charlson Comorbidity measures, Kaiser’s Archimedes etc. Each of them puts a number to your health risk – some translate the risk into money. The algorithms are extremely complex, but most recognise that over 80 % of the controllable risk can be attributed to 5 factors – excess body weight (BMI), Lipid Profile, uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension, stress and smoking.

The George Institute for Global Health (TGI) is a 4 - country organisation headquartered in Australia. The institute is known for its research into population health and clinical excellence. In 2015, it was ranked among the leading ten research institutions in the world for research impact by the SCImago Institutions Rankings World Reports. TGI has developed a proprietary risk stratification and management methodology and has embedded it into a computer tool called “Healthtracker”. Healthtracker is a part of a suite of tools developed by TGI that, together, can link to medical records, extract data, dialogue with users and provide end-to-end solutions. Healthtracker quantifies cardiovascular risk and allows the individual to take charge, in consultation with his doctor. A dial allows an individual to set goals for diet, exercise, medication compliance and smoking cessation – and to see how this helps dial down their healthcare risk. Healthtracker paints some amazing pictures – for example, just cutting off smoking reduces cardiac risk by 30 %. This is just a glimpse of what Articial Intelligence and Machine learning tools can do to improve healthcare

A word of caution though - these tools only work when they are correctly adapted to the health system / individual context. Most times, results are more directional than accurate - so the movement over time and action plans for sustained outcomes are more important than the absolute numbers.

So, fellow 50 year olds – take heart. With some effort you can go back to feeling the way and doing the things you did 20 years ago. Only you can take charge of your own health; adopt some simple mantras

• Eat right; avoid processed foods, watch those lipids and your blood sugar
• Exercise regularly; stay light on your feet
• Find and practice your way to beat stress. Laugh; have fun; develop a hobby; make friends – it is never too late
• Stop smoking – NOW

Watch yourself grow younger –  go on that magical hike, play a game with the kids or finally indulge your love for outdoor photography. Life can be fun – again!