You Are How Old?

Have you ever wondered how old you "should" be or if you were living a "healthy lifestyle"? A Web site lets you find out how old your body feels by just answering a questionnaire.

Real Age asks about your lifestyle, your eating history, your medical history and what you do for fun. It uses each question to calculate its impact on your chronological age. For example, I'm a bit over 39, exercise, in pretty good health, but don't eat as well as I should (but then who does in the news business?).

The Real Age questionnaire (which takes about five to 10 minutes to complete) puts my "real age" at 35.9 years -- 3.4 years younger than my chronological age. Not bad!

Could I do better? That's where the real information on this site comes into play. The doctors who put together the site offer tips, suggestions and guidelines to improve the numbers and let you live longer.

The tips are very specific. For example, I don't eat breakfast as regularly as I should. They could simply say, "Eat a health breakfast each day." However, along with the obvious, they offer an action plan so I can follow it. It also tells you when you are doing too much "of a good thing" -- like exercising too hard or for too long to benefit your body.

You do need to register with the site (it is free) and the company does not release any of the information you provide. All data is based on good science and constantly scrutinized for changes in the health field.

But best of all, it is personalized. There are no generic answers, but results are based on the information you provide the site. The more specific you get, the more specific it gets. And you can save your results so that you can go back to the site, make changes and see the results automatically.

Sure, there are a couple of items for sale on the site (books mostly), but the organizers say they put together the site to keep people healthy and alive -- for as long as possible.