Your ‘health age’ is fake
Your ‘health age’ is fake
你的“健康年龄”是假的
Can we just agree that your age is your age? 我们能达成共识，承认年龄就是年龄吗？
Victoria Song is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter. She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine. Victoria Song 是一位资深记者，也是《Optimizer》通讯的作者。她在可穿戴设备、健康科技等领域拥有超过 13 年的报道经验。在加入《The Verge》之前，她曾效力于 Gizmodo 和《PC Magazine》。
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. 这是《Optimizer》，一份由《The Verge》资深评测员 Victoria Song 每周发送的通讯，旨在剖析和探讨那些宣称能改变你生活的最新小玩意和“灵丹妙药”。点击此处订阅《Optimizer》。
During last week’s Apple Watch announcement, I let out a distinct “Noooo!” in the Steve Jobs Theater. Along with a new readiness metric and a redesigned Health app, Apple had just announced that later this year, it’d be introducing a new longevity feature called Health Age. 在上周的 Apple Watch 发布会上，我在史蒂夫·乔布斯剧院里发出了一声明显的“不——！”。除了新的“就绪度”（readiness）指标和重新设计的健康 App 外，苹果刚刚宣布将在今年晚些时候推出一项名为“健康年龄”（Health Age）的全新长寿功能。
This is a familiar concept in the wearable and health tech world. The idea is that if you put effort into your health and fitness, your physiological age could be “younger” than your chronological age. (Or older if you’re not putting in the effort.) Whoop has “Whoop age.” Oura has a “cardiovascular age” metric. My Withings scale just introduced various “longevity intelligence” features that include separate “heart age” and “vascular age” metrics. Garmin also has a “fitness age score.” At CES, I sat in front of a so-called longevity mirror that measured the blood flow in my face from a 30-second selfie to estimate my “physiological age” and my “facial skin age.” Earlier this week, I woke up and found out that my $5,000 smart mattress topper is also estimating my “biological age.” 这在可穿戴设备和健康科技领域是一个熟悉的概念。其理念是，如果你在健康和健身方面投入努力，你的生理年龄可能会比你的实际年龄“更年轻”。（如果你不努力，则可能更老。）Whoop 有“Whoop 年龄”，Oura 有“心血管年龄”指标。我的 Withings 体脂秤刚刚引入了各种“长寿智能”功能，包括独立的“心脏年龄”和“血管年龄”指标。Garmin 也有“体能年龄评分”。在 CES 上，我坐在一面所谓的“长寿镜”前，它通过 30 秒的自拍测量我面部的血流，从而估算我的“生理年龄”和“面部皮肤年龄”。本周早些时候，我醒来后发现，我那张价值 5000 美元的智能床垫罩也在估算我的“生物学年龄”。
If you ask Whoop, I’m supposedly 42. Over the past two years, Oura says my heart has been anywhere from seven years younger to 1.5 years younger than my chronological age. (It’s currently sitting at two years younger.) Withings says my vascular age is a year older than I am, while my heart is four years younger. Garmin says my fitness age is 36.5 years old. That longevity mirror? My facial skin age was apparently 26 (sunscreen, baby!), while my physiological age was 35. My very rude bed said I’m “trending older” this week at 38.7 years old. 如果问 Whoop，我应该是 42 岁。在过去两年里，Oura 说我的心脏比实际年龄年轻 1.5 到 7 岁不等。（目前是年轻 2 岁。）Withings 说我的血管年龄比我大一岁，而心脏则年轻四岁。Garmin 说我的体能年龄是 36.5 岁。至于那面长寿镜？我的面部皮肤年龄显然是 26 岁（防晒霜万岁！），而生理年龄是 35 岁。我那张非常无礼的床则说我这周“趋向衰老”，年龄为 38.7 岁。
My actual age is 38 years old — and that’s what I’m sticking with. 我的实际年龄是 38 岁——我坚持这个数字。
I’m not trying to rain on Apple’s (or other wearable makers’) parade. Frankly, I won’t rule on Apple’s version of the feature until I can test it for myself. I bring this all up to illustrate a point about when this type of feature can be genuinely helpful — and when you should treat it with a healthy dose of skepticism. As with most metrics, it’s all in the framing. 我并不是想给苹果（或其他可穿戴设备制造商）泼冷水。坦率地说，在亲自测试之前，我不会对苹果的功能版本下定论。我提出这一切是为了说明一个观点：这类功能在何时真正有用，以及在何时你应该对其保持健康的怀疑态度。正如大多数指标一样，关键在于如何解读。
It’s true that through a healthy diet, good sleeping habits, and regular exercise, your physiological condition might be better than that of other people who are the same age and fit within a similar demographic. Depending on how a company defines its various longevity-related age scores, your results can identify areas where you can improve. For example, my Whoop age is somewhat cursed because it heavily weights strength training workouts in the algorithm. The last time I tested Whoop, I wasn’t going super hard on lifting heavy and perhaps was a bit too into cardio. If I wanted my Whoop age to improve, lifting weights would’ve been an easy way to tilt that number in my favor. 确实，通过健康的饮食、良好的睡眠习惯和规律的运动，你的生理状况可能会比同龄且处于相似人口统计学特征的人更好。根据公司如何定义其各种与长寿相关的年龄评分，你的结果可以指出你可以改进的领域。例如，我的 Whoop 年龄有点“被诅咒”了，因为它在算法中过度权衡了力量训练。上次我测试 Whoop 时，我并没有进行高强度的举重训练，可能在有氧运动上投入了太多精力。如果我想改善我的 Whoop 年龄，举重将是让这个数字向我有利方向倾斜的简单方法。
Objectively, recalibrating my training habits to be more balanced would be a good thing for my long-term health. If you leave it exactly at that, there’s nothing wrong with this type of feature. But culturally speaking, that’s not how these “health age” scores work. 客观地说，将我的训练习惯调整得更平衡，对我的长期健康是有好处的。如果仅限于此，这类功能并没有什么问题。但从文化层面来看，这些“健康年龄”评分的运作方式并非如此。
The way I’ve seen people talk about this metric largely hews toward fluffing up your ego. If your health age is older, you probably don’t talk about it. It’s “shameful” even though, really, it’s not. That’s because culturally — at least in the West — getting old isn’t considered a good thing. If your health age is younger, it becomes something to bandy about. Apple’s vice president of health, Sumbul Desai, even says in this Instagram Reel that Health Age could be something you brag about to your friends. That explains why tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, famous for his quest to never die, would post this absurd take on X about how aliens would struggle to distinguish him from his teenage son, alongside a chart titled “Is Bryan Johnson More 18 or 49?” Johnson is 49; he looks a little younger, maybe, and his metrics might be comparable to someone much younger on average, but his current state is ultimately just what 49 looks like for him. 我所见人们谈论这一指标的方式，很大程度上倾向于满足虚荣心。如果你的健康年龄偏大，你可能不会提起它。这被视为“可耻”的，尽管事实并非如此。这是因为在文化上——至少在西方——变老并不被认为是一件好事。如果你的健康年龄更年轻，它就成了可以炫耀的资本。苹果健康副总裁 Sumbul Desai 甚至在 Instagram 的短视频中表示，健康年龄可以成为你向朋友吹嘘的话题。这就解释了为什么以追求永生而闻名的科技企业家 Bryan Johnson 会在 X 上发布那种荒谬的言论，声称外星人很难将他与他十几岁的儿子区分开来，并附上一张题为“Bryan Johnson 更像 18 岁还是 49 岁？”的图表。Johnson 今年 49 岁；他看起来可能稍微年轻一点，他的指标也可能与平均水平下更年轻的人相当，但他的现状归根结底就是 49 岁该有的样子。
Furthermore, your wearable-determined age is oftentimes not capturing the whole picture. You could game the Whoop Age metric to the letter, get your annual physical, and find out that your cholesterol level is through the roof. A reader once related this exact story to me. You could optimize all the controllable lifestyle health factors — diet, exercise, and sleep — like Bryan Johnson and still end up with autoimmune gastritis, as he has. Some of your health is encoded in your genetics, and while you can better the odds, your ultimate fate is not always something you can decide. We all know of someone who was healthy as a horse and died tragically young because of a freak accident. 此外，可穿戴设备测定的年龄往往无法捕捉到全貌。你可能严格按照 Whoop 年龄指标进行训练，结果在年度体检时发现胆固醇水平高得惊人。一位读者曾向我讲述过完全相同的故事。你可以像 Bryan Johnson 一样优化所有可控的生活方式健康因素——饮食、运动和睡眠——但最终仍可能患上自身免疫性胃炎，就像他一样。你的部分健康状况是由基因编码的，虽然你可以改善几率，但你的最终命运并不总是你能决定的。我们都知道有人身体非常健康，却因意外事故而英年早逝。
Personally, my various health ages have always indicated I’m moderately younger than my chronological age. But even then, that’s not an accurate picture of how I’m aging either. I’m definitely fitter now at 38 than I was at 18. As a teen, I couldn’t even run a mile nonstop, and in my 30s, I have multiple half-marathons under my belt. But my bones also snap, crackle, and pop more. I can’t pull all-nighters. 就我个人而言，我的各种健康年龄指标一直显示我比实际年龄稍微年轻一些。但即便如此，这也不能准确反映我的衰老状况。我 38 岁时确实比 18 岁时更健康。十几岁时，我甚至无法不停歇地跑完一英里，而到了 30 多岁，我已经完成了多次半程马拉松。但我的骨头也更容易发出咔哒声。我再也无法熬夜了。