It may sound odd, but researchers into healthy ageing confirm that how long you can stand on one leg is a valid indication of your biological age – as opposed to your chronological age (in years).

This article was written by Colin Rose, a Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society of Medicine, who has been writing on science for 40 years.

That's because you need strong muscles and core strength for good balance. But balance tends to worsen as we age, as our eyesight deteriorates, the sensory input from joints and muscles is less reliable, and we lose cells in the inner ear that detect movement.

Researchers at Kyoto University also show that how long you can stand on one leg also links to brain health.

Try it now (balancing with your hands resting on your hips) with your eyes open and then with your eyes shut.

Here is a table of what is normal by age - because the older you are the shorter you can normally stand on one leg. So how do you measure up? What's YOUR biological age??

Normal period of ability to stand on one leg

This is an extract from Colin Rose's new book Delay Ageing – Healthy to 100. This new book, Delay Ageing, explores the latest research that confirms that ageing is not caused by the accumulation of birthdays, it's caused by the accumulation of damage.

Damage to your immune system, to DNA, to mitochondria, to cells and through an unbalanced microbiome.  But that damage can be reduced, and your natural repair mechanisms can be enhanced.

This does more than slow ageing. It slows the development of illnesses that we have, until now, assumed are an inevitable accompaniment to the passing of the years. But they are not inevitable.

David Gems, Professor of the Biology of Ageing at University College London, and others have stated:

“If ageing is delayed in humans you would have a reduction in most or all ageing related illnesses – cancer, dementia such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, blindness, osteoporosis.”