If you’re stressing out about aging, we’ve got good and bad news for you.
The good news: Different areas of your body don’t age as fast as others.
The bad news: One part of your body ages faster than all the others – and it’s a pretty noticeable area, too.
Believe it or not, but your head actually ages faster than the rest of you. Before you start stressing (which, ironically, can expedite the aging process), know that it’s just by nanoseconds—90 billionths of a second over 79 years, to be exact. So, that’s pretty unnoticeable.
Researchers came to this conclusion based on Einstein’s relativity theory, which states the rate at which time moves depends on how fast you’re moving and how close you are to a gravitational field.
As an example, clocks at higher elevations run a tad quicker than those at sea level.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) decided to test that theory on a small scale, using just a one-foot difference. They found that when the atomic clock they tested was raised a third of a meter (about a foot) above another, the higher one ran slightly faster due to a smaller gravitational force.
Related: These Everyday Habits Are Aging You – Fast
So if time moves faster at a difference of only a foot, it definitely goes faster at the height difference between your head and your feet – therefore making your head the “oldest” part of your body!
Again, don’t be alarmed – this small difference in age doesn’t make a noticeable impact on your appearance. You probably would’ve noticed if it did! But, NIST does believe that this new finding could have potential, practical applications in fields like geophysics.
Photo Credit: Rido/Shutterstock.com; Sky Motion/Shutterstock.com
