Have you ever glanced through a photo album of your older relatives when they they were younger? Do you ever notice how old they looked for their age?

Compared to those older generations, today people look a lot younger than those who came before.

Now, with every generalised statement as the one before, it’s important to note there are always exceptions.

Everyone ages differently of course. This means not everyone’s grandma looked 30 when she was 17. However, when the famous baseball pitcher, Brandon McCarthy, made a tweet asking if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon, responses came flooding in.

Persons shared photos of examples, proving that there is some truth to the matter.

Improved rates at which people age can be linked to different factors such as better healthcare, lifestyle decisions and overall stands of living.

A manuscript detailing the study of pace of aging using biological markers (such as blood pressure and lung function) called Is 60 the New 50? Examining Changes in Biological Age Over the Past Two Decades by Morgan E. Levine and Eileen M. Crimmins, found that the younger generations are indeed younger biologically.

“The biological age measure used here has been shown to be a better predictor of all-cause and disease-specific mortality when compared with chronological age or other composite biomarker measures, such as allostatic load. It has also been found to be associated with outcomes such as cognitive functioning, cognitive change, physical functioning, and facial aging within a birth cohort of young, disease-free individuals.“ the team wrote.

They further went on to associate lifestyle factors such as obesity and smoking to contributing to this occurrence.

“Biological aging is believed to be strongly influenced by environmental factors, genetic differences, and some level of stochasticity.”

Along with the biological implications, Michael Stevens, a popular YouTuber, most commonly known as Vsauce, discussed perspective to be a factor on why our grandparents seemed to look older.

In his YouTube video, ‘Did People Used to Look Older?’ He expounded on his point, relating it to bias. We associate older fashion to being old, so it doesn’t help to that that’s exactly what they all wore back then and even now.

So, it all begs the question, is 60 actually the new 50? It just might be.