Biological Age - The New Vital Sign
Age Truly Is More Than A Number
We’ve all met them: the 70-year-old who hikes mountains and has the energy of a teenager, versus the 30-year-old who groans getting out of a chair and feels perpetually exhausted.
We tend to define our age by the number of candles on our birthday cake, but is this our TRUE AGE? The old saying of there being three sides to every story very appropriately applies to your age. Your chronological age is the number of actual years you have lived. It is fixed, linear, and non-negotiable. But scientists have discovered that there is a second, perhaps more important clock ticking away inside your cells: your biological age. Your biological age isn't a measure the number of years passed since your birth. It is a measure of how fast your body is aging.
What is Biological Aging?
Biological aging refers to the gradual accumulation of damage to the body’s cells, tissues, and organs. It is not a single event, but a combination of complex processes that lead to a decline in function and an increased risk of disease.
Think of your body like a car. Two cars can be manufactured in the same year (same chronological age).
Car A was driven gently, kept in a garage, and had regular oil changes.
Car B was driven off-road daily, left in the rain, and never serviced.
Car B has a much higher "biological age” than Car A. In humans, this wear and tear is driven by various processes. Some of these "Hallmarks of Aging," include:
Genomic Instability: DNA damage and dysfunctional expression
Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A decline in energy production
Cellular Senescence: "Zombie cells" that stop dividing but refuse to die, secreting inflammatory chemicals that damage neighbors
Chronic Inflammation: Persistent low-grade inflammation (inflammaging)
The "Biologic Aging Clocks"
For decades, doctors guessed biological age by using crude markers like blood pressure, grip strength, or lung capacity. Today, we have Biological Aging Clocks—sophisticated algorithms that analyze molecular data to predict your body's true functional age.
Here are some of the major clocks currently revolutionizing longevity science.
1. The OG: Epigenetic Clocks
The most famous breakthrough in this field came from Dr. Steve Horvath in 2013. He developed the "Horvath Clock," which looks at DNA Methylation. Your DNA is like an instruction manual. Methylation, in a sense, blocks part of those instructions. This in effect silences a gene so that it is not expressed. As we age, the pattern of methylation changes in a predictable way. Some genes that should be "off" are "on". These genes promote aging. Other genes that are protective against aging get “turned off”.
Scientists have used these methylation patterns to create algorithms aka “clocks” that can predict our biological age. The Horvath & Hannum Clocks were the some of the first clocks developed that can accurately predict biological age by examining human saliva or blood.
Next came GrimAge & PhenoAge Clocks. These second-generation clocks include other biomarkers and were integral into looking at phenotypic aging. So instead of using a test to estimate your chronological age, these clocks estimate your biological age. If your biological age is higher than your chronological age, you are experiencing accelerated aging. The GrimAge clock is a sobering and powerful predictor of mortality.
2. Pace of Aging Clocks
Then next generation of clocks not only estimate your biological age, but they also estimate how fast you are aging. The DunedinPACE clock is currently considered the best measure of short-term aging rate making it very useful in determining if an intervention slows down or speeds up your rate of aging.
3. Omic Clocks
Most recently omic clocks have been developed that take a more in-depth look at cellular function and output. These multi-omic tests can be layered to analyze dozens of proteins, metabolites, and clinical biomarkers providing a detailed picture of how your body is aging.
Turning Back The Clock
What if you were to do a test and discover that your biologic age is 50, but you have only been alive for 40 years? Does that mean you will die 10 years sooner than expected? Or that you will experience 10 extra years of poor health before you die? Possibly –
But even though that news can be disturbing, research on biologic aging suggests that you can slow and even reverse your rate of biological aging. This can be done through some simple lifestyle interventions such as:
Diet: Caloric restriction and plant-rich diets have been shown to slow methylation clocks.
Exercise: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) helps boost mitochondrial function.
Stress Management: Chronically elevated cortisol levels is linked to chronic disease and accelerated aging.
Sleep: The brain cleanses itself of toxins primarily during deep sleep preserving brain function as we age.
Longevity Medicine
We are quickly moving beyond the old-fashioned healthcare ideology of merely checking blood pressure and cholesterol at an annual exam. Human beings are living longer but not necessarily living better. In fact, many demographics are experiencing worsening health with aging. We now have tools that allow us to predict and even change our future health outcomes. This is the goal of longevity medicine. Longevity practitioners want you to live as vibrantly for as long as possible.
It starts with knowledge. If you would like to know your biological age, rate of aging, and what you can do to slow it down, click on the link and schedule a consultation with me.