Answered questions
Aging clocks
65 answered questions · 427 studies
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Does alpha-ketoglutarate work against ageing?
In animal research AKG clearly extends lifespan, but solid evidence in humans is still lacking. Wait for the results of the…
Preliminary evidence
What can you expect from a longevity clinic in the Netherlands?
A longevity clinic can offer you an interesting biomarker measurement and a good exercise programme, but for most supplements…
Preliminary evidence
Does your telomere length tell you anything useful about your health?
Telomere length is a relevant biological measure, but does not give a clear-cut signal: shorter telomeres increase the risk of…
Moderate evidence
Do epigenetic clocks differ so much that your result is essentially random?
Different epigenetic clocks sometimes lead to opposing conclusions, so your result does not necessarily say anything absolute.…
Moderate evidence
Can epigenetic reprogramming reverse ageing?
Epigenetic reprogramming consistently and convincingly rejuvenates cells and tissues in animal and laboratory research, but no…
Preliminary evidence
What does your klotho level tell you about how fast you are ageing?
Your klotho level demonstrably declines with age and is associated with greater disease risk, but whether measuring it is…
Moderate evidence
What do we know about rapamycin as an anti-ageing agent in humans?
Rapamycin shows early positive signals in humans for immune function and skin, but long-term safety is unknown and side…
Preliminary evidence
Does plasma exchange (plasmapheresis) work against ageing?
There are initial, cautiously positive indications from one small study, but it is too small and too influenced by commercial…
Preliminary evidence
Does calcium-AKG lower your biological age?
Reliable evidence that calcium-AKG lowers biological age in humans is still lacking. The widely cited claim of 8 years younger…
Preliminary evidence
Why does the risk of cancer increase with age?
Cancer occurs more frequently at older ages because DNA damage accumulates, the immune system declines, and damaged cells can…
Can you lengthen your telomeres through lifestyle?
Lifestyle most likely cannot fully reverse telomere shortening, but quitting smoking, eating healthily and exercising are…
Preliminary evidence
Does your body age faster after a prolonged period of stress?
Prolonged stress demonstrably accelerates biological ageing through multiple measurable mechanisms. Reducing stress,…
Does your body odour change as you get older?
Yes, your body odour changes noticeably with age: from your forties onwards your skin produces a compound that adds a greasy,…
How reliable are the biological age tests you can buy online?
The available studies offer no answer to this question; whether online biological age tests are reliable cannot be inferred…
Does your resting heart rate say anything about how fast you are ageing?
A structurally high resting heart rate, certainly above 80 to 90 beats per minute, is associated with a clearly higher risk of…
Can an epigenetic age test really tell you how old your body is?
An epigenetic age test provides a meaningful indication of biological ageing, but is not yet a definitive verdict on your…
Moderate evidence
Does the country you live in affect your biological age?
Where you live and how much money you have is strongly associated with how quickly you age biologically; the largest gap…
Can you see how fast you are ageing from your stool?
Your microbiome does change with age and is associated with health risks, but a reliable ageing test based on stool does not…
Moderate evidence
Do your kidneys age at a different rate than your liver?
The kidneys age measurably faster than the liver, but for most healthy people that decline only has major consequences when…
Can you influence your epigenetic age through diet?
Multiple studies show that a healthy dietary pattern can favourably influence your epigenetic age, although these are…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What does too much sitting do to your biological clock?
Too much sitting demonstrably weakens your day-night rhythm, even after just one day. Moving more, and preferably in the…
Does loneliness accelerate your biological age?
Whether loneliness accelerates your biological age at the cellular level cannot be determined from the available studies.…
Can you see your biological age in your blood pressure?
Your blood pressure, and especially your nighttime blood pressure, says something about how your blood vessels are ageing, but…
How reliable is a saliva test for biological age?
A saliva test for biological age is not yet reliable enough for personal use: average errors of seven to nine years and…
Can your microbiome reveal how old you are biologically?
Your microbiome does send signals about how you are ageing, but a reliable clinical test to measure your biological age with…
What is DunedinPACE and what does it tell us about ageing?
DunedinPACE measures how quickly you are ageing biologically and is associated with disease and premature death, but the test…
Does someone with diabetes age faster biologically?
Yes, diabetes noticeably accelerates biological ageing: the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and premature death…
Which blood values tell you something about how quickly you are biologically ageing?
Blood values such as protein profiles, DNA methylation patterns, telomere length and common inflammatory markers each provide…
What does alcohol do to your biological age?
Alcohol accelerates multiple biological ageing processes, including gut damage, inflammation, and brain deterioration. The…
Is it true that women age more slowly biologically than men?
Multiple studies confirm that women are biologically younger than men of the same age, but women also spend their extra years…
Can meditation slow down your biological clock?
There are indications that meditation, especially forms focused on warmth and goodwill, may protect telomeres from shortening,…
Moderate evidence
Does your biological age change differently at night than during the day?
The night is biologically not a pause but an active recovery phase, and that phase deteriorates noticeably with age. Those who…
Does the time of day you eat affect how quickly you age?
The time at which you eat does appear to matter, although the evidence in humans is still associative. A nightly fasting…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What is the Horvath clock and why is it so well known?
The Horvath clock was the first biological age measure that worked broadly across virtually all tissues, and that is what…
How quickly can you change your biological age with exercise?
Regular moderate to vigorous exercise is associated with a biological age that comes out 1 to 3 years lower, and molecular…
Moderate evidence
Can a blood test show how old your organs are?
Blood tests can provide an estimate of biological ageing and flag the risk of specific conditions, but they cannot yet…
Does your skin age faster than your organs?
It has not been proven that skin as an organ naturally ages faster than your internal organs, but it is more vulnerable to sun…
What does smoking do to your biological age?
Smoking measurably accelerates the biological ageing of lung cells, the immune system and the reproductive system. Quitting…
Can fasting reverse your biological age?
Fasting improves multiple ageing-related markers, but whether epigenetic clocks actually decline and what that means in…
Moderate evidence
What does an epigenetic clock actually measure?
An epigenetic clock reads chemical tags on your DNA and translates them into a biological age estimate. The further that…
Does insulin resistance accelerate ageing?
Insulin resistance is associated with measurably faster biological ageing, greater muscle loss, and possibly a higher risk of…
Yes · Moderate evidence
How do telomeres protect your DNA?
Telomeres protect your chromosome ends through a system of proteins that simultaneously prevents false alarms and harmful…
Can you lengthen or restore your telomeres?
Genuinely lengthening telomeres has not been proven in healthy people and is not without cancer risk. Slowing telomere…
No · Moderate evidence
Why do your telomeres get shorter as you age?
Telomere shortening is part of life: every cell division costs a piece. But smoking, chronic stress, and sleep deprivation…
What is the difference between living longer and living longer in good health (healthspan)?
Healthspan and lifespan are two separate things: you can live a long time yet lose years to illness and decline. Caloric…
What does the stress hormone cortisol do to my ageing?
Chronically elevated cortisol accelerates muscle loss and disrupts your metabolism, and that effect is real. Good sleep and…
Can you have your telomeres measured, and is there any value in doing so?
A telomere test is technically possible but currently provides little actionable information for you as an individual, because…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Do I inherit my life expectancy from my parents?
Genetics explains roughly one third of how long you live, so your parents give you a biological starting point, not a…
Do some people age primarily through their heart and others through their metabolism?
Yes, people age through different organ pathways. The science needed to map this precisely for each individual is promising,…
Can you tell someone's biological age from their face?
Your face does emit biological signals, but it is too limited and too variable to measure your biological age accurately. Take…
Does everyone age at the same rate, or do people truly age at different speeds?
At the molecular level everyone ages at a broadly similar baseline rate, but in terms of health and life expectancy people…
Does my walking speed say anything about how fast I am aging?
Yes, your walking speed says something about how your body is ageing. People who walk slower than 0.8 to 1.0 metres per second…
How large can the difference between my chronological age and my biological age be?
The typical spread between your biological and calendar age is around one to two years. Studies mention no hard upper limit,…
What is young blood / plasma exchange, and does it actually work?
Plasma exchange clearly works in mice, but in humans there is still no evidence whatsoever of efficacy or safety. Do not be…
Preliminary evidence
Does hyperbaric oxygen therapy help against ageing?
HBOT shows interesting signals in small, early studies regarding telomere length and cerebral blood flow, but the evidence is…
Preliminary evidence
Are commercial DNA-methylation-based biological age tests worth the money?
The underlying technology has scientific merit, but commercial tests have not yet been independently validated and the…
Moderate evidence
Can you really lower your biological age, and does the research support this?
There are promising indications that biological age is measurable and perhaps controllable, but clinical evidence that you can…
Preliminary evidence
How reliable are epigenetic clocks for measuring your biological age?
Epigenetic clocks are reliable instruments for measuring biological age and predict mortality better than calendar age. They…
Which lifestyle factors influence your biological age the most?
Sitting for prolonged periods, a disrupted circadian rhythm and muscle loss are the best-supported negative factors for your…
Moderate evidence
What does your VO2max say about how fast you are ageing?
A higher VO2max is strongly associated with lower mortality and a more favourable biological age, but is more of a gauge of…
How can I measure my biological age?
Epigenetic clocks, in particular GrimAge and PhenoAge, currently offer the best estimate of your biological age, but they are…
Moderate evidence
How does ageing work and how can you slow it down?
Ageing is well described biologically, but there are no proven means of genuinely slowing it in humans yet. For now, focus on…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Are biological age tests actually accurate?
Biological age tests such as GrimAge and DunedinPACE are associated with health outcomes in scientific research, but no…
Moderate evidence
What are telomeres and can I keep them longer?
Keeping telomeres longer sounds appealing, but more telomerase or longer telomeres also carry risks, because cancer cells use…
Yes · Strong evidence
Does stress make you age faster?
Prolonged stress demonstrably accelerates your biological aging. Healthy lifestyle habits that reduce physical and oxidative…