This Simple Test reveals how you may be Older than you Think—and what that Means for Your Health

Introduction

Epigenetics is the science of how our DNA is controlled and how it’s affected by external factors; these external factors affect our healthspan and our lifespan. Our genetics are fixed from birth; we get our genes from our parents, and they define us as being male or female, they control our eye color, height etc. This is what is measured by companies such as 23andMe.

We all share more than 99% of our DNA, however the remaining 1% varies from person to person; this is what makes us unique.

Epigenetics looks into the dynamic changes in our gene function overtime, changes that don’t involve a change in the underlying DNA sequence; these changes are influenced by external factors.

Good to Know

How much can these external ‘epigenetic’ factors actually affect out lifespan and healthspan? Someone who is at high risk of heart disease from a genetic predisposition, i.e. there is a family history of heart disease, may have 4 times the chance of developing heart disease because it is in their genes; that is obviously bad.

But compare that to someone who has a low risk of heart disease from a genetic pre-disposition, but is affected by external environmental and lifestyle factors, the risk to them is 5,000-fold, so they have 5,000 times more chance of getting heart disease because of the environment or the life choices they made.

So, there is a lot more risk from factors that are under our control, than from our genes. As Dr. David Sinclair says, “Only 20% of longevity is genetic, the rest is up to you, what will you do today?”

Can you Affect it?

Identical twins have the same DNA, but through lifestyle choices may well have vastly different health outcomes by the time they reach middle-age.

Biological age testing allows us to read our epigenetic markers, markers that we can influence through changes to our lifestyle. Epigenetic markers change every time one of our cells divides, and even when our cells are not dividing, changes are still taking place to our epigenetic markers.

We can affect, through lifestyle choices, the way that these markers change and by using DNA methylation testing we can monitor our progress, either good or bad.

It is not easy to do the right thing and there is no magic pill, targeted supplementation is only a small part of the answer.

Our Biological Age?

Why should we check our biological age? Our Epigenetic/biological age is a much better measure of our health, our well-being, and our potential lifespan and healthspan than our chronological age.

​Knowing our epigenetic or biological age allows ‘us’ to move our healthcare needs from being reactive to being proactive. We can become citizen scientists; we can take responsibility for our own longevity by measuring our health objectively at the molecular level.

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Once we know our Epigenetic age, we can take measures to adjust it, if necessary, I am guessing no matter what your biological age is, you would like to see it lower?

The Slippery Slope

Epigenetics measures how well your body is aging, if your epigenetic age is higher than your biological age you are more at risk from age related diseases and all-cause mortality.

DNA Methylation

There are now many companies that measure DNA methylation to predict epigenetic age. There are upwards of 20 million markers available to build models that can more accurately predict age, so there is a lot more information available than the one marker that is used when estimating age using telomeres. This means that epigenetic testing is much more accurate for estimating someone’s biological age, so, in this case, bigger is better.

Some companies like Chronomics will give a significantly more accurate epigenetic age because they test against 20 million markers. A close competitor is Muhdo with 850,000 markers and Elysium with 100,000 markers. The company at the bottom of the list is epi-age.com. Out of the 28 million available markers that can be measured to predict age, they use 13, not 13,000, just 13. It is unclear how many months margin of error that allows for, but Chronomics, with 20 million markers claim an accuracy bracket of within 6 months.

Obviously, this level of science and accuracy comes at a cost, prices should come down with time, but at present the most accurate test is still very expensive.

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