Well, fairly recently, the answer to this question has become a very clear yes. Enter the concept of biological age - where measuring representative variables in human biology have yielded remarkably accurate answers to this tricky question. There are several methods of approach, but by far the most widely discussed and accepted in the scientists exploring this topic are methylation clocks, which track changes in methyl groups in the epigenome. The epigenome is the system that controls how our genome is expressed, and this is known to change as we age. Later this year, I have plans to test and review several different biological age tests, including methylation clocks and other tools for tracking the epigenome and telomere length.

Given this emerging field of science, and new technologies that are following it, I have spent much of my recent longevity research efforts exploring the tools that are available to biohackers and wellness enthusiasts like myself for quantifying biological age. Today, I’ll share three different online tools that you can leverage, and share my results with you.

[Phenotypic Age Test Link]

[EDIT: Alternative direct download for spreadsheet hosted at the above link]

“Phenotypic Age” was first discussed in two separate studies, which you can find here (study 1 and study 2 -< note that Steve Horvath is one of the authors, who has pioneered the methylation clock work mentioned above). Phenotypic Age is calculated based on 9 biomarkers and measured chronological age using a cohort of 11,432 adults (a range of 20-84 years old). I was first introduced to this tool by Dr. Michael Lustgarten, who also blogs on longevity related topics, and was recently able to test out this tool for myself, thanks to the 15 vials of blood I gave at NextHealth.

Using the results from my Total Baseline test, and the excel spreadsheet located here (EDIT: some readers have reported the spreadsheet link is not working, so here is an alternative direct download) , I was able to enter the following information to reveal my phenotypic age. This includes information about the shape and size of my red and white blood cells, inflammation (C-reactive protein), albumin (protein in blood plasma) and creatinine (a byproduct of muscles and measure of kidney performance).

My biological age: 22 years old. That’s 12 years younger than my chronological age of 34! Hey - I must be doing something right :)