What is biological age?
Biological age is an estimate of how much your body has aged, compared with your age in years. It is usually calculated from chemical tags on your DNA, using a model called an epigenetic clock. Different clocks can give the same person different ages.
Chronological age and biological age
Chronological age is the number of years since you were born. It moves at the same speed for everyone.
Biological age tries to measure how well your body is holding up. Two people born on the same day can differ a lot. One may have the blood pressure, fitness and recovery of someone younger.
Biological age comes from a model. The number depends on what is measured and how each measurement is weighted. That is why two methods can give one person two different ages.
What an epigenetic clock measures
The best-known method is an epigenetic clock. It measures methylation: small chemical tags on DNA that turn genes up or down. The tags change how active a gene is. The gene's letters stay the same.
The pattern of these tags shifts with age in a fairly regular way. Researchers trained statistical models, such as the Horvath and Hannum clocks, to turn that pattern into an age. Newer clocks try to measure how fast the body is aging.
These clocks are still research tools. Results vary between clocks, between tissues (blood or saliva) and between laboratories. A test taken on two different days can give two different ages.
Why a DNA sequence test does not give a biological age
A whole-genome test finds the sequence of letters you inherited. That sequence stays the same for your whole life. So it cannot show that your body is aging faster this year.
The sequence can show how you process certain medicines and which health checks may be worth starting earlier. It can also show conditions you could pass on to a child, and how you handle some nutrients. Your DNA stays the same all your life. What its results mean can change as research grows, and some questions may need another test.
For a biological age, you need a separate methylation test, usually from blood. A whole-genome report explains what your inherited DNA means for you. A scientist checks every result before it goes in the report.
Informational and educational, not a diagnosis. Bring anything of medical consequence to your physician.
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