Is it possible to change your biological age? The case of a 50-year-old long time smoker and drinker in the hospital, as described by Tally Health
Longevity researchers would tell you that aging itself is a disease that we can understand and treat, cancer and heart disease and dementia only its symptoms. They would tell you that the first person to live until 150 has already been born. A dream of biotech billionaires, fueled by fear of death and the illusion of control, sounds a bit crazy. But on the other hand, there is real science here. I let myself imagine. Maybe he will make it to the graduation.
Simply being able to entertain this reality, and even more so thinking that it is in any way within our control, is a privilege — as was the choice to start a family after my 40th birthday. The wealthiest among us live on average nearly 10 disability-free years longer than the poorest. The difference is likely to grow even bigger when the anti-aging science data becomes more robust and actionable.
In the hospital, we can see this firsthand. I recently cared for a 50-year-old longtime smoker and drinker on dialysis who collapsed in his bathtub at home and waited there for a day or more before someone heard him calling for help. As we stood outside his room in the hospital, his nurse and I took note of his age — just a few years younger than the nurse, not even 10 years older than me. “An old 50,” his nurse commented, shorthand to describe a body punished by illness, by decades of chronic stress, by factors that are within and outside our control.
It’s possible you can change your age. At least that’s the pitch behind Tally Health, a new startup that’s among a crop of companies selling tests that offer to tell consumers their “biological age. 23andMe and other at- home tests give information about your ancestry and health risks. Now, a wave of startups is marketing tests that claim to parse your blood, urine, or a cheek swab to reveal your biological age. The epigenetic tests can measure changes to the body that affect how genes behave. Unlike a calendar age, which marches along at the same pace for everyone, biological age is the speed at which cells, tissues, and organs appear to decline—and that can vary, depending on a person’s health history.
But it could. There is a part of me that would like to give my blood but I am not sure I want the information I receive in return. Perhaps it would worry me; perhaps it would offer me false reassurance. Either way, as I make the rounds of my patients in the intensive care unit and feel the occasional stirrings of the growing baby within me, I am aware that even if we can slow the clock, there is never enough time.
A few months ago, I had a panic about a mole on my back and was convinced that I had been hit by a car. Stories begin in this way in the intensive care unit all the time. I could imagine the patient presentation: a 41-year-old woman with no significant past medical history, six months pregnant when she was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. I had an appointment with a dermatologist who inspected my back and said that there was no reason for me to worry. These are justage spots. For a moment I was taken aback. “Age spots? But I am.
Tally Health, which launched last week, is one of around a dozen companies that offer these tests. Harvard University biologist David Sinclair, the company’s cofounder, describes its version as something like a credit score for your body. You swab your cheek and drop your sample in the mail, and the company sends you back your biological age. It’s great if you’re younger. We want to keep you there and even make you stay younger as you get chronologically older,” Sinclair says. “If you come up with a number that’s older than your cohort, then we’re here to help get you back to not just average, but even below average, biological age.”
Sinclair is an influential and often controversial researcher in the antiaging field thanks to his promotion of resveratrol, a compound found in red grapes, which he once called “as close to a miraculous molecule as you can find.” There have been mixed results in animal tests when it comes to the benefits of resveratrol. Sinclair takes supplements daily, and his lab at Harvard is still working on the compound. Sinclair founded several companies focused on longevity and his book Lifespan: Why We Age–and Why We Don’t Have To – was on the New York Times best seller list.
An Action Plan for Lifestyle Recommendations at a New York City-based Health Care Center and Target for Biologically Abundant Populations
In addition to giving each customer an age reading, the New York City–based company provides an action plan of personalized lifestyle recommendations, such as getting more sleep, spending less time sitting, minimizing stress, or eating more vegetables—arguably things that most people could benefit from. Users can take a one time test for $229 or get a membership to test at least three months a year to observe their biological age. Goldey says that’s a good amount of time for people to get their plan together, be in control of what they do, and implement some change. She didn’t say how many people have signed up for a subscription, which costs from $129 to $199 a month, but she said the company had a wait list of more than 270,000.