Can This Tool Really Work Out Your Biological Age?

Interest in cosmetics , supplements , and diet plans that seek to stay the inevitable hand of time has arguably never been greater – but if you’re planning to try and slow down the aging process, it’s useful to know what baseline you’re starting from. There’s a tool that promises to help you do just that, providing a measure of how fast your body is aging relative to your chronological age. It has hit headlines thanks to a recent appearance on The Kardashians – but does it really work?

Biological age: what is the tool measuring?

The DunedinPACE tool is an algorithm developed by an international team of scientists as part of the Dunedin Study , a long-running study of human health and development following a cohort born in the early 1970s in Dunedin, New Zealand.

How people are aging, and whether the biological age of their bodies’ systems is outpacing their chronological age, is one question that’s of great interest to the researchers. “People who are aging faster than their same-age peers may need more support in their lives to ensure that they maintain good health as they get older,” explained Dunedin Study Director Professor Moana Theodore in a statement .

But somehow, you need to identify those people.

Previous research has shown that one useful marker of biological aging is DNA methylation. This is an epigenetic marker, which means it alters how a gene is expressed in a cell without actually changing the fundamental DNA sequence. Methylation involves the attachment of methyl groups, composed of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms, to the DNA, which has the effect of silencing its expression.

Methylation changes form the basis of the so-called “epigenetic clock ”, considered to be “one of the most accurate metrics of biological age” according to a 2022 study . A 2020 review of the topic said, “It is currently well established that DNA methylation biomarkers can determine biological age of any tissue across the entire human lifespan, even during development.”

One age-related disease in which methylation can play a key role is cancer. Over time, genes that play a tumor-suppressing role can become methylated and consequently silenced, which increases the risk of cancer beginning to develop. Another example is neurodegenerative disease, with some research showing a link between epigenetic changes – including methylation – and the pathology of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

While there’s debate over whether aging is primarily a biological or psychological phenomenon – which will no doubt rage on – there’s no denying the fact that the passage of the years wreaks all sorts of changes inside our bodies, and that these are of scientific importance. To get the best idea of how aging may impact someone’s health, it makes sense to assess how their biological age is stacking up against their chronological age.

How does the tool work?

The team behind DunedinPace used this established science around DNA methylation as the basis for creating an algorithm that they said in their paper “represents a novel measure of aging that is conceptually and empirically distinct from the DNA methylation clocks,” and is more advanced than previous metrics they had developed.

As modeled admirably by members of the Kardashian family on their show, someone interested in using the tool need only give a simple blood sample – in fact, the test is already available to the public in New Zealand, online and in some chemists.

The blood samples are analyzed by Kentucky-based TruDiagnostic and the result, according to the team, is a bit like a speedometer readout. Assuming that on average people’s biological age increases by one year for each year of chronological aging, the tool can tell you whether you are aging faster or slower than that.

Kim Kardashian’s score came out at 0.82, meaning she is aging 18 percent slower than most people of her age. Khloe Kardashian’s score was an even more impressive 0.72, putting her rate of aging at 28 percent slower than average.

“Our internationally renowned scientific findings on aging, including the DunedinPACE algorithm, are used by studies all around the world to examine the causes of premature aging and whether it is associated with poorer health outcomes in later life,” said Professor Theodore.

“That said, we never imagined that it would reach the Kardashians, who we recognise as leading global influencers and highly successful businesspeople.”

So… does it work?

We’ve established that biological aging is a real and important factor in determining someone’s risk of age-related health complications. When the researchers first published DunedinPACE, the editor commented that their tool “shows improved performance” when compared to a previous algorithm they had developed and that it could “be used to complement previously generated DNA methylation-based biomarkers.”

DunedinPace is not designed to spit out a number that denotes how many “biological years old” someone is (although there are other tests that purport to do that, some of which appeared in the episode of The Kardashians ). What it could do is alert the user to the possibility that they are aging prematurely compared with an average person, which could prompt them to look at lifestyle factors that could help them increase their “healthspan” – it’s not about living longer , but about living with good health for as long as possible.

“Our pace of aging tool actually measures ‘whole-of-body’ aging,” Professor Theodore told the Otago Daily Times . “It’s a measure that looks at a range of body systems – your teeth, your lungs, your cardiovascular system. So it’s not just about your appearance, it’s about what’s happening internally as well.”

Professor Theodore argues that too much emphasis is currently placed on chronological age, without considering biological age as well. Tests like this provide another piece of the puzzle, allowing us to peek under the hood at how our bodies are reacting to the march of time.

The original 2022 study on DunedinPACE is published in eLife .