Two ages
Up to 12 years can sit between your calendar age and your biological age. Your DNA methylation clock keeps the real time. Find the gap. Then close it.
Your calendar age is a fixed number. Your biological age — the age your tissues and cells are actually behaving — can be quite different. Up to twelve years apart, in either direction.
How the gap is measured
DNA methylation clocks — Horvath, Hannum, GrimAge, PhenoAge — read patterns of methyl tags across the genome and estimate biological age. They are not perfect, but they correlate strongly with mortality risk and disease incidence in large cohorts.
What closes the gap
The interventions are familiar and unglamorous. Sleep that is regular. Protein at every meal. Resistance training twice a week. Cardiovascular exercise to taste. Vegetables, fibre, fermented food. Stress that gets metabolised, not stored.
What does not close it
Most of the longevity supplement market. The signal is small to absent in clean randomised trials. Spend the supplement budget on better sleep, better food, and a few targeted blood tests instead.