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The test

Biological age tests don't agree with each other yet

I get asked about biological age tests more than almost anything else right now. People want one number that tells them whether what they're doing is working, and I understand that, since I'd like that number too. The problem is the tests don't agree with each other yet. Send the same blood to a few different companies and you can get answers that are years apart, and even the same test can move around more than you'd expect from one draw to the next. That doesn't make the science worthless, and a few of the newer clocks are pretty interesting. It does mean I'd be careful reading much into a single result, or into a change of a year or two between tests. What I pay more attention to are the things we can measure well and repeat, like blood pressure, ApoB, fitness and body composition, since those move for reasons we understand. I'm curious whether anyone has tracked one of these tests over a few years and found it useful.

Erik Nelson · Views are my own and not medical advice