When you increase your longevity, it’s also important to focus on ways to increase your healthspan, so that you maximize your quality of life. However, it defeats the purpose of living longer if those years are spent sick and in pain. Longevity simply means that you live to a nice old age. Biological age: how old your cells appear to be based on their current condition.Chronological age: the number of years you have been alive.If you are interested in slowing down the effects of aging then you are likely interested in increasing your longevity, and to do that, it’s extremely helpful to understand the difference between your chronological age and your biological age.īefore we go any further, let’s quickly define a couple of key terms:
If you tend to your health over time, you can reverse the signs of aging in your body and feel younger and more healthy than you ever did earlier in life. There are a few key areas that contribute to rapid aging and increased risk for chronic disease risk as you age. This is a question many of my clients ask me, particularly when we first get started working together.Īnd while being in pain is never normal, it is certainly common.įor many people, the concept of aging is synonymous with getting sick and being in pain. No genetic data is collected.“My body always has aches and pains. The epigenetic age is evaluated by examining DNA methylation. Szyf further developed Horvath's calculator and created the epiAge-test using 13 CpG-islands that show the highest correlation with ageing to calculate the epigenetic age.Īccordingly, age(ing) can be operationalized in different ways: chronological age (CA) based on birth certificate, subjective age (SA) based on the individual's self-perceived age, externally estimated age (EA) based on the age estimation of two unrelated people, bio-functional age (BFA) based on a 4-dimension validated test-battery, epigenetic age (epiAge) based on DNA methylation increasingly modified with ageing, and serum AMH reflecting a woman's reproductive age.Ī saliva sample will be taken to evaluate the epigenetic age. Taking mathematical and statistical analyses into account, Horvath identified 353 CpG-islands which were consistently altered with age. The methylation occurs on cytosine nucleotides followed by guanine nucleotides creating so called CpG-islands. Horvath discovered that DNA methylation can be directly associated with ageing. Moshe Szyf based on the research of Steve Horvath's epigenetic clock. Using the epiAge-test the epigenetic age, also called the biological age, can be calculated. It is mainly used for detection of reproductive age in women and might be a reliable predictive marker for menopause. Hence, AMH is associated with the functional ovarian reserve and declines with age.
In studies serum anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) was described as a potential predictor.ĪMH is synthetized in granulosa cells of the follicles and reduces the effects of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) on said cells preventing further recruitment of follicles. This requires a reliable predictive marker for menopause. In order to take appropriate preventative measures, the age of menopause has to be predicted individually for every woman. The difficulty lies in the variability of age at menopause between 40 and 60 years. For example, hormone replacement therapy has shown to reduce later development of issues associated with premature or early menopause. Timely preventative measures might limit these risks. Late menopause (age ≥55) increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Women with premature (age ≤40) or early menopause (age ≤45) are not only considered to have higher risk for osteoporosis but also cardiovascular diseases and cognitive disorders such as dementia. Age at menopause is associated with several health issues. In women ageing leads to a depletion of the ovarian reserves and change of sex hormone levels introducing menopause. By means of BFS the bio-functional age (BFA) can be calculated, revealing individual strengths and resources for healthy ageing as well as potential health risks. To evaluate these influences, the bio-functional status (BFS) was created which consists of 45 non-invasive assessments of different categories and reflects a normal middle-European population. Although ageing is often defined by chronological age (CA), it is significantly influenced by other factors such as psychological, social and mental-emotional factors.