How To Calculate Your Biological Age

By Dr. J.E. Williams | 25th February 2025 | Reading Time: 5 minutes

Do you know how you’re aging? Did you ever wonder if you’re healthier than the average for your age? Do you look younger or older than your peers of the same age? Do you have more stamina, are sexually vigorous, and outperform your peers at work or in the gym? If so, you may have a lower biological age, especially if you are fitter and healthier than average. In this article, I outline how easy it is to calculate your biological age. 

What’s The Difference Between Chronological Age and Biological Age? 

Your chronological age is based on your date of birth. It’s a measure of how long you’ve lived. Biological age is different. It refers to your body’s physiological status. It reflects your life’s accumulation of cellular and molecular damage. It’s a marker of overall health, immune status, or cumulative wear-and-tear that predicts how long you could live.

Biological age is the age of your cells. It more accurately measures your health span. Knowing your biological age is necessary for a successful, healthy anti-aging plan. For example, if you’re 45 years old, do you have the cells of a 30-year-old or those of a 60-year-old?  

Knowing your biological age is vital at critical junctures as you age, especially when degenerative conditions, like cardiovascular disease, accumulate and accelerate. Typically, this occurs between 45-60 years. 

How Do Americans Rank for Healthy Aging?

The average age of death for Americans is 75 years for men and 80 years for women. 

Canadians and European men and women live a little longer than Americans. Those in Southern Europe live even a few more years. The Institute on Aging explains why the Japanese outlive them all. 

Americans spend the most on healthcare but have the shortest lifespans. According to World Health Systems Facts, Japan spends less than half compared to the U.S. but has the longest-lived people, an average of 84 years.  

Lower Your Biological Age to Stay Healthy During Aging

Estimating your biological age is essential in knowing how well you’ve aged. It also informs you of how much work you must do to live a long, natural life free of chronic disease. 

You can’t live long and enjoy your later years if you have one or more chronic diseases. More than half of older Americans have at least one chronic illness. Many have two or more chronic diseases. 
According to the National Council on Aging (NOCA), 94.9% percent of adults aged 60 and older have at least one chronic health condition, 78.7% have two or more, and 60% have high blood pressure. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes cause two-thirds of all deaths among people 65 and older. These conditions are, for the most part, caused by modern lifestyle and not inherent to aging. And most are preventable.

Besides severe medical conditions, even mild health conditions become more common as you age, including dehydration, chronic constipation, sleep disruption, and body aches. Most of these conditions are preventable or manageable without drugs. 

If you’re 45 years old, how can you tell if you have the cells of a 30-year-old or those of a 60-year-old? 

Knowing your biological age is vital at critical times of life when degenerative diseases, like cardiovascular disease, accumulate and accelerate. Typically, this occurs between 45 and 60 years. Remember, the average age of death for Americans is 75 years for men and 80 years for women. Canadians and European men and women live a little longer than Americans. Those in Southern Europe live even longer. 

An interesting fact from the WHO Global Health Observatory is that Americans spend the most on healthcare but have the shortest lifespans. According to World Health Systems Facts, Japan spends less than half compared to the U.S. but has the longest-lived people, an average of 84 years.  

A lower biological age suggests a longer health span free of age-related chronic diseases. 

How To Calculate Your Biological Age

Though there is no single test for biological age, you can calculate your biological age and estimate your health span.   

Several online tools help determine biological age, sometimes called phenotypic age. One of those, Phenotypic Age, analyzes standard blood test information based on a database of over 11,000 adults. A higher-than-average PhenoAge increases the likelihood of aging faster and having multiple chronic diseases like coronary heart disease. PhenoAge uses nine common blood test biomarkers, including albumin, glucose, and white blood cells. All these tests are in your complete blood count (CBC) and a comprehensive metabolic/chemistry profile (CMP). 

The most accurate biological age test was developed by Steve Horwath, PhD, to identify age-related signals that predict biological age. It uses an algorithm based on the results from a myDNAge analysis. 

You can order the test kit from myDNAge. Use either a blood or urine sample and send it back. You’ll get your results in 4-6 weeks. 

Live Healthier Longer

People worldwide are living longer. Most people alive today can expect to live beyond 70 years. The WHO estimates that by 2030, 1 in 6 people will be over 60. In Japan, 30% of the population is already over 60 years old. The number of those aged 80 and older is expected to triple by 2050. In South Korea, 20% is over 65 years. 

In the US, older Americans are one of the fastest-growing groups. In 2022, 17.3% were over 65. As the birth rate falls and more older people live longer, people have to adapt to living healthier longer. 

Aging is a process, not a single event. It happens gradually over time, sometimes slower, and sometimes we experience accelerated aging. While 60 was considered old in past generations, 80 is now considered old. There’s an increasing need for people to remain active and healthy as long as possible as they age. Knowing your biological age is the starting point. If you want to live healthier and longer, lower your biological age. 

Selected References 

Gibbs, W. W. (2014). Biomarkers and ageing: The clock-watcher. https://doi.org/10.1038/508168a 

Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, Alberto Palloni, Yiyue Huangfu, Mary C McEniry, Modeling biological age and its link with the aging process, PNAS Nexus, Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2022, pgac135, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac135

Ho, J. Y. (2022). Causes of America’s Lagging Life Expectancy: An International Comparative Perspective. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 77(Suppl 2), S117. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab129 

Jackson, S. H., Weale, M. R., & Weale, R. A. (2003). Biological age—What is it, and can it be measured? Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 36(2), 103-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4943(02)00060-2

Li Z, Zhang W, Duan Y, Niu Y, Chen Y, Liu X, Dong Z, Zheng Y, Chen X, Feng Z, Wang Y, Zhao D, Sun X, Cai G, Jiang H, Chen X. Progress in biological age research. Front Public Health. 2023 Apr 12;11:1074274. https://doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1074274  PMID: 37124811; PMCID: PMC10130645.

Poganik, J. R., Zhang, B., Baht, G. S., Tyshkovskiy, A., Deik, A., Kerepesi, C., Yim, S. H., Lu, A. T., Haghani, A., Gong, T., Hedman, A. M., Andolf, E., Pershagen, G., Almqvist, C., Clish, C. B., Horvath, S., White, J. P., & Gladyshev, V. N. (2023). Biological age is increased by stress and restored upon recovery. Cell Metabolism, 35(5), 807-820.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2023.03.015

Salih A, Nichols T, Szabo L, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z. Conceptual Overview of Biological Age Estimation. Aging Dis. 2023 Jun 1;14(3):583-588. https://doi.10.14336/AD.2022.1107 .  PMID: 37191413; PMCID: PMC10187689.

Vitorino, R., Silva, G. M., Vogel, C., Duarte, A. C., & Rocha-Santos, T. (2016). A synopsis on aging—Theories, mechanisms and future prospects. Ageing Research Reviews, 29, 90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2016.06.005