Here’s a link to a recent interview, https://biohackstack.com/posts/michael-lustgarten/?fbclid=IwAR059Jf6eT4SyvsqTxHaSir2hQuXKjV5R6kLg-7Df1Kc4c7ZKM6Tw-0qRwY Including: How (and why) did you get involved in research in aging and the human microbiome? How did you get started in health optimization / quantified-self? What are your thoughts on biological age testing? Which tests (epigenetic, blood biomarkers, telomere, etc) and […]
Biological Age
The reference range for uric acid is 4.0 – 8 mg/dL for men, and 2.5 – 7 mg/dL for women. Are these values optimal for health? To answer that question, let’s have a look at how circulating levels of uric acid change during aging, and their association with risk of […]
Besides diet (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/12/07/slowing-epigenetic-aging-with-diet/), are there other factors that may impact epigenetic aging? First, let’s have a look at clinically relevant variables, including inflammation, the lipid profile, kidney function, blood pressure, and body size/dimensions (Liu et al. 2019): One of the strongest correlations for the clinical variables with epigenetic aging (AgeAccelGrim) […]
Having a faster rate of epigenetic aging, as measured by the epigenetic age metric, AgeAccelGrim, is associated with a significantly increased risk of death for all causes in a variety of cohorts, including the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, the InChianti study, the Jackson Heart […]
Three studies have investigated the ability of blood test analytes to predict biological age. First, when considering the top 20 variables that were associated with biological age in aging.ai, albumin contributed most to this prediction, almost 2x more than circulating levels of glucose (Mamoshina et al. 2018): Second, albumin was […]
To make it easier to review the aging and all-cause mortality data for the circulating biomarkers that are contained within the biological age calculator, Phenotypic Age (see https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/), here’s a checklist! 1. Albumin: https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/22/optimizing-serum-levels-of-albumin-data-from-20-blood-tests/ 2. Creatinine: https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/18/optimizing-biologic-age-creatinine/ 3. Glucose: https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/10/04/blood-glucose-whats-optimal/ 4. C-reactive protein: https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/10/19/optimizing-biological-age-crp/ 5. Lymphocyte %: https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/16/lympho-mortal/ 6. Mean […]
Creatinine is one of the 9 blood test variables included on the biological age calculator, Phenotypic Age (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). The reference range for women and men is 0.5 – 1.1, and 0.6 – 1.2 mg/dL respectively, but within that range, what’s optimal for health and longevity? To answer that question, it’s […]
The percentage of lymphocytes is one of the 9 blood test variables included in the biological age calculator, Phenotypic Age (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). The reference range for lymphocyte % is 20 – 40% of the total amount of white blood cells (WBCs), but are higher or lower values optimal for health and […]
My average biological age in 2019 is 12 years younger than my chronological age (46y) based on the Phenotypic Age calculator (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/01/biological-age-31-3y-chronological-age-46y/), and 16y younger based on aging.ai (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/04/years-of-biological-aging-in-the-past-4-years/). One factor that likely contributes to my relatively youthful biological age is my diet. Shown below is my average daily dietary […]
In an earlier post (https://michaellustgarten.com/2018/06/26/maximizing-health-and-lifespan-is-calorie-restriction-essential/), I documented my aging.ai biologic age for 13 blood test measurements from 2016 – 2019. If you missed that post, here are those data: Note that note my average biologic age has slowly increased from 2016 to 2019, from 28y in 2016 (2 measurements), to […]
On June 10, 2019 (for the first time) I measured all of the blood test variables that are included in the biologic age calculator, Phenotypic Age, and ended up with a biological age = 35.39y (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). While that value is 23% younger than my chronological age (46y), I knew that […]
High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (CRP) is one of the 10 variables included in the biological age calculator, PhenoAge (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). The reference range for CRP is 0 – 3 mg/L, but within that range, what’s optimal? To answer that question, it’s important to know how CRP changes during aging, and what […]
Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is one of the 10 variables included in the biological age calculator, PhenoAge (see https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). It’s calculated by dividing the fraction of the blood that contains RBCs (hematocrit) by RBCs (MCV = hematocrit/RBC), thereby identifying the average volume contained within red blood cells. Although the MCV reference […]
Circulating levels of white blood cells (WBCs) are one of the 10 variables used to quantify biological age with PhenoAge (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age). The reference range for WBCs is 4.5 – 11 *10^9 cells/L, but within that range, what’s optimal? Several studies have reported that WBCs greater than 5 are associated with an […]
Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is one of the 10 variables used to quantify biological age with PhenoAge (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age). The reference range for alkaline phosphatase is 20 – 140 IU/L*, but within that range, what’s optimal? Two separate meta-analyses have investigated the association between serum levels of ALP with risk of death […]
The reference range for circulating levels of glucose is 70-130 mg/dL. That’s a wide range, so what’s optimal, especially considering that glucose is one of the variables used to quantify of biological age (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age)? In the largest study published for this subject (12,455,361 adults), risk of death for all causes […]
In the first half of this presentation, I talk about my contribution to the gut-muscle axis in older adults, and in the second half, my personalized approach to optimal health! Also, here’s the article that corresponds to the presentation: https://www.leafscience.org/the-gut-microbiome-affects-muscle-strength-in-older-adults/ If you’re interested, please have a look at my book!
Can biological age be optimized? The red blood cell (RBC) distribution width (RDW%) is one of the variables included in the PhenoAge biological age calculator (see https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/09/09/quantifying-biological-age/). Although the RDW% reference range is 11.5% – 14.5%, what values are optimal in terms a youthful biological age, and minimized disease risk? […]
In an earlier post, I wrote about quantifying my biological age with aging.ai (https://michaellustgarten.com/2018/06/26/maximizing-health-and-lifespan-is-calorie-restriction-essential/). The importance of that post is illustrated by the finding that based on data from 13 blood tests between 2016 – 2019, my average biological age is 29.2y, which is ~33% younger than my chronological age. […]
My goal is to break the world record for lifespan, 122 years, which is currently held by Jean Calment. How do I plan to do that? A good start would be calorie restriction (CR), a diet where you eat 10-30%+ less calories than your normal intake. CR is the gold […]