AgeRate and the Rise of Digital Health Apps
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In recent years, a rising number of people have been using health apps to place control of their health into their own hands. Digital health uses technology to improve healthcare, making it more personalised and democratized than ever. In our Biological age diagnostics report, we took a deep dive into the longevity companies leading this field, including AgeRate.
Lifespan vs healthspan
Over the past few centuries, average life expectancy has shot up, and a baby born in America today could expect to live to see its 77th birthday [1]. However, while healthcare has succeeded in keeping people alive for longer, it has unfortunately failed in keeping them healthier for longer.
The current approach to healthcare is highly reactive, treating diseases as they manifest rather than preventing them. This often means that symptoms are advanced by the time they are finally diagnosed and treated. This is being accelerated by the aging population that is growing globally.
Aging is a natural process, but one that is also unfortunately accompanied with higher risk of developing age-related diseases. There has even been calls within the longevity community to classify aging as a disease itself. The growing number of people living in poor health during their later years is impairing quality of life, limiting productivity, and straining our healthcare system.
There needs to be a move towards a more proactive, preventative healthcare system, but this is taking too long. Instead, many people have taken matters, and their health, into their own hands using digital health technology. Digital health uses technology in the form of apps, trackers and tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI). It allows users to track their biometric data and quantify early signs of aging to target the root causes before age-related diseases begin to manifest.
Blood tests and your biological age
We can see from the people around us that different people age differently. Your biological age is the rate at which your body ages and can be measured using diagnostic tools. This differs from your chronological age, or how many birthdays you have celebrated. The higher your biological age, especially compared to your chronological age, the higher the chances of developing age-related diseases.
Founded in 2018, AgeRate is a longevity company that aims to help people live a longer and healthier life by redefining the rate at which we age. Using the expertise of world-leading longevity researchers, the company has spent the last three years developing an at-home blood test and mobile app that allows you to discover your true biological age. By knowing your biological age, you can take action in your lifestyle to help reduce it. Their team of health experts offer science-based solutions to aging so that you can keep doing what you love as you age.
AgeRate’s antiaging health app
Measuring your biological age is a little more complicated than simply counting how many candles are on top of a cake. It involves using several measures of aging, including your epigenetic age. Users of the AgeRate app first take a simple at-home blood test. Epigenetic analysis is then performed, which looks at how your genes and lifestyle habits interact to inform the rate at which you age. AgeRate uses their DNA methylation analysis and algorithms to reveal meaningful insights into users’ health and longevity.
Their algorithm is known as an ‘epigenetic clock’, which compares users’ biological age with their chronological age. Users then receive a detailed report on how well their cells are functioning with age. This is accompanied with personalised recommendations and lifestyle programs that adapt as your age improves, helping you to turn back the cellular clock.
Digital health database
In the future, AgeRate’s research team will develop new algorithms to unlock deeper insights into health and longevity. With users’ consent, they will also create a large longevity database, allowing insight into how we can slow and even reverse aging collectively.
References:
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm
Photograph: AgeRate
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