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Infographics

Each topic from the Blog as one visual overview. Open an infographic full size, or read the article behind it.

  • What does a change in your aging score really mean?

    Recap poster titled Four validation checks. One, does it repeat? Rerunning the same sample twice tests the lab; a fresh sample tests the lab and your body. Your own retest is the fresh-sample kind. Two, does it predict health? A faster pace score was linked with more illness and death in large groups, not your exact risk. Three, does it respond to treatment? Eating less: reported slower change in DunedinPACE. A multivitamin: reported slower change in PCPhenoAge and PCGrimAge. Omega-3: reported slower change in DunedinPACE, PCPhenoAge and GrimAge2. GrimAge2 was not tested for eating less or the multivitamin. The other clock-and-treatment pairs showed no clear difference. Early signals from different people, not a ranking. Four, does a lower score predict better health? Treatment led to scores lower than the comparison group on average, small signals in trials; lower can mean a slower rise. Whether that change predicts better health is not yet shown.
    Four validation checks
    Four validation checks
    Four validation checks
    Recap poster titled Four validation checks. One, does it repeat? Rerunning the same sample twice tests the lab; a fresh sample tests the lab and your body. Your own retest is the fresh-sample kind. Two, does it predict health? A faster pace score was linked with more illness and death in large groups, not your exact risk. Three, does it respond to treatment? Eating less: reported slower change in DunedinPACE. A multivitamin: reported slower change in PCPhenoAge and PCGrimAge. Omega-3: reported slower change in DunedinPACE, PCPhenoAge and GrimAge2. GrimAge2 was not tested for eating less or the multivitamin. The other clock-and-treatment pairs showed no clear difference. Early signals from different people, not a ranking. Four, does a lower score predict better health? Treatment led to scores lower than the comparison group on average, small signals in trials; lower can mean a slower rise. Whether that change predicts better health is not yet shown.
    Read the article

  • Can nine routine blood tests tell your biological age?

    Summary poster. Can nine blood tests tell your biological age? For groups, a little; for you, it wobbles by years. One: built on deaths. Nine blood results and age give a ten-year death risk, written as an age, from 9,926 US adults followed for up to more than 23 years. Two: it adds a little to age. In a US survey of 11,432 adults, telling apart who died within ten years from who survived rose from 0.855 with age alone to 0.879 with PhenoAge, on a scale where 0.5 is a coin toss and 1.0 is perfect. Three: same blood, different numbers. For a made-up 50-year-old, one printed formula gives 45.6, the other 47.2, and a CRP unit slip from 45.6 gives 48.0, inside a shaded band showing the narrow case of our model for where a repeat test could fall. Four: test carefully, then repeat. One small change, up or down, can be noise.
    PhenoAge in four steps
    PhenoAge in four steps
    PhenoAge in four steps
    Summary poster. Can nine blood tests tell your biological age? For groups, a little; for you, it wobbles by years. One: built on deaths. Nine blood results and age give a ten-year death risk, written as an age, from 9,926 US adults followed for up to more than 23 years. Two: it adds a little to age. In a US survey of 11,432 adults, telling apart who died within ten years from who survived rose from 0.855 with age alone to 0.879 with PhenoAge, on a scale where 0.5 is a coin toss and 1.0 is perfect. Three: same blood, different numbers. For a made-up 50-year-old, one printed formula gives 45.6, the other 47.2, and a CRP unit slip from 45.6 gives 48.0, inside a shaded band showing the narrow case of our model for where a repeat test could fall. Four: test carefully, then repeat. One small change, up or down, can be noise.
    Read the article

  • What your face can reveal about how you’re aging

    One face offers several windows onto ageing. People judge how old a face looks from a visible-light photo; a three-dimensional scan records facial shape, and an infrared camera measures surface temperature. These methods use different information. In the original FaceAge research, known calendar ages trained a photo model. Researchers then estimated ages from cancer patients’ photos and checked how long they lived. Older estimates were associated with shorter survival in the cancer groups studied. This did not show that using the score to choose treatment helps patients. The portraits and temperature map are illustrations.
    Facial age at a glance
    Facial age at a glance
    Facial age at a glance
    One face offers several windows onto ageing. People judge how old a face looks from a visible-light photo; a three-dimensional scan records facial shape, and an infrared camera measures surface temperature. These methods use different information. In the original FaceAge research, known calendar ages trained a photo model. Researchers then estimated ages from cancer patients’ photos and checked how long they lived. Older estimates were associated with shorter survival in the cancer groups studied. This did not show that using the score to choose treatment helps patients. The portraits and temperature map are illustrations.
    Read the article

  • Could plastics be making you age faster?

    Plastics and ageing: illustrated evidence summary
    Plastics & ageing
    What the evidence tells us
    Two exposures. Different evidence.
    ParticlesMicroplastics & nanoplastics
    Associated chemicalsPhthalates & BPA
    Particles can carry chemicals; chemicals also have other sources.
    Particles can affect cells in the lab.
    Experimental conditions can differ from everyday exposure.
    What was compared in people?
    4,711adults in one US health survey
    Measure exposure
    Urine: phthalate breakdown products
    Estimate biological age
    Clinical measurements
    Calculated biological-age scores
    Compare across people
    Higher levels of several phthalates were linked to slightly older scores.
    A link does not establish cause.
    BPA fell during the food swap—and rose again afterwards
    20 people · 5 families · no control group
    BPA is a chemical used in some plastics and resins.
    For three days, families received fresh food prepared with minimal packaging contact.
    Urinary BPA · geometric mean (a type of average), ng/mL
    Usual foodDays 1–2
    3.7
    Supplied fresh foodDays 3–5
    1.2
    Usual food resumedDays 6–8
    3.8
    These are group averages, not each person's path. The study did not measure ageing.
    Lower chemical levels in urine do not prove slower ageing.
    Wright 2024 · Moulton 2026 · Xiao 2023 · Rudel 2011 (Table 3)
    Schematic illustrations, not to scale · IntrinsicAge · November 2026
    Full article and sources: intrinsicage.com/blog/plastics-and-ageing
    IntrinsicAge
    Plastics and ageing: the evidence at a glance. Illustrations are schematic; the BPA chart uses the study's reported values.
    summary poster
    Plastics and ageing: the evidence at a glance. Illustrations are schematic; the BPA chart uses the study's reported values.
    Plastics and ageing: illustrated evidence summary
    Plastics & ageing
    What the evidence tells us
    Two exposures. Different evidence.
    ParticlesMicroplastics & nanoplastics
    Associated chemicalsPhthalates & BPA
    Particles can carry chemicals; chemicals also have other sources.
    Particles can affect cells in the lab.
    Experimental conditions can differ from everyday exposure.
    What was compared in people?
    4,711adults in one US health survey
    Measure exposure
    Urine: phthalate breakdown products
    Estimate biological age
    Clinical measurements
    Calculated biological-age scores
    Compare across people
    Higher levels of several phthalates were linked to slightly older scores.
    A link does not establish cause.
    BPA fell during the food swap—and rose again afterwards
    20 people · 5 families · no control group
    BPA is a chemical used in some plastics and resins.
    For three days, families received fresh food prepared with minimal packaging contact.
    Urinary BPA · geometric mean (a type of average), ng/mL
    Usual foodDays 1–2
    3.7
    Supplied fresh foodDays 3–5
    1.2
    Usual food resumedDays 6–8
    3.8
    These are group averages, not each person's path. The study did not measure ageing.
    Lower chemical levels in urine do not prove slower ageing.
    Wright 2024 · Moulton 2026 · Xiao 2023 · Rudel 2011 (Table 3)
    Schematic illustrations, not to scale · IntrinsicAge · November 2026
    Full article and sources: intrinsicage.com/blog/plastics-and-ageing
    IntrinsicAge
    Read the article

  • Could your heart be older than your brain?

    Why give each organ its own age? An illustrated explanation of protein models, same-age references, organ profiles and different test methods.

    Why give each organ its own age?

    All displayed scores and profiles are made up.

    One sample. Different models.

    Known calendar ages and protein patterns train the models. A gene-activity map groups organ-related proteins measured in blood plasma. Separate heart, brain and kidney models produce example estimates of 55, 49 and 51. Organ association does not confirm where every protein came from.

    55 compared with what?

    For a person whose calendar age is 50, the model's usual heart estimate for 50-year-olds is 52. This person's heart estimate is 55: 3 higher on the model's age scale. These are made-up values and a simplified comparison before standardizing the gap. The estimate comes from proteins, not a direct test of heart function.

    One overall age can hide the pattern.

    Made-up profiles for two people aged 50; both have an overall estimate of 50. Organ gaps are compared with each model's same-age reference.
    OrganPerson APerson B
    Heart+30
    Brain00
    Kidney0+3

    The overall estimate is separately trained on all measured proteins, not an organ average. In one research cohort, higher heart-age gaps were linked to later heart failure: an association, not a diagnosis or proof of cause.

    Same label. Different construction.

    Two illustrative reports both say “heart age 55”, but their construction differs.

    Two ways to construct an age estimate.
    MethodMeasurementConstruction
    Protein organ clockBlood proteinsLearns calendar age.
    Systems AgeDNA tags in blood cellsBuilt from clinical measures and survival data.

    Compare the measurement, model/version and outcome evidence. More reported ages do not automatically mean a better test.

    Sources: Oh et al., Nature 2023 and Nature Medicine 2025; Sehgal et al., Nature Aging 2025. The article's references link to the papers.

    How organ-age estimates are built, how to read their reference, and what separate organ profiles reveal. All displayed scores and profiles are made up.
    organ-age summary
    How organ-age estimates are built, how to read their reference, and what separate organ profiles reveal. All displayed scores and profiles are made up.
    Why give each organ its own age? An illustrated explanation of protein models, same-age references, organ profiles and different test methods.

    Why give each organ its own age?

    All displayed scores and profiles are made up.

    One sample. Different models.

    Known calendar ages and protein patterns train the models. A gene-activity map groups organ-related proteins measured in blood plasma. Separate heart, brain and kidney models produce example estimates of 55, 49 and 51. Organ association does not confirm where every protein came from.

    55 compared with what?

    For a person whose calendar age is 50, the model's usual heart estimate for 50-year-olds is 52. This person's heart estimate is 55: 3 higher on the model's age scale. These are made-up values and a simplified comparison before standardizing the gap. The estimate comes from proteins, not a direct test of heart function.

    One overall age can hide the pattern.

    Made-up profiles for two people aged 50; both have an overall estimate of 50. Organ gaps are compared with each model's same-age reference.
    OrganPerson APerson B
    Heart+30
    Brain00
    Kidney0+3

    The overall estimate is separately trained on all measured proteins, not an organ average. In one research cohort, higher heart-age gaps were linked to later heart failure: an association, not a diagnosis or proof of cause.

    Same label. Different construction.

    Two illustrative reports both say “heart age 55”, but their construction differs.

    Two ways to construct an age estimate.
    MethodMeasurementConstruction
    Protein organ clockBlood proteinsLearns calendar age.
    Systems AgeDNA tags in blood cellsBuilt from clinical measures and survival data.

    Compare the measurement, model/version and outcome evidence. More reported ages do not automatically mean a better test.

    Sources: Oh et al., Nature 2023 and Nature Medicine 2025; Sehgal et al., Nature Aging 2025. The article's references link to the papers.

    Read the article

  • Scientific voices in biological aging

    Five questions, thirteen researchers: an illustrated list of the article's questions and a timeline of five aging-clock milestones.

    Five questions, thirteen researchers

    The questions their work helps answer

    1. How fast am I aging? Belsky, Horvath, Levine.
    2. Can I trust the number? Higgins-Chen, Marioni, Teschendorff.
    3. What does aging look like inside the body? Ferrucci, Kerepesi, Wyss-Coray.
    4. Why do we age at all? Gems, Partridge.
    5. Can aging be slowed or reversed? Gladyshev, Verdin.

    Alphabetical, not a ranking.

    Each clock asked a different question

    1. 2013, Horvath: How old do these cells seem?
    2. 2018, Levine: Can a clock reflect health, not just years?
    3. 2022, Belsky: How fast is the body aging lately?
    4. 2022, Higgins-Chen: Would the same sample score the same twice?
    5. 2023, Wyss-Coray: Can one organ seem older than others?

    One reason clocks can disagree.

    Sources and commercial ties are in the article.

    The five questions and five clock milestones at a glance.
    Scientific voices summary
    The five questions and five clock milestones at a glance.
    Five questions, thirteen researchers: an illustrated list of the article's questions and a timeline of five aging-clock milestones.

    Five questions, thirteen researchers

    The questions their work helps answer

    1. How fast am I aging? Belsky, Horvath, Levine.
    2. Can I trust the number? Higgins-Chen, Marioni, Teschendorff.
    3. What does aging look like inside the body? Ferrucci, Kerepesi, Wyss-Coray.
    4. Why do we age at all? Gems, Partridge.
    5. Can aging be slowed or reversed? Gladyshev, Verdin.

    Alphabetical, not a ranking.

    Each clock asked a different question

    1. 2013, Horvath: How old do these cells seem?
    2. 2018, Levine: Can a clock reflect health, not just years?
    3. 2022, Belsky: How fast is the body aging lately?
    4. 2022, Higgins-Chen: Would the same sample score the same twice?
    5. 2023, Wyss-Coray: Can one organ seem older than others?

    One reason clocks can disagree.

    Sources and commercial ties are in the article.

    Read the article