Season 5 Finale of The Kardashians Explores Biological Aging

In the finale of Season 5 of The Kardashians, the family underwent a blood test designed to evaluate their biological aging process. Honestly, it wasn’t too surprising that, considering their affluent lifestyles, the reality stars discovered they were aging more slowly than most people their age. Khloé, at 39, learned her biological age was just 28. There were definitely some cheers and a bit of smugness in the room.

The Kardashians are now part of a growing number of celebrities who have taken similar tests and then proudly announced their results. A new testing method has emerged on the scene.

Chronological age is essentially just how many birthdays you’ve celebrated. Biological age, on the other hand, assesses the health of your cells and organs. The new technique, developed by Vadim Gladyshev and his team at Harvard Medical School, not only measures biological aging but also gives a “time to death” estimate. Who really wants to hand over a sample for that? Not me, for sure.

Researchers have been working on molecular clocks to gauge biological age for over ten years. The challenge they face is finding an objective measure of aging since humans lack something like tree rings. So, researchers choose indicators that change with age and can reflect a person’s overall health. It’s akin to gauging a dog’s age based on wear and tear on its teeth: you get a rough estimate of age plus some idea of the dog’s condition. The most well-known method, called the Horvath clock, utilizes epigenetics—the chemical tags attached to DNA.

Gladyshev’s approach focuses on gene activity patterns based on data from over 4,000 individuals, establishing connections between these patterns, age, and disease. They also examined data from mice, rats, and macaques. The researchers are confident this new method is more accurate than previous ones.

This reliable aging measure could potentially speed up clinical trials testing anti-aging treatments. Moreover, it could inform policy regarding aging. Current policies are based strictly on chronological age, but the Kardashians highlight that people age differently. If these tests prove accurate, future policies might need to reflect this reality.

For now, this test is strictly for research purposes. However, if a public version comes about, I still wouldn’t be interested.

Based on extensive data, such tests offer probabilities rather than certainties. They can’t specify the exact day of your death or guarantee what health issues you might face. Instead, they evaluate how similar your molecular profile is to others in their database and infer risks associated with diseases or life expectancy based on similar profiles.

I don’t require statistical analytics to tell me I could probably age better. I’m over 50, enjoy my biscuits, and don’t exercise nearly enough. I already know what could help me: less biscuit consumption and more movement. I don’t need a test to make me feel guilty about this.

Additionally, I worry that getting a poor result might alter how I perceive my future. As it stands, I have a positive view of aging. I’d prefer to avoid anything that could challenge that belief because I’m aware of how powerful our thoughts can be.

For instance, research by Becca Levy at Yale demonstrates that when individuals expect aging to be fraught with decline and frailty, they’re more likely to experience those outcomes. In later years, they face a higher likelihood of cardiovascular issues and memory problems.

In another study, Levy interviewed 660 people over 50 in Oxford, Ohio, regarding their beliefs about aging. Following up more than 25 years later, she compared the responses with data from the US National Death Index. After accounting for risk factors, she discovered that those with pessimistic views on aging tended to die an average of 7.5 years sooner than those who held positive beliefs about it.

The evolving idea is that our beliefs about aging don’t solely reside in our minds; they can manifest physically. Over time, variations in behavior, stress hormone levels, and immune responses can accumulate, impacting physical health, aging, and longevity. In this framework, anything that disrupts our expectations regarding how we age could potentially influence both our aging process and our lifespan.

So, my approach is to maintain a healthy lifestyle while steering clear of anything that might disrupt my optimistic vision of retirement. As for tests regarding biological age and mortality risk, I’ll leave those to the influencers. I’m perfectly content not keeping up with the Kardashians.