Biological Age vs. Chronological Age: What To Know

Most of us think of aging as an inevitable part of life that means wrinkles, aching joints, and tight muscles. We might even associate it with less mental sharpness and acuteness. The truth is that aging doesn’t have to have these negative connotations. 

While you might think that gracefully aging has more to do with fewer cosmetic procedures and a more “let it be” approach, gracefully and healthfully aging means taking a more targeted approach to your overall health. Being aggressive about your healthspan isn’t a bad idea, especially if you want to live to chase your grandkids or check off every item on your bucket list. 

Aging happens in two ways: biologically and chronologically. We’ll discuss both and tell you what you can do to change the biological age, reverse aging in your cells, and even increase your lifespan. 

What Is Chronological Age?

Your chronological age is the age you are because of your birthday. This age represents your trips around the sun. 

You can’t change your chronological age, but most of us want to see each passing year with good health and the ability to continue enjoying our family, friends, and pastimes as much as the year before. 

Chronological age is often associated with age-related diseases, especially those related to metabolic syndrome like:

• High blood pressure
• Insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Excess weight (especially around the midsection)

Sometimes it can seem like these issues are inevitable, but the truth is, they don’t have to be. Reducing disease risk as we age involves improving our biological age, a marker that we can manipulate.

What Is Biological Age?

Unlike our chronological age, our biological age isn’t measured by the birthdays we celebrate, but rather the actual age of the cells in your body. Our cells make up the tissues in our bodies, and measuring their age depends upon numerous factors. 

Researchers have identified 12 different ways our cells age, which comprise our cells’ actual age. 

1. Genomic Instability

Genetic damage can occur when our cells fall prey to illness and disease. These diseases and conditions (and even exposure to environmental toxins) can change the very DNA of our cells, making them sick and causing them to replicate the damage when new cells are formed. 

2. Telomere Attrition

Telomeres are located at the end of each chromosome and carry a part of our DNA to new cells. When cells replicate numerous times, their telomere length begins to shorten, and we lose a tiny bit of our DNA. This is another way that the aging process is directly related to our cellular health. 

3. Epigenetic Alterations

Our epigenome is made up of chemical compounds and proteins that tell the genome how to operate. Our genome is our complete set of DNA, so the epigenome is the set of compounds giving our DNA instructions on how to function. 

We can change our epigenetics through processes like physical activity, diet, and recreational activities like smoking and drinking. These processes can either speed up or slow down our cellular aging. 

4. Loss of Proteostasis

Cells create proteins needed to support cellular activities, but over time, dysfunction inside the cell can change the way these proteins are created and used, leading to cells that become fragile and weak. 

5. Deregulated Nutrient Sensing 

The ability of cells to identify and use nutrients is the act of nutrient sensing. Cellular pathways, including IGF_1, mTOR, sirtuins, and AMPK, are responsible for ensuring the cells metabolize nutrients efficiently. However, with age and time, these functions begin to weaken, leading to deregulated nutrient sensing and more advanced cellular aging. 

6. Mitochondrial Dysfunction

The mitochondria of our cells power them to carry out cellular functions. Mitochondria produces adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the energy cells need. As a result of ATP production, some reactive oxygen species (ROS) are also produced, which can be damaging to our cells. 

Over time, mitochondrial function declines. Less ATP is produced but ROS production increases, which leads to early cellular decline and breakdown, and even early cellular death. 

7. Cellular Senescence

Cells that function as they should have a determined lifespan. When the lifespan is over, they reach apoptosis or cellular death. However, some cells don’t actually function well enough to reach this programmed death. 

Instead, they lose their function but remain in our bodies, causing inflammation. This type of “zombie” cell syndrome is called cellular senescence. 

8. Stem Cell Exhaustion

Stem cells are like superhero cells that our bodies can use for multiple purposes. Because of their unique ability to function as other cells, they are extremely valuable and extremely limited. Stem cell exhaustion happens when stem cells have been used and reused and can no longer function properly. 

9. Altered Intercellular Communication

Cellular communication helps our tissues and organs work together to keep us alive. Cellular communication keeps our bodies in a constant state of homeostasis or balance. Communication in our cells is crucial for functions like glucose metabolism, balanced mood, cholesterol, and even appetite and sleep. When cells lose the ability to communicate, we begin to lose our homeostatic balance. 

10. Disabled Macroautophagy

Cells perform regular clean-up and recycling, sorting old cellular parts, repurposing them, and ridding themselves of unusable parts. This process ensures proper cellular function and keeps cells free from the accumulation of damaged parts that can’t be used. Over time, the recycling center slows, which can lead to age-related health issues and chronic disease. 

11. Chronic Inflammation

We know inflammation as a bad word, but inflammation is your body’s response to injury or damage. Some inflammation, when you are injured or sick, is a necessary part of the healing process. 

However, inflammation that occurs not as a result of a sickness or injury but remains constant in the body is unhealthy. Chronic, low-level inflammation is consistently associated with unhealthy conditions like cardiovascular illness and insulin instability. 

12. Dysbiosis

Changes to your gut microbiota have been associated with some age-related illnesses. Dysbiosis is a specific change in the microflora of the gut that can tell scientists why a person’s health may be declining with their age. 

These 12 hallmarks of aging cells can dramatically increase our biological age. They may mean that we biologically exceed our chronological age unless we make changes to protect our cells and reverse our biological aging. In addition, researchers have discovered another type of cellular phenomenon that also leads to advanced biological aging. 

Ferroptosis can cause cells to age more quickly, and can negatively impact our metabolic, liver, and heart health. Leading to ferroptosis is a condition called Cellular Fragility Syndrome, which is a big deal for several reasons. 

Cellular Fragility Syndrome: What To Know

Ferroptosis is a condition that causes cells to die prematurely, which in turn causes us to age biologically faster. Certain conditions lead to ferroptosis, and one condition that is directly linked to it is Cellular Fragility Syndrome. 

Cellular Fragility Syndrome describes a condition in which cells in the body become particularly fragile, weak, and unable to function. The cause of Cellular Fragility syndrome is linked with a nutrient deficiency, which is an important discovery because nutritional deficiencies in modern, established countries are rare, and when identified, they can be easily tested for and treated. Consider vitamin C deficiency which leads to scurvy or vitamin D deficiency leading to rickets. Recently published peer-reviewed publications support that as many as one out of every 3 people may have Cellular Fragility Syndrome, a condition caused by low levels of an essential fatty acid called pentadecanoic acid, or C15:0. 

What Is C15:0?

C15:0 is an odd-chain, saturated fatty acid that is recognized as essential. Essential means our bodies need it to thrive but cannot readily make it on their own. Researchers studying longevity in bottlenose dolphins discovered that dolphins with healthier biomarkers and fewer age-related illnesses had a higher circulating level of this fatty acid in their bodies than others. 

This discovery led them to expand their exploration of C15:0 to identify how it interacted with human cells. They later published their findings, which supported the idea that C15:0 was not only beneficial to our cells but also essential. 

What’s more, C15:0 supplementation is an effective intervention in preventing and treating Cellular Fragility Syndrome, and even increasing your healthspan. 

What Does C15:0 Do?

C15:0 targets cells, strengthening them, restoring function, and reversing cellular aging for a lower baseline biological age. 

C15:0 works by:

• Increasing cellular membrane strength. In studies, cell membranes were 80% stronger with C15:0.
  
  
• Improving mitochondrial function by increasing ATP production (by up to 350%) and decreasing ROS.
  
  
• Improving cellular communication and nutrient sensing by activating AMPK and PPARɑ and PPARẟ receptors.
  
  
• Supporting cellular cleanup (through AMPK activation).
  
  
• Regulating inflammatory response and reducing the amount of proinflammatory cytokines, which are key drivers associated with biological aging.

C15:0 has even been shown to help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol, improve liver enzymes, and improve gut health, targeting numerous hallmarks of cellular aging. In fact, people living in Blue Zones have a higher level of C15:0 than in other parts of the world. 

Just how much C15:0 do you need to help your cells thrive? C15:0 levels should be above 0.2% of your total fatty acids to prevent nutritional deficiencies and Cellular Fragility Syndrome. It’s worth noting that in blue zones (where people consistently live to be 100), C15:0 levels usually measure between 0.4% and 0.6% of total fatty acids.

How Do I Know If I Am Deficient?

The only way to know for certain if you have a C15:0 deficiency is by ordering the fatty15 C15:0 at-home test or having your doctor perform a blood test. Additionally, you can determine the result of increasing your C15:0 levels by monitoring your complete blood count, fasting lipid panel, and liver enzymes. Following a standard Western diet (highly processed foods, less fresh fruits and vegetables, and no whole dairy products) is a good predictor that you are deficient. 

C15:0 is found primarily in whole dairy products, and those are not commonly used in most American households. Many of us use skim milk or opt for plant-based milks, which are completely devoid of C15:0. 

However, increasing our intake of whole dairy may not be the ideal solution because we’d intake additional calories, sugar (from lactose), and bad, even-chain fats. Instead, we can rely on the support of the first and only C15:0 supplement, fatty15. 

Fatty15: The C15:0 Solution

Fatty15 contains the pure, vegan-friendly version of C15:0. At just 100 mg per day, it can increase your circulating levels of C15:0 and help protect your cells (and you) against age-related breakdown. Fatty15 gives you just the pure C15:0 you need without any of the excess calories, bad fats, or animal involvement you don’t want or need. 

At just one calorie per dose, it’s an easy way for you to increase your C15:0 levels, prevent Cellular Fragility Syndrome, protect your cells, and help support a healthier life. Along with changes in lifestyle factors (like getting plenty of exercise and eating a balanced diet), taking fatty15 is a good option if you are interested in improving both your healthspan and your lifespan. 

Beat the Calendar

Your calendar age will continue to increase over the years, but your biological age? You can set it backward. Lifestyle changes and fatty15 can help you increase the amount of time you get to spend doing the things you love and living a happy, healthy life. 

Sources:

Epigenomics Fact Sheet | Genome.gov

Hallmarks of aging: An expanding universe | PubMed

The gut microbiome as a modulator of healthy ageing | Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology|Nature.com

The Cellular Stability Hypothesis: Evidence of Ferroptosis and Accelerated Aging-Associated Diseases as Newly Identified Nutritional Pentadecanoic Acid (C15:0) Deficiency Syndrome | MDPI.com

Efficacy of dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acid pentadecanoic acid parallels broad associated health benefits in humans: could it be essential? | Scientific Reports

A review of odd-chain fatty acid metabolism and the role of pentadecanoic Acid (c15:0) and heptadecanoic Acid (c17:0) in health and disease | PubMed

Effect of an Asian-adapted Mediterranean diet and pentadecanoic acid on fatty liver disease: the TANGO randomized controlled trial | ScienceDirect

Pentadecanoic Acid (C15:0), an Essential Fatty Acid, Shares Clinically Relevant Cell-Based Activities with Leading Longevity-Enhancing Compounds | PMC