How To Measure And Lower Your Biological Age Naturally

Posted on by Jesse Santiano, M.D.
Contents hide
🪞 Introduction: Looking Young Isn’t the Same as Being Healthy Inside
⏳ II. Biological Age vs. Chronological Age: What’s the Difference?
🧬 III. What Determines Your Biological Age?
1. Epigenetic Changes
2. Organ-Specific Functional Tests
3. Inflammation and Oxidative Stress
4. Mitochondrial Function
5. Lifestyle Habits
🫀 IV. Each Organ Ages at Its Own Pace—Even Your Skin
🧠 Brain Age
❤️ Heart Age
🫁 Lung Age
🧬 Liver Age
🔵 Kidney Age
🍬 Pancreas Age
🔴 Vascular Age
🧴 Skin Age (Cosmetic but Reflective of Internal Aging)
🔎 V. Why You Should Know the Age of Your Organs
🧠 1. It Helps You Catch Disease Before It Starts
⏱ 2. It’s a More Accurate Predictor of Longevity
🧩 3. It Explains Health Mysteries
🎯 4. It Allows Personalized Health Plans
🛠 VI. How to Assess and Track Your Organ Health
❤️ 1. Heart
🫁 2. Lungs
🧬 3. Liver
🔵 4. Kidneys
🍬 5. Pancreas
🧠 6. Brain
🧴 7. Skin
📲 8. Track It Yourself
🔄 VII. How to Reverse or Slow Organ-Specific Aging
🧠 Brain
❤️ Heart
🫁 Lungs
🧬 Liver
🔵 Kidneys
🍬 Pancreas
🔴 Vascular System
🧴 Skin
🧭 The Bottom Line:
🧬 VIII. Conclusion: A Personalized Aging Profile Is the Future of Health
📣 Follow This Series
References:
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🪞 Introduction: Looking Young Isn’t the Same as Being Healthy Inside

In a world obsessed with looking young, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that smooth skin or a slim waist equals good health. Billions are spent every year on Botox injections, wrinkle creams, cosmetic surgeries, and weight-loss pills—all chasing the illusion of youth.

But here’s the truth: aging starts from the inside.
And while you’re focused on your face or figure, your heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and blood vessels may be aging faster than you realize.

You might look 45 in the mirror, but what if your pancreas is functioning like it’s 65, or your lungs have the capacity of someone who is 70? These hidden signs of aging matter far more than crow’s feet or belly fat.

This article kicks off a new series that shifts the spotlight inward. You’ll discover how each organ has its biological age—and how to measure, track, and slow down the clock on the inside.

Because aging is more than skin-deep, the real question isn’t, “How young do I look?”
It’s “How young are my organs?”

The biological age of internal organs are more important than external looks

⏳ II. Biological Age vs. Chronological Age: What’s the Difference?

Everyone knows their chronological age—the number of birthdays you’ve had. But biological age is something entirely different. It reflects your body’s actual wear and tear, down to the cellular and organ level.

Think of it this way:

  • A chronologically 60-year-old who eats well, exercises, sleeps deeply, and manages stress may have the biological age of a 45-year-old.
  • Meanwhile, another 60-year-old who smokes, eats poorly, and lives a sedentary life may have the organs of someone in their late 70s.

Biological age is determined by how well your body functions, not how long you’ve lived.

This difference is more than just trivia—it predicts your risk of:

  • Heart disease
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Cognitive decline
  • Early death

Modern medicine is shifting away from using age as a number and toward personalized, functional health measures. That means looking at how your heart pumps, how well your kidneys filter, how flexible your arteries are, and how fast your brain processes information.

Coming up, we’ll look at how science measures these aging signs—organ by organ—and how you can use that knowledge to live longer and better.

The biological age of internal organs can be older than the outside

🧬 III. What Determines Your Biological Age?

Your biological age isn’t just a guess—it’s based on measurable changes in your body that reflect how well it’s functioning at a cellular and organ level.

Here are the key factors that help determine how old your body really is on the inside:

1. Epigenetic Changes

Scientists now use “epigenetic clocks” to estimate biological age by measuring DNA methylation—tiny chemical tags that turn genes on or off. As you age, these patterns change, and the rate of change can reflect accelerated or slowed aging.

  • Example: A study from Nature found that people with faster DNA methylation aging were more likely to develop chronic diseases earlier.
    📖 Horvath, S. (2013). DNA methylation age of human tissues and cell types. Nature, 503(7475), 350–355.
    🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12721

2. Organ-Specific Functional Tests

Different organs have their own “aging meters.” Examples include:

  • Heart: Heart rate variability (HRV), diastolic function, and arterial stiffness
  • Lungs: FEV1 and lung age calculators
  • Kidneys: eGFR and urine albumin
  • Pancreas: Insulin secretion patterns
  • Brain: MRI changes, memory performance, BDNF levels

These tests give objective signs of decline long before symptoms appear.

3. Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

Chronic, low-level inflammation—called “inflammaging”—is a hallmark of aging and a key driver of many diseases.

  • Elevated CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α are signs your immune system is in overdrive, damaging tissues over time.
  • Oxidative stress from poor diet, pollution, or smoking wears out cells and impairs repair.

4. Mitochondrial Function

Your mitochondria are your cells’ power plants. When they slow down or become dysfunctional, energy drops, and tissue repair suffers—accelerating aging.

5. Lifestyle Habits

What you do every day adds up:

  • Poor sleep
  • High sugar diets
  • Smoking
  • Lack of movement
    All of these can speed up aging—even if you’re doing everything you can to look good on the outside.

In short, your biological age reflects the net effect of your choices, genes, and environment. The next step? Learn how each organ system ages—and what you can do about it.

🫀 IV. Each Organ Ages at Its Own Pace—Even Your Skin

Your body doesn’t age in unison. Some organs stay youthful while others wear down faster—depending on your lifestyle, genetics, and environment. Understanding how each organ system ages can help you target early signs of decline and act before disease sets in.

Here’s a preview of the organs we’ll explore in this series:

🧠 Brain Age

  • Aging signs: forgetfulness, slower processing, emotional changes
  • Markers: BDNF levels, MRI findings, memory and cognitive tests
  • Influences: stress, sleep, exercise, omega-3 intake

🧬 Aging brains show volume loss in critical areas like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex—affecting memory and decision-making.

❤️ Heart Age

  • Aging signs: reduced endurance, high resting heart rate, palpitations
  • Markers: Heart Rate Variability (HRV), blood pressure, diastolic function, cardiac age calculators
  • Influences: activity level, visceral fat, insulin resistance

💡 You can be 50 years old but have the heart of someone 70 if you’re sedentary and inflamed.

🫁 Lung Age

  • Aging signs: breathlessness, reduced exercise tolerance
  • Markers: FEV1, spirometry-based lung age calculators
  • Influences: smoking, air pollution, abdominal obesity

🚭 Lung function naturally declines with age—but faster in smokers and those with chronic inflammation.

🧬 Liver Age

  • Aging signs: poor digestion, fatigue, elevated liver enzymes
  • Markers: Fibrosis scores, ultrasound, ALT/AST, Fatty Liver Index
  • Influences: alcohol use, sugar intake, obesity, medications

🍺 Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now common in people in their 30s and 40s.

🔵 Kidney Age

  • Aging signs: fluid retention, high blood pressure, fatigue
  • Markers: eGFR, urinary albumin, creatinine
  • Influences: hydration, protein intake, medication use, diabetes

💧 Kidneys filter blood over 50 times a day. Aging reduces their efficiency.

🍬 Pancreas Age

  • Aging signs: post-meal fatigue, sugar cravings, abdominal fat
  • Markers: Insulin secretion patterns, HOMA-IR, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
  • Influences: high-carb diets, snacking frequency, obesity

🔁 Beta-cell exhaustion is one of the earliest signs of type 2 diabetes.

🔴 Vascular Age

  • Aging signs: cold hands/feet, erectile dysfunction, leg pain
  • Markers: Arterial stiffness, Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) score, pulse wave velocity
  • Influences: hypertension, smoking, refined carbs

🫀 Stiff arteries increase the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure—even if cholesterol levels are normal.

All organs have their own biological age

🧴 Skin Age (Cosmetic but Reflective of Internal Aging)

  • Aging signs: wrinkles, dryness, sagging, pigmentation
  • Markers: Collagen breakdown, glycation damage, elastin loss, skin elasticity tests
  • Influences: UV exposure, sugar intake, collagen loss, smoking

☀️ Your skin reflects what’s happening inside—oxidative stress, inflammation, and glycation show up here first.

In future articles, we’ll take a deep dive into each system: how to test for aging, what signs to watch for, and—most importantly—how to slow or reverse the damage.

Because knowing your biological age organ-by-organ gives you power to act, not just guess.

Multi-Organ_Aging_SnapshotDownload

🔎 V. Why You Should Know the Age of Your Organs

Most people only find out something’s wrong when symptoms appear, but the damage is often advanced by that time. Knowing the biological age of your organs allows you to take action early, sometimes decades before disease strikes.

Here’s why understanding organ-specific aging is essential to real health, not just cosmetic youth:

🧠 1. It Helps You Catch Disease Before It Starts

  • Your fasting glucose may still be “normal,” but your pancreas might already show signs of beta-cell fatigue.
  • Your ECG may look fine, yet your heart might have declining diastolic function or poor HRV—early signs of cardiac aging.
  • You may feel sharp mentally, but brain scans might reveal hippocampal shrinkage or reduced blood flow.

Knowing your organ age lets you spot subtle dysfunctions before they become irreversible.

⏱ 2. It’s a More Accurate Predictor of Longevity

Studies show that biological age is more closely linked to life expectancy and disease risk than chronological age.

🧩 3. It Explains Health Mysteries

  • Why does one 70-year-old run marathons, while another needs a walker?
  • Why do some people develop Alzheimer’s in their 60s, while others remain sharp into their 90s?

Biological age explains these differences. It shifts the question from “How old are you?” to “How well are you aging?”

🎯 4. It Allows Personalized Health Plans

If your lungs are aging faster than the rest of your body, you can:

  • Start aerobic training
  • Improve indoor air quality
  • Increase omega-3 intake
  • Quit smoking or reduce exposure to pollutants

Each organ’s age gives you a clear roadmap to intervene and improve.

In the next section, we’ll show you how to track your own organ health—what tests to ask for, and how to interpret them.

🛠 VI. How to Assess and Track Your Organ Health

Knowing that your organs age at different rates is one thing—tracking it is where the real power begins. Fortunately, modern tools now make it possible to monitor the biological age of specific organs long before disease symptoms appear.

Here’s how you can get started:

❤️ 1. Heart

  • Tests to Ask For:
    • Resting heart rate and blood pressure
    • Heart Rate Variability (HRV) via wearables like Oura, WHOOP, or Apple Watch
    • Echocardiogram (diastolic function)
    • Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) score via CT scan (if at risk)

🧠 Higher HRV generally indicates a more resilient and youthful heart.

The biological age of the heart can be ched with heart rate variability and number of steps

🫁 2. Lungs

  • Tests to Ask For:
    • Spirometry (to calculate FEV1 and estimate “lung age”)
    • Peak flow meter (especially useful in asthma or COPD)
    • VO₂ max testing (in exercise labs or smartwatches)

🫁 FEV1 decreases naturally with age—but faster in smokers and sedentary people.

🧬 3. Liver

  • Tests to Ask For:
    • ALT, AST, GGT – liver enzymes
    • Fibrosis score (FIB-4) or FibroScan
    • Ultrasound – to detect fat accumulation or fibrosis
    • Liver fat index (LFI) – lab-based algorithm

🍳 Elevated liver enzymes and fatty infiltration are early signs of liver aging.

🔵 4. Kidneys

  • Tests to Ask For:
    • eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate)
    • Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio
    • Serum creatinine, BUN

💧 Kidney decline often goes unnoticed until it’s severe. Early tracking matters.

🍬 5. Pancreas

  • Tests to Ask For:
    • Fasting insulin and glucose
    • HOMA-IR (for insulin resistance)
    • Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
    • Post-meal glucose monitoring (CGM or fingerstick)

🔁 Tracking post-meal blood sugar can catch metabolic issues early—long before diabetes.

🧠 6. Brain

  • Tests and Tools:
    • Cognitive tests: MoCA, MMSE, or online brain performance tools
    • MRI (if at risk for neurodegeneration)
    • BDNF blood test (available in research labs)
    • EEG or neurofeedback systems

🧠 Cognitive changes can signal brain aging years before dementia develops.

The biological age of the brain can be tested with MOCA

🧴 7. Skin

  • Tests and Tools:
    • Dermascope assessments by dermatologists
    • Skin elasticity tests (at skin clinics)
    • Visible signs: wrinkles, dryness, pigmentation, thinning

☀️ Your skin reflects internal aging, especially from inflammation and oxidative stress.

📲 8. Track It Yourself

  • Use wearables to monitor HRV, sleep quality, resting heart rate, and activity levels
  • Track lab results over time with spreadsheets or health apps
  • Maintain a personal organ health journal to identify trends and triggers

Knowing these markers lets you shift from reaction to prevention—customizing your diet, exercise, and lifestyle based on what each organ needs.

Next up: you’ll learn how to slow or reverse aging in each organ using simple, science-backed strategies.

🔄 VII. How to Reverse or Slow Organ-Specific Aging

The best part about biological aging? It’s not fixed.
You can slow it down—and in some cases, even reverse it—by targeting the root causes of decline: inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and poor circulation.

Below are proven, science-backed strategies to keep each major organ younger, stronger, and more resilient.

🧠 Brain

  • Do this: Regular aerobic exercise, deep sleep, omega-3 fats (DHA), mindfulness meditation, and mental stimulation
  • Supplements: Lion’s mane mushroom, omega-3s, magnesium threonate, curcumin
  • Avoid: Chronic stress, poor sleep, excessive sugar

🧠 Exercise boosts BDNF—a key molecule in keeping your brain plastic and sharp.

❤️ Heart

  • Do this: High-intensity interval training (HIIT), walking, breathwork, fiber-rich diet
  • Supplements: Coenzyme Q10 (especially if on statins), magnesium, potassium, D-ribose
  • Avoid: Trans fats, smoking, sitting too long

🏃 HIIT has been shown to rejuvenate mitochondrial function in heart cells.

🫁 Lungs

  • Do this: Daily cardio, diaphragmatic breathing, exposure to clean outdoor air
  • Supplements: N-acetylcysteine (NAC), vitamin C, quercetin
  • Avoid: Smoking, mold exposure, air pollution

🫁 Breath training can significantly increase lung capacity and resilience.

🧬 Liver

  • Do this: Intermittent fasting, reduce alcohol and fructose, increase leafy greens and crucifers
  • Supplements: Milk thistle, alpha-lipoic acid, taurine, choline
  • Avoid: Seed oils, processed sugars, excess medications

🧪 Liver cells regenerate—detoxing your lifestyle gives them a chance to heal.

🔵 Kidneys

  • Do this: Stay hydrated, control blood pressure and blood sugar, eat potassium-rich foods
  • Supplements: Omega-3s, NAC, vitamin D
  • Avoid: NSAIDs, dehydration, excessive salt or animal protein (if already impaired)

💧 Kidney aging is often silent. Simple habits make a huge difference.

🍬 Pancreas

  • Do this: Low-carb, high-fiber meals, time-restricted eating, muscle-building exercise
  • Supplements: Berberine, chromium, bitter melon, cinnamon
  • Avoid: Frequent snacking, sugary drinks, refined carbs

🥄 Giving your pancreas breaks from insulin demands keeps it younger.

🔴 Vascular System

  • Do this: Daily walking, nitric oxide-boosting foods (beets, greens), isometric exercise
  • Supplements: L-arginine, beetroot powder, aged garlic extract
  • Avoid: Smoking, high sodium diets, chronic stress

💓 Healthy arteries are flexible and wide open—preserving them delays multiple diseases.

🧴 Skin

  • Do this: Sleep 7–9 hours, hydrate, eat antioxidant-rich foods, wear sun protection
  • Supplements: Collagen peptides, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, astaxanthin
  • Avoid: Excess sun, sugar, alcohol, and smoking

💡 Your skin reflects your internal environment—heal from the inside out.

🧭 The Bottom Line:

You don’t need to age the way your parents or peers did.
With the right knowledge and action, you can extend your healthspan—not just your lifespan.

And it all starts with this question:
Which of your organs needs help right now?

Next, we’ll tie it all together and explore how a personalized aging profile can help you take full control of your future health.

🧬 VIII. Conclusion: A Personalized Aging Profile Is the Future of Health

We’re living in a time when you no longer have to guess what’s happening inside your body.

Instead of relying only on age or vague symptoms, you can now build a personalized aging profile—organ by organ—based on real science. This approach doesn’t just extend how long you live. It helps you stay stronger, sharper, and more capable at every stage of life.

You’ve seen how your brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, vascular system, and skin all age at different rates. And you’ve learned that through specific tests, habits, and interventions, you can measure and even reverse much of that decline.

Here’s the good news:
You’re not stuck with the body or the fate you were born with.
Your daily choices—moving, eating, sleeping, thinking—can reprogram how your organs age.

Reversing your biological age can add years of healthy life

📣 Follow This Series

This article is just the beginning.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into each organ system to show you:

  • The hidden signs of aging most people miss
  • Simple tests you can request or do at home
  • Proven strategies to keep each organ young and functional for life

Each part of this series will help you take back control over your health, from the inside out.

➡️ Follow the series on https://drjessesantiano.com
➡️ Sign up to be a member, or share this with someone who wants to age well, not just live long

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References:

  1. Horvath, Steve. “DNA Methylation Age of Human Tissues and Cell Types.” Nature, vol. 503, no. 7475, 2013, pp. 350–355.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12721
  2. Levine ME. Modeling the rate of senescence: Can estimated biological age predict mortality more accurately than chronological age? J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2013 Jun;68(6):667-74. doi: 10.1093/gerona/gls233. Epub 2012 Dec 3. PMID: 23213031; PMCID: PMC3660119.
  3. Levine, Morgan E. “Modeling the Rate of Senescence: Can Estimated Biological Age Predict Mortality More Accurately than Chronological Age?” The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, vol. 68, no. 6, 2013, pp. 667–674.
    https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/68/6/667/599748
  4. Pinckard K, Baskin KK, Stanford KI. Effects of Exercise to Improve Cardiovascular Health. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2019 Jun 4;6:69. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069. PMID: 31214598; PMCID: PMC6557987.
  5. Vina, Jose, et al. “Exercise Acts as a Drug; the Pharmacological Benefits of Exercise.” British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 167, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1–12.
    https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2012.01970.x
  6. Vallianou NG, et al. Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiovascular Disease: Is there Any Relationship? Curr Cardiol Rev. 2019;15(1):55-63. doi: 10.2174/1573403X14666180711124825. PMID: 29992892; PMCID: PMC6367692.
  7. Nasir, K, Bittencourt, M, Blaha, M. et al. Implications of Coronary Artery Calcium Testing Among Statin Candidates According to American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Cholesterol Management Guidelines: MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis). JACC. 2015 Oct, 66 (15) 1657–1668. https://www.jacc.org/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1016/j.jacc.2015.07.066

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