Many factors, such as habits or stress levels, have an effect on the status quo of biological age, which is an important indicator for a healthy and long life. With an epigenetic test, the base value — the epigenetic age — can be determined and thus your own lifestyle can be checked. This is because the methylation markers on our DNA are in principle reversible, meaning that aging is in our own hands, day after day and year after year.

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One of these epigenetic tests is EpiAge. We asked the managing director of EpiAge Germany, Mr. Martin Berlet.

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What exactly is the EpiAge test and why was it developed?

The EpiAge test was developed by Prof. Moshe Szyf from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It is a further development of the so-called “Horvath Clock” and is based on the discovery that humans attach small molecules, i.e. methylations, to certain parts of their genomes as they age. These methylations correlate extremely well with chronological age — much better than, for example, the well-known telomere measurement, which is significantly more imprecise. Biological (or epigenetic) age can differ significantly from our chronological age, which can serve as an indicator of how fast we are aging. If we age faster than normal, it can be a sign that something in our body isn't working as it should. It has also been shown that an increased epigenetic age can also correlate with chronic diseases of old age. The EpiAge test is currently the best biomarker known to science. It gives researchers, doctors and users the opportunity to better and more easily assess interventions and therapies and their effectiveness, particularly with regard to anti-aging measures. If you did not have this marker, you would always have to wait years or even decades to be able to assess whether and what the anti-aging interventions and therapies have achieved.

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How is the biological age determined and what is necessary for this?

All you need is a little saliva, which you can easily collect into a small tube at home and then send it to us.

In the laboratory, this saliva sample is processed in well over a hundred individual steps and then sequenced (read) three times using “Next Generation Sequencing”.

This new technology (NGS) allows us to work cost-effectively and run the sequencing process three times to achieve the most precise result possible.

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What can the user expect from the test?

The fact that our environment has a comprehensive influence on our epigenetics makes the EpiAge test virtually a universal test. It not only gives us an overall view of our body, but also includes our psychological well-being. And I think that is unique. What we also get as feedback from our customers is also the effect that many users are sustainably motivated to look at their health or to seriously consider and then implement lifestyle changes.

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This also applies to users who already have very good results, for example, because they say to themselves:“Wow: what I've already invested in my health in the past has paid off! Now I want to improve this even further and further optimize my lifestyle in terms of my health.”. While the reverse finding may be perceived as a “red flag” and gives the decisive impetus to take a closer look at why this could be the case.

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Why is it important to know your biological age?

Looking at your own health is — I think — a good thing per se. We live in a world that is heavily influenced by environmental toxins, and our lifestyle is often anything but healthy. Epigenetic age is influenced by many different variables that affect the body. And that goes beyond physical factors such as food, exercise, environmental toxins, diseases, genetic dispositions, etc. Psychological stimuli such as stress, lack of sleep, trauma and the like also have an effect on these epigenetic markers. And when my doctor tells me, for example, that my cholesterol levels are high and that my gamma GT level worries him, then very few of us really understand that. But when I'm 50 chronologically and I get an EpiAge test result that rates my biological age as 55, that's much easier to understand.

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What distinguishes the EpiAge test from competing products?

The epiAge test is carried out using the “Next Generation Sequencing” process. We only examine 13 so-called CpGs (small sequences around the DNA), from which we read out the methylations. However, these CpGs have the highest correlation to chronological age. In contrast to the other tests, the method allows us to examine many thousands of cells. We therefore have a significantly higher cell depth — you could say. In addition, each sample is sequenced three times (triple sequencing). Taken together, all of these factors make our test extremely robust, as Prof. Moshe Szyf from McGill University in Montreal, who developed the test, repeatedly points out. The process also allows us to offer the test at a slightly lower price than the competition, which is not entirely irrelevant.

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Over time, it has also been shown that the high number of CpGs being investigated in other tests (which Horvath Clock, for example, uses 353 CPGs) may be at the expense of replicating the results. Put simply, the more variables, the more error-prone the model can then be.

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There are constantly new findings in epigenetics research. Will the EpiAge test be adapted to these (findings)? And if so, what “improvements” can the user expect?

Research in the field of epigenetics is still relatively new and we can still expect many exciting and groundbreaking research results.

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Prof. Moshe Szyf and his laboratory's pipeline currently includes, for example, an EpiSmoke test, an EpiSkin test and an EpiPsych test, which can measure stress factors even more specifically, for example. But I think the most important development is the PanCancer test.

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It enables the early detection of more than 30 different types of cancer based on a blood sample, long before a tumour is even visible. This will probably save many lives in the future, as many types of cancer can already be treated well. However, it is a prerequisite that they are identified as early as possible. Such a test can of course be a game changer. Unfortunately, the healthcare system has so far focused more on “curing diseases” than “preventing diseases.”

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You can easily order the test and carry it out at home. Is the result understandable for everyone or, if not, do you offer assistance with the interpretation?

Our EpiAge test result, which we send to your e-mail as a PDF, provides initial interpretive help and advice.

In principle, however, we cannot and do not want to offer medical advice. For this reason, EpiAge Germany has created a unique network of Longevity experts in German-speaking countries and is gradually expanding across Europe.

The highly qualified Longevity doctors, therapists and specialized clinics that use the EpiAge test have many years of experience with preventive and anti-aging approaches — from endocrinology and sports medicine to cardiology, nutrition and many other areas. They have successfully integrated EpiAge into their diagnosis and treatment protocols as an indispensable monitoring tool for determining biological age and offer individual support for all health and longevity issues. Depending on their needs, customers select the most attractive treatment options and negotiate fees independently with the respective providers.

epiAge thus concludes its customer journey cycle by offering our customers the latest know-how and the best advice for a young and healthy life.