How to Lower Your Biological Age, Naturally
What the evidence genuinely supports, what is still preliminary, and what is being oversold.
Biological age is an estimate of how well your body is functioning relative to how long you have been alive. Two people born on the same day can have measurably different biology, and that difference tends to track with future disease and mortality better than the birthday does.
The honest position on lowering it is more interesting than the marketing. The direction of travel is genuinely encouraging. The certainty being sold around it usually is not.
How is biological age actually measured?
The most studied approach uses epigenetic clocks: algorithms that read DNA methylation patterns, chemical marks that accumulate on the genome in predictable ways over time. First-generation clocks such as Horvath were trained to predict chronological age. Later clocks are more useful, because they were trained on health outcomes rather than birthdays. PhenoAge and GrimAge predict mortality and disease risk. DunedinPACE does something different again: rather than estimating how old you are, it estimates how fast you are currently ageing, expressed as biological years per calendar year.
Can biological age really be reversed?
Some evidence says yes, with important caveats. A 2021 study published in Aging put 43 healthy adult men through an eight-week diet and lifestyle programme and reported a mean reduction of just over three years on the Horvath clock relative to controls. The TRIIM trial in 2019 reported epigenetic age reversal in nine men, though with a very small sample and no control group. The CALERIE randomised trial of sustained caloric restriction found a modest slowing of the pace of ageing on DunedinPACE.
Read carefully, the pattern is consistent: small studies, short durations, modest effects, and considerable variation between clocks. That is not a reason to dismiss the field. It is a reason to be sceptical of anyone promising you a decade back.
What lowers biological age on current evidence?
Stopping smoking
Smoking status is one of the strongest signals epigenetic clocks detect, particularly GrimAge, which was partly trained on it. If it applies to you, nothing else on this list comes close.
Cardiorespiratory fitness
Fitness is consistently associated with lower biological age across measures, and it is the same lever that dominates mortality data generally. This convergence is reassuring: the intervention that helps most on the clocks is the one that helps most in outcome studies.
Reducing visceral fat
Visceral adiposity drives inflammation and insulin resistance, both of which register on outcome-trained clocks. Reducing it improves the underlying biology, not merely the number.
Sleep regularity
Irregular sleep timing is associated with worse cardiometabolic markers and higher mortality risk. Sleep is a plausible and under-used lever here, and it is free.
Diet quality
The lifestyle studies that report epigenetic improvement generally use a predominantly whole-food, plant-rich pattern with adequate protein, rather than any single exotic ingredient. The consistent finding is about the overall pattern, not a hero food.
What is being oversold?
Consumer epigenetic tests vary considerably in reliability, and the same sample can produce different results across providers or even across repeat runs. Supplements marketed for age reversal generally have little to no human outcome evidence. And a single clock reading in isolation is close to meaningless: what matters is the trend in your own numbers, measured the same way, over time, alongside the clinical markers that actually drive outcomes.
Key takeaways
- Biological age estimates function relative to years lived, and predicts outcomes better than chronological age.
- Pace-of-ageing measures such as DunedinPACE are more actionable than static age estimates.
- Evidence for reversal is real but early: small samples, short trials, modest effects, variation between clocks.
- The strongest levers are unglamorous: stopping smoking, cardiorespiratory fitness, visceral fat, sleep regularity, diet quality.
- A single reading means little. The trend in your own numbers, measured consistently, is what carries information.
Frequently asked questions
How can I lower my biological age naturally?
The levers with the strongest evidence are stopping smoking, improving cardiorespiratory fitness, reducing visceral fat, regularising sleep timing, and eating a predominantly whole-food, plant-rich diet with adequate protein. These are the same factors that dominate mortality data generally, which is part of why they are credible.
Can biological age actually be reversed?
Several small studies report modest reductions in epigenetic age following diet and lifestyle programmes, typically in the range of a few years over several weeks to months. The evidence is genuinely encouraging but early: samples are small, trials are short, and results vary between different clocks. Claims of dramatic reversal are not supported.
Are consumer biological age tests accurate?
They vary considerably. The same sample can produce different results across providers, and repeat testing can show meaningful variation. A single reading in isolation carries little information. The trend in your own results, measured the same way over time and interpreted alongside clinical markers, is more useful.
What is DunedinPACE?
DunedinPACE is an epigenetic measure that estimates how fast you are currently ageing, expressed as biological years per calendar year, rather than estimating how old your body is. A pace above 1.0 suggests faster than average ageing. It is more actionable than a static age estimate because pace can change.
Do supplements lower biological age?
Most supplements marketed for age reversal have little or no human outcome evidence behind them. Where studies exist they are typically small, short, and use surrogate markers rather than health outcomes. The interventions with real evidence are behavioural rather than pharmacological.
References
- Fitzgerald KN, et al. Potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle intervention: a pilot randomized clinical trial. Aging, 2021.
- Waziry R, et al. Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial. Nature Aging, 2023.
- Belsky DW, et al. DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation biomarker of the pace of aging. eLife, 2022.
- Lu AT, et al. DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. Aging, 2019.