Biomarker
PhenoAge
Last updated Sun May 17 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
What it is
PhenoAge (Levine 2018) is a biological-age metric derived from nine common clinical lab values:
- Albumin
- Creatinine
- Glucose
- C-reactive protein
- Lymphocyte percent
- Mean cell volume
- Red cell distribution width
- Alkaline phosphatase
- White blood cell count
- (Chronological age)
The weights were trained against mortality in NHANES data.
Why it matters
PhenoAge is computable from any standard blood panel, with no extra testing. It predicts all-cause mortality better than chronological age alone and has been adapted into the DNAm-PhenoAge epigenetic clock (Levine 2018) which projects PhenoAge onto methylation data.
Practical use
- Track over annual labs.
- Same caveats as any biological-age score: single readings are noisy; trends are more informative.
- Free online calculators reproduce the public Levine equation.
What moves PhenoAge
- Improving any of the underlying biomarkers (especially inflammation, glucose, kidney function).
- Lifestyle changes (exercise, weight loss, Mediterranean-style diet).
- Caloric-restriction interventions (CALERIE data).
Related entries
References
- Levine, M. E. et al. An epigenetic biomarker of aging for lifespan and healthspan. Aging 10, 573–591 (2018).