How to Live to 100 (or Die Trying) The grim news about your biological age
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Feb 23, 2026 Steve Horvath, a biogerontologist who created methylation clocks like GrimAge, breaks down biological age and what it measures. He discusses how methylation clocks work, why lifestyle factors like vegetables and walking matter, the limits and risks of consumer tests, centenarian insights, and where AI and drugs might take aging research next.
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Grim Age Measures Mortality Risk
- Grim Age is a methylation-based biomarker that predicts biological age and mortality risk.
- Steve Horvath developed it as a research tool used to measure age across tissues and to assess interventions in aging studies.
Methylation Acts Like A Cellular Rust Clock
- Epigenetic clocks largely measure DNA methylation changes that both gain and lose methylation with age.
- Horvath compares methylation accumulation to 'rust' and says clocks track hundreds of specific DNA sites to estimate age.
One Clock Works Across Cells And Species
- DNA methylation clocks apply across almost every cell and even across mammalian species.
- Horvath notes you can measure age in blood, tissues and even use the same clock for dogs and cats to study conserved aging processes.