A Blood Test To Help You Stall Old Age
InnerAge uses blood samples to determine your body’s age relative to your chronological age.
Has technology finally unearthed the fountain of youth?
Capitalizing on the culture’s growing obsession with health-monitoring through tech, a fitness-tracking company promises that its latest creation allows users to literally defy aging.
Called InnerAge, the service from 5-year-old Boston-based InsideTracker takes a blood sample and scores it based on five biomarkers ranging from glucose to vitamin D. The algorithm-sourced results tell you whether your body is older or younger than your chronological age, and suggests a range of foods that over time will help improve your score.
“’We take our cars to the mechanic every 5,000 miles and plug in and see what’s going on, we’re doing the same thing for your body.’” Gil Blander, founder InsideTrackerThe service, out today, costs $99 per analyzed blood sample, which is recommended two or three times a year to better chart progress. InnerAge is positioned as a simp “We’re aiming for people most likely between 40 and 70 who feel the effects of aging and would like to delay the clock,” says Blander. “Most of the people in that group will score higher than their chronological age, but by suggesting specific foods for each individual we can help change that.”In addition to glucose and vitamin D, InsideAge also delivers data on testosterone, hsCRP (an inflammation indicator) and ALT (liver damage indicator). Depending on the results, Blander says an array of foods are suggested, including oatmeal, turkey, avocados, beans and various berries. InnerAge helps consumers improve their health by monitoring biometric markers. This decidedly custom-fit approach to using science and gadgets to improve health is at the cutting-edge of the health-tech spectrum, which has seen it biggest growth in less invasive wearable fitness-monitoring category.[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]
The next frontier takes a page from Star Trek , whose fictitious Tricorder looked into the human body with the wave of a wand. Startups such as Silicon Valley’s Scanadu are working on products that would give customers the ability to monitor their health in-home via saliva and blood samples.
InsideTracker’s InnerAge service uses algorithms to suggest a range of foods that will contribute to lowering your physiological age.(Photo: Courtesy of InsideTracker)
Bridging the gap between a gadget that tells you how many steps you took today and technology that requires blood to tell more complex physiological stories will require more communication between the industry’s players, says Harry Wang, director of mobile and health research at Dallas-based Parks Perspectives.
“This will all take some time to sort out, because as it stands you have some technology that is confusing to most people, who might also be concerned about its accuracy,” says Wang, who adds that at present only those with medical conditions such as diabetes might be willing to use a service where bloodwork is required.
“There’s no doubt there’s a motivational aspect to something like InnerAge, because who doesn’t want to be younger,” he says. “Ultimately, however, there will have to be rules and standards of how to reliably measure things like this, and when that comes it will help the industry as a whole.”
