NEWSWEEK – A study that developed biological age clocks to predict a person’s age, which may differ from chronological age, showed that a reduced-calorie diet among the trial participants caused a major reduction in biological aging.
Published in the journal Nature Aging on Thursday, the study, whose research was funded by Singapore’s Ministry of Education, reiterates similar findings from recent years, most of which sourced data from the national Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) study.
“Our analysis of CALERIE participants suggests that 2 years of mild caloric restriction significantly reduces biological age,” the study said.
Chronological age is a straightforward measure of age—simply put, it’s the number of years since a person was born. Unlike biological age, it does not account for health, lifestyle, genetics, epigenetics and environmental factors. Biological age can be determined by biomarkers, epigenetic alterations and physiological factors, among others.
In the scientific community, biological age can provide a more nuanced and accurate reflection of an individual’s aging process because biological age does not increase at the same rate for everyone.
“Biological age (BA) is the most important risk factor determining individual risk of morbidity and mortality, with true BA of individuals generally different from chronological age,” the study’s researchers wrote.
In sum, the study said the “data suggest that CR, under the conditions realized in CALERIE, was able to significantly reduce biological aging … ”
