<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Morgan Levine, Ph.D., developed the phenotypic aging clock called <strong>PhenoAge</strong> and is a Founding Principal Investigator at <strong>Altos Labs</strong></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a biotech company that seeks to understand the mechanisms that drive the aging process and age-related diseases with the hope of identifying possible interventions.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, Dr. Levine</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">is an assistant professor of pathology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where her research focuses on the science of biological aging.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dr. Levine completed a postdoctoral fellowship with previous guest Dr. Steve Horvath, a pioneer in the field of epigenetic clocks. </span></p> <p><strong>In this episode, Dr. Levine and I discuss: </strong></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(00:00)</strong> Introduction to Dr. Morgan Levine</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(01:19)</strong> What is aging and why does it matter to scientists?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(04:45)</strong> Hallmarks of aging</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(08:59)</strong> The advantage of epigenetic clocks in research</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(19:05)</strong> Epigenetic age acceleration</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(36:40)</strong> Are epigenetic changes in aging a cause or consequence?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(42:15)</strong> Reversing epigenetic age with interrupted reprogramming techniques</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(49:27)</strong> Therapeutic plasma exchange in aging and pro-aging factors in blood </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(56:01)</strong> Lifestyle factors that accelerate epigenetic age</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(01:03:23)</strong> Reliability of consumer epigenetic aging tests</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(01:06:12)</strong> Construct validity of epigenetic clocks</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(01:12:06)</strong> Thoughts on most exciting research in aging field </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>(01:13:44)</strong> Dr. Levine's lifestyle habits</span></li> </ul> <div><a href="https://foundmyfitness.com/episodes/morgan-levine">Get the show notes</a></div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Looking for more? <br /></strong>Join over 300,000 people and get the latest distilled information on sleep, depression, and fasting straight to your inbox weekly: <a href="https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter">https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter</a></span></p> <p>Try thirty days of our FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, a live Q+A with Rhonda and more: <a href="https://www.foundmyfitness.com/trial">https://www.foundmyfitness.com/trial</a></p>
Actionable Insights
1. Maintain Active Lifestyle
Engage in regular exercise and maintain an active lifestyle, as exercise is considered the most powerful tool to intervene in and slow the aging process, offering benefits like reversing diabetes.
2. Avoid Smoking & Maintain Healthy Weight
To avoid unnecessary epigenetic age acceleration, prioritize avoiding harmful habits like smoking and keeping a healthy body weight, as these are significant factors in accelerated epigenetic aging.
3. Verify Epigenetic Test Reliability
Before using consumer-available epigenetic age tests, verify their reliability (consistency of results) and construct validity (predictive power for mortality/disease risk), preferring tests using second-generation clock methods.
4. Choose Sustainable Lifestyle Changes
Focus on lifestyle changes in diet and exercise that you can consistently stick to, as sustainability is more important than striving for perfection that cannot be maintained.
Use scientific knowledge about how lifestyle choices affect your health to make informed decisions about which interventions are personally worthwhile for potential benefits like increased healthy lifespan.
6. Eat a Plant-Based Diet
Consider eating a plant-based diet, as it is thought to decrease epigenetic age.
7. Practice Intermittent Fasting
Consider practicing intermittent fasting, for example, not eating until the afternoon, as it may offer benefits related to ketosis and metabolic switching.
8. Get Good Quality Sleep
Prioritize getting good quality sleep, as it is one of the general healthy habits that contribute to overall well-being and potentially slows aging.
9. Minimize Stress
Strive to minimize stress in your life, as it is one of the general healthy habits recommended for overall well-being and potentially slowing aging.
10. Avoid Heavy Drinking
Avoid heavy drinking, as it is among the general healthy habits recommended for overall well-being and to potentially minimize negative impacts on aging.
11. Combine Epigenetic & Biomarker Tests
When assessing health status, supplement epigenetic age tests with classical biomarker tests, as more data is always beneficial, especially given the early stage of epigenetic clock application for interventions.
12. Pre-order Dr. Levine’s Book
Pre-order Dr. Morgan Levine’s book, “True Age, Cutting Edge Research to Help Turn Back the Clock,” available May 3rd, 2022, on Amazon, to support her work and learn more about biological aging.
13. Listen to Dr. Horvath’s Episode
If intrigued by the discussion, listen to episode 62 with Dr. Steve Horvath, Dr. Levine’s former advisor, to learn more about epigenetic clocks and their potential forensic value.
14. Read Epigenetic Clocks Article
To learn more about epigenetic clocks, visit foundmyfitness.com/topics or search “found my fitness epigenetic aging clocks” on Google for a dedicated topic article.
15. Sign Up for Newsletter
Sign up for the email newsletter at foundmyfitness.com/newsletter to get notified about new topic articles, show notes, and clickable timelines for each episode.
16. Become a Premium Member
Become a Found My Fitness Premium member at foundmyfitness.com/premium to support the show, receive a science news digest, access monthly live Q&A, and get exclusive short podcast episodes called aliquots.