PhenoAge Reveals Your True Biological Age—and Mortality Risk

• © Nils Osmar 2025.  Updated May 21, 2025
• This post is not intended as, and should not be taken as, medical advice. 
• See full Medical Disclaimer

The world is full of supposed “age calculators.” Some work better than others. PhenoAge is one of the most respected options. It was developed by Dr. Morgan Levine and her colleagues.

Unlike epigenetic age tests, PhenoAge is based on clinical biomarkers which can be measured easily using affordable blood tests. It’s been validated across multiple large cohorts and found to be predictive of all-cause mortality, disease-specific mortality, and functional decline, even after adjusting for chronological age.

PhenoAge is science-based and is clinically validated

• The designers of the PheonAge calculator based it on a large NHANES dataset, using nine biomarkers that correlate strongly with morbidity and mortality.
• NHANES refers to the “National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey”, a series of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States; PhenoAge was developed using a data collected from the NHANES surveys.
• The biomarkers it requires can be obtained easily using routine blood test results, which most people will find affordable..
• When estimating biological age, it takes a person’s actual chronological age into account and adjusts the answer. (Some view this as a drawback; others maintain that it enhances its accuracy.)
• It has been shown in peer-reviewed studies to be effective at predicting all-cause mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and physical functioning.

Why It Works

The PhenoAge calculator is a tool that estimates your biological age—how old your body appears based on health markers—rather than your chronological age.

It was developed by Dr. Morgan Levine and colleagues at Yale and uses blood biomarkers and chronological age to predict:

• Your biological age
• Your risk of disease, mortality, and functional decline

Key biomarkers used:

Can be easily obtained from standard blood tests:

1. Albumin
2. Creatinine
3. Glucose
4. C-reactive protein (CRP)
5. Lymphocyte percentage
6. Mean cell volume (MCV)
7. Red cell distribution width (RDW)
8. Alkaline phosphatase
9. White blood cell count

These values are plugged into a formula to give your PhenoAge, which may be:

• Lower than your actual age → you’re aging well biologically
• Higher than your actual age → you’re aging faster biologically

Why it matters:

PhenoAge is a better predictor of all-cause mortality, chronic disease onset, and functional decline than chronological age. Your age in birthdays matters, but your PhenAge matters more.

It’s based on biomarkers, not epigenetics

• PhenoAge is sometimes confused with epigenetic testing which estimates age after making an assessment of DNA methylation. Like them, it begins with some data obtained from blood tests.
• But it’s biomarker based, not dependent on methylation patterns which can be more difficult to assess.
• This may make it seem less cutting edge, but in my opinion it makes it more useful. There are some valid epigenetic tests, such as GrimAge (which PhenoAge correlates nicely with) and Horvath; but it’s much affordable, and the information is easy to relate to and use to make changes in your lifestyle to improve your biomarkers.
• In sum, it’s a scientifically validated, accessible tool for estimating biological age and mortality risk, using standard blood biomarkers.
• While not perfect, it offers actionable insights for individuals interested in tracking and intervening in their health and in the aging process.

My experience with PhenoAge

• It’s free to use, but you do need to know your biomarkers so you can enter them in the calculator.
• To obtain mine, I use the Phenotypic Age Project Panel Blood Test (#LCX00001) that’s available from LifeExtension..com. It covers all nine biomarkers and a range of others, including A1C.
• I buy a batch of blood tests during LE’s yearly sale, then use them up over the following 12 months. (Like all medical tests they have an expiration date; in this case they “expire” in 6 months, But LifeExtension will renew them on request.)
• I don’t have any kind of financial arrangement with LifeExtension. Another lab (such as Quest) could also be used to get blood tests and obtain biomarker data.

My Results

• Your results will vary depending on whether they’re taken individually — or averaged — or based on the selection of your best biomarkers within any given calendar year.
• Using the latter method, entering my results into the Longevity Worldcup Pheno Age calculator, I am curently 14 years younger than my chronological age. This puts me in position 20 in the worldcup.

Benefits and drawbacks

• PhenoAge does directly correlate with factors such as grip strength, heart rate and blood pressure which are also related to mortality.
• It leaves out some biomarkers which would be useful to track (such as NAD+ levels.
• Some believe that it would be improved by also considering telomeres. (I don’t agree.)
• Its most serious drawback, in my opinion, is that it requires that participants enter their actual chronological age, which in a sense prevents the testing from taking place a “level playing field.”
• It’s a powerful calculator, but in the end is one of many. Its strength is its clear correlation with mortality.

Related studies

1. Study 1 (from the Lancet): Application of a deep-learning marker for morbidity and mortality prediction derived from retinal photographs: a cohort development and validation study
2. Study 2: Association Between Phenotypic Age and the Risk of Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure: A Retrospective Cohort Study
3. Study 3: An epigenetic biomarker of aging for lifespan and healthspan

Future PhenoAges!

When I first heard about PhenoAge, I pictured something futuristic. ☺️ (Recreated here by an AI). It’s really just a series of common blood tests linked to our biomarkers. Maybe when we all have robot bodies, it’ll be outdated, but till then it’s a valuable resource I’d recommend using. – Nils

Not medical advice

This article is not intended as, and should not be taken as, medical advice. I’m not advising that people eat any particular diet or take any particular supplement(s), just reporting on what I’m doing. Supplements, like medications and other interventions, can have side effects; I would encourage people to research both possible benefits and side effects before starting on any supplementation regimen, and consult with a medical professional about any issues which might have a medical component.  See full Medical Disclaimer

Other resources

• My Youtube channel Pathways to Longevity
• My Facebook group: Anti-Aging and Life Extension, 

About the Author

Medical Disclaimer