The InsideGuide

InnerAge: How One Simple Number Ignites the Change You Need

Written by Gil Blander, PhD | Jan 14, 2015

My name is Gil Blander and I am the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of InsideTracker, the company behind InnerAge. My scientific journey started at the age of 12, when one of my close relatives passed away,  triggering my thirst and quest for knowledge of how our body ages. While I knew I couldn’t stop the clock, I wanted to at least slow it down and give people the knowledge required to delay the aging process and improve their health and quality of life as a result. I decided to commit my life to science, and aging research in particular.

I graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science with a PhD in the biology of aging, and later became a postdoctoral scholar at MIT in Lenny Guarente’s Laboratory for the Science of Aging. I wanted to do more than study methods on how to slow the aging process; I wanted to decisively apply scientific knowledge and help everyone live life to its full potential. In 2009, InsideTracker was born. Our talented team of scientists decided to develop a new, one-of-a-kind science-based platform that could make the future of personalized health analytics happen now. Objective, rich, scientific data at the service of the individual to support truly tailored decision making. 

The Discovery that Unlocks Your Potential

Because aging affects all adults, we set out to create a solution to further optimize our legions of loyal InsideTracker users, but also give millions more a compelling reason to get started with us. To taste the thrilling power of the data that can't lie, the ones and the zeros that comes from what courses through our veins. For years now we have used the power of blood analysis and biomarkers, or “biological clues”, to inform a wide array of personalized decisions and interventions. When combined with nutrition and other scientific fields, the equations are pure beauty. Make no mistake about it, this is a fantastically difficult and complex math problem, to put it mildly. But our job is to do the math so our users don't have to. Because how we age influences our lifestyle decisions every day perhaps more intimately than other considerations, we wanted to focus on modifying levels of specific biomarkers that influenced the aging process. 

A New Way of Living Life to the Fullest

As the science points out, aging is not simply about the time before one dies. Instead, it is a multi-dimensional medical concept influenced by behavior and genetics that impacts the quality of our lives. Thus, slowing down the aging process means a lot more to your health than simply adding a few more years into your 80s. Past a certain age, we all want to turn back the clock, take control, take our years back. This essential human quest and aspiration is what we want to tap into with InnerAge. We want InnerAge to be your alarm clock, your congratulatory applause, your barometer. The impetus behind what needs to change in your lifestyle, not based on what is on a food label, but based on you. Truly on you. Our discovery was simple: a blood test and scientific analysis provide many more actionable insights into our health and wellness than the birth date on our driver's license. After careful research and meticulous data analysis and calculations, we have created an algorithm to convert what is truly going on in the inside of your body and deliver your “inner age”- a meaningful metric that reveals your true age.

Why InnerAge is Much More than a Number

 

After studying the science of aging for the last 20 years, I concluded that people can not only live longer but also have a higher quality of life using simple, natural and tangible interventions. InnerAge is much more than a cold calculation: it’s the universal score that has meaning to everyone looking to achieve his or her individualized health and fitness goals. If you think about it, we are told by society and healthcare professionals to act “our age”. Instead, we really should be defying it. Professional football player Tom Brady is widely recognized now for his accomplishments on the field. However, it may be what he is doing off the field with his nutrition and lifestyle that may allow him play well into his 40s. Similarly, every day we make decisions that impact our health and those choices determine if we feel like an old man waking up because we didn’t sleep like a baby the night before or whether or not we feel fresh, bright-eyed, and bushy tailed. InsideTracker is not providing just an objective score of where you stand from the inside with InnerAge: it’s the GPS provides you with an individualized roadmap to your optimal wellness. Thus, InnerAge is much more than a simple number: it’s an intricate wellness program that anyone can follow and benefit from.

Personalized Recommendations, Focus Foods, and Tracking

After receiving your InnerAge score you will receive your personalized recommendations and tools. No matter what goals you have, all of them are based on your biochemistry and preferences. Below we describe a few key features of InnerAge.

InnerAge provides personalized recommendations based on your unique biological profile and personal goals. Recommendations are new directions you can take with exercise, lifestyle, and nutrition to improve your InnerAge. Every time you retest your InnerAge, a new set of recommendations are created based on your up-to-date biomarker levels and lifestyle information.

Focus Foods are a new way of looking at what we eat. Instead of eating foods based on general health benefits, Focus Foods are handpicked for you to improve your InnerAge. They represent the most effective way to immediately raise your quality of life and improve longevity.

InsideTracker uses your biomarker results to choose specific foods that will help you improve your InnerAge. We take into account each biomarker related to aging to identify the five most impactful foods for you. While Focus Foods aren’t the only foods you should eat, eating more of them as part of a balanced diet will have you well on your way to a more optimal InnerAge. Focus Foods are not based on fads or trends; they are based on high-quality research studies and an extensive database of global food options. Nothing influences our recommendations other than pure science and intelligent analytics. In selecting your Focus Foods, InsideTracker scientists carefully evaluate and weigh every food item in the InsideTracker database to ensure that the nutritional impact of your Focus Foods will be to improve your InnerAge.               

In summary, Focus Foods are five potent food options that deliver the most bang for your buck nutrition-wise. Scientifically chosen based on your unique biomarkers, Focus Foods added into your daily diet serve as an effective way to lower your InnerAge. Think of Focus Foods as InsideTracker’s way of keeping you focused on the right foods for you.

Just like the biomarkers in your body, your InnerAge is dynamic. Therefore re-testing can show how you how your daily choices are improving or decreasing your score. We suggest that everyone treats his or her body like an exotic sports car and check their oil a few times a year. However, unlike a car, we can more deeply appreciate the value of our body if we take care of it because it is the primary vehicle through which we live. Tracking InnerAge is a powerful way to keep you on the right path, and to pace you, we included checkpoints so you know when to test.

Getting Started with InnerAge Today

InnerAge brings an unprecedented, science-based platform that helps you achieve optimal health and wellness by measuring and improving your unique levels of select biomarkers related to longevity. Through this personalized approach that uses a multi-factorial algorithm to create your personalized InnerAge number, InsideTracker creates tailored Focus Foods that not only prolong your longevity but also optimize well-being and health. Click below to learn how you can take control now.

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