World-renowned scientists Dr. Leroy Hood and Dr. Nathan Price discuss their data-driven approach to wellness known as scientific wellness. They aim to focus on preventative lifestyle habits that promote wellness rather than disease-care.

The current healthcare model in the US is oriented towards treating diseases after they occur. However, with the shift in leading causes of death from infectious diseases to chronic conditions, which are largely preventable through lifestyle modifications, Dr. Hood and Dr. Price argue for a shift towards wellness and prevention.

Scientific wellness integrates different types of health data, from lifestyle habits to genomics and phenomics data, to create personalized interventions for improving health. This approach has resulted in a new field of mathematics that combines wellness data to map the biological networks underlying wellness and disease.

Dr. Hood and Dr. Price have applied this approach in the Arivale Program, where they collected extensive data on 5,000 patients over four years, resulting in actionable interventions for wellness. They plan to expand this program to one million patients over the next ten years to demonstrate the benefits of focusing on wellness and prevention.

AI is a crucial component in this approach, as it provides data access and consolidation, making health information more accessible and easier to process at scale. However, while technology can streamline many processes, it cannot replace physicians.

Phenomics data, which measures the interactions of the genome, behaviour, and environment that form a phenome at a given point in time, is also a key part of their approach. Dr. Hood and Dr. Price are working on increasing the number of phenomic measurements while reducing their cost.

Biological age, calculated using an algorithm based on biological measurements, serves as a health marker. It reflects the age of the body compared to chronological age, and can be indicative of wellness or disease. For instance, patients with diabetes were found to have a biological age on average 6 years older than their chronological age.

The use of metabolites in calculating biological age allows for the assessment of the biological age of various organs and systems, and can provide individuals with actionable information to optimize their levels and improve the aging process. Thus, scientific wellness and healthy aging are closely linked, as focusing on healthy habits can decrease the rate of biological aging and delay the onset of chronic diseases.