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Hacking your health

BBC Click meets biohackers and companies who believe it will be possible to live on to well beyond 100

Life extension gets more coverage by the BBC Click team.

This 24 minute episode is broken into 4 main sections:

  • biological age
  • biohacking
  • super-agers
  • age related illnesses


Biological age

Spencer Kelly tries out a couple of biological age tests.

His biological age is 47 (though, sorry Spencer, possibly looks a bit older!)

His epigenetic age (using a Muhdo test) came out at 44.1

The test splits ages into eye, hearing, memory ages based on 850,000 biological markers (I assume these are methylation sites).

Interviews its CEO, James Brown, who believes biological immortality is a possibility within his lifetime.

Also interviewed Dr Richard Siow,  Director of Ageing Research at Kings College London, who prefers the term "biological score" - i.e. a relative measure rather than an absolute.

Spencer also interviewed Nikolina Lauc, founder of Glycanage who explained how his biological age could be such a super-low 20.

Biohacking

Tim Gray - Founder, Health Optimisation Summit.

Tim is known as the “UK’s leading Biohacker” due to his detailed tracking of more than 35+ biomarkers per day

If a tracker shows heart stress will take an easy day.

Has two shelves full of supplements - with backups in the dishwasher?!

People should be "CEO of their own health"

Lifestyle includes:

  • HBOT
  • Meditates
  • Blue blocking glasses + digital free at night 


Super Agers

James Clayton interviews Prof Joel Kramer from University of California, San Francisco

His study shows the increase in healthspan has not kept up with increase in lifespan.

No supplements have proven effects yet.

He thinks good longevity genes are the key.

Also meets Kristen Fortney - co-founder of BioAge Labs, who is trying to find out what is different, at the molecular level, of super agers.

Final interview with Leonard Guarent, Chief scientist at Elysium Health. Their produces are aimed at slowing down brain ageing with a high-dose combination of B vitamins.

Age related illnesses

Lara Lewington looks at a remote care solution provided by Anthropos which includes sensors to track movement, kettle, fridge, etc - all linked to a care team and family contacts. The balance between care and privacy can be challenging.

Also Biodose Connect that tracks pill taking.

Jen Copestake looks at brain analysis for dementia at Kings College London Hospital.

Dr Andrews Owens, from King's College London, explains how gait analysis trackers can spot cognitive decline by changes in walking patterns.

Finally, the looks at a new app, Cognetivity, that assesses dementia using "rapid visual categorisation" - that is, rapidly flashed images of animals or non-animals. This get round a limitation of current paper tests which can be learnt.

Dr Thomas Sawyer, its COO, explains that it speeds up the diagnosis process so catches symptoms earlier.


Visit website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000w6z1/click-hacking-your-health

See also: Publisher BBC - National broadcaster for the UK

Details last updated 17-May-2021

Mentioned in this Resource

Andrew Owens

Research associate at the King's College London.

Anthropos

Intelligent remote monitoring of older people providing reassurance about their wellbeing.

BIOAGE

Developing a broad pipeline of therapies to extend human healthspan and lifespan

Biodose

Medication management supplier.

Cognetivity

Platform technology for early detection of dementia.

Elysium Health

A company focused on research and development based on new scientific findings

GlycanAge

Club discount available - click here

Glycan-based test to determine your biological age

James Brown

Co-Founder and Nutrigenomics Director at Muhdo.

James Clayton

North America tech reporter for BBC News.

Jen Copestake

Presenter, Reporter and Senior Producer at BBC News.

Joel Kramer

Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology and the Director of the Memory and Aging Center Neuropsychology at UCSF.

Kristen Fortney

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder at BioAge

Lara Lewington

BBC technology presenter and journalist

Leonard Guarente

Novartis Professor at MIT.

Nikolina Lauc

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GlycanAge

Richard Siow

Director of Ageing Research at King's College London (ARK)

Spencer Kelly

Lead presenter at BBC Click.

Thomas Sawyer

Chief Operating Officer at Cognetivity Neurosciences.

Tim Gray

Founder & CEO at Health Optimisation Summit.

Topics mentioned on this page:
Biohacking, Biological Age