This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.
During last week’s Apple Watch announcement, I let out a distinct “Noooo!” in the Steve Jobs Theater.
Along with a new readiness metric and a redesigned Health app, Apple had just announced that later this year, it’d be introducing a new longevity feature called Health Age. This is a familiar concept in the wearable and health tech world.
The idea is that if you put effort into your health and fitness, your physiological age could be “younger” than your chronological age. ) Whoop has “Whoop age.”
Oura has a “cardiovascular age” metric. My Withings scale just introduced various “longevity intelligence” features that include separate “heart age” and “vascular age” metrics.
Garmin also has a “fitness age score.” At CES, I sat in front of a so-called longevity mirror that measured the blood flow in my face from a 30-second selfie to estimate my “physiological age” and my “facial skin age.”
Earlier this week, I woke up and found out that my $5,000 smart mattress topper is also estimating my “biological age.” If you ask Whoop, I’m supposedly 42.
5 years younger than my chronological age. ) Withings says my vascular age is a year older than I am, while my heart is four years younger.
5 years old. That longevity mirror?
), while my physiological age was 35. 7 years old.
My actual age is 38 years old — and that’s what I’m sticking with. I’m not trying to rain on Apple’s (or other wearable makers’) parade.
Frankly, I won’t rule on Apple’s version of the feature until I can test it for myself. I bring this all up to illustrate a point about when this type of feature can be genuinely helpful — and when you should treat it with a healthy dose of skepticism.
As with most metrics, it’s all in the framing. It’s true that through a healthy diet, good sleeping habits, and regular exercise, your physiological condition might be better than that of other people who are the same age and fit within a similar demographic.
Depending on how a company defines its various longevity-related age scores, your results can identify areas where you can improve. For example, my Whoop age is somewhat cursed because it heavily weights strength training workouts in the algorithm.
