Every KINS guest begins their stay with a blood draw. Not a standard panel — a TruDiagnostic epigenetic test that breaks biological age down into 11 organ systems.
The composite number — your overall biological age — is interesting. The organ-system breakdown is where the protocol gets built.
Here's why. My own test (May 2025, sample ID SL5U5EK, chronological age 30) came back with an OMICm Age of 24.5. On paper, I was biologically younger than my passport. But the organ-system breakdown told a completely different story:
| System | Biological age | Gap vs. chronological 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Musculoskeletal | 17.3 | -12.7 years ✓ |
| Immune | 23.7 | -6.3 years ✓ |
| Kidney | 26.7 | -3.3 years ✓ |
| Heart | 27.1 | -2.9 years ✓ |
| Inflammation | 28.0 | -2.0 years ✓ |
| Lung | 28.9 | -1.1 years ✓ |
| Brain | 31.2 | +1.2 years ⚠ |
| Blood | 32.1 | +2.1 years ⚠ |
| Metabolic | 34.3 | +4.3 years ⚠ |
| Liver | 34.9 | +4.9 years ⚠ |
| Hormone | 38.7 | +8.7 years ⚠ |
Six systems younger than 30. Five systems older — and the five that were older are exactly the systems that get hit by chronic high-performance stress. Hormone. Liver. Metabolic. Blood. Brain.
A standard physical would have said: "You're fine." The epigenetic panel said: "Your hormone system is aging almost a decade ahead of schedule."
That gap is the entire point of KINS. Find it. Measure it. Build the protocol around it. Retest.
How the test works
Your DNA doesn't change much over your lifetime. What changes is the chemistry on top of it.
Small chemical marks called methylation tags attach to specific spots on your DNA. They shift constantly with age, stress, sleep, sunlight, diet, toxin exposure. Scientists discovered these shifts happen in predictable patterns. So if you read enough of them from a blood sample, you can estimate how old someone's body is biologically.
That estimation runs through algorithms called epigenetic clocks:
- Horvath Clock — the original (2013), 353 methylation sites, works across all tissue types. Most validated.
- GrimAge — predicts mortality risk more accurately than any other clock. Incorporates smoking proxies, plasma proteins, and other risk factors.
- DunedinPACE — measures the speed of aging, not a static snapshot. Think speedometer vs. odometer. My DunedinPACE: 0.9 (slower than average aging at 1.0).
- Symphony Age — the organ-system breakdown. This is the clock that drives the KINS protocol because it tells you where to intervene.
We use TruDiagnostic because they run all of these plus organ-system-level breakdown from a single blood draw. CLIA-certified lab, Lexington KY. The report comes back in 3–4 weeks.
What makes this different from a regular blood panel
A standard executive physical runs 20–40 biomarkers. Most will be in the "normal" range for a person in their 30s or 40s. The doctor says "looking good." You leave reassured.
The problem: "normal range" is based on the general population, which includes people heading toward disease. An optimal range is narrower. And the most important information — what's accumulating in your biology over years — doesn't show up in a single snapshot.
My own TruHealth panel (paired with the epigenetic test) showed:
Critically depleted:
- White blood cell count: 1st percentile
- Kynurenine (chronic stress marker): 1st percentile
- Vitamin D: 10th percentile
- Tyrosine: 4th percentile
- CD4/CD8 ratio: 5th percentile
Elevated and actionable:
- Fasting glucose (epigenetic): 87th percentile
- LDL-C (epigenetic): 95th percentile
- VLDL-C (epigenetic): 96th percentile
- 2PY (NAD recycling inefficiency): 96th percentile
- Mitochondrial function score: 26% — suboptimal
None of this showed up on a routine physical. All of it showed up on the epigenetic panel. The kynurenine depletion alone — the 1st percentile — is a marker of chronic, sustained stress that no standard test measures.
Why we test twice
At KINS, we draw blood on day 1 and day 13.
The first draw establishes the baseline: where your organ systems are, what's depleted, what's elevated, where the body is aging fastest.
The protocol is built around the gaps the first test reveals. A guest whose hormone system is aging ahead gets a different emphasis than a guest whose metabolic system is the problem.
The second draw measures what shifted. Fourteen days is a short window — epigenetic clocks are designed to detect changes over months, not weeks. But the biomarker panel (blood chemistry, inflammatory markers, nutrient status) can shift meaningfully in that timeframe. And the DunedinPACE — the speed-of-aging clock — is more responsive to acute interventions than the snapshot clocks.
The goal isn't to "reverse aging" in two weeks. It's to establish a trajectory: are the interventions moving the right numbers? Then the guest goes home with a protocol calibrated to their specific biology and retests at 3 months.
My own retest is planned for May 2026 — one year after the initial draw. That's when the real before/after narrative becomes data, not hope.
Who should test
Anyone over 30 who's been pushing hard for more than two years. Specifically:
Executives and founders. Chronic stress, disrupted sleep, and high cortisol leave measurable marks on your biology. The organ systems that take the hit — hormone, liver, metabolic — are the same systems that predict disease 10–20 years out.
People recovering from burnout. Burnout isn't just feeling tired. It leaves epigenetic marks. The kynurenine depletion, the white blood cell count at the 1st percentile, the mitochondrial function at 26% — those are the receipts.
Ready to experience data-driven longevity?
Book a Discovery Call →Anyone whose annual physical says "normal" but who feels off. The test catches what the physical misses. If your body is sending signals — fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, stubborn weight — and your doctor says you're fine, this is the next test.
Testing at home vs. testing at a retreat
You can order a TruDiagnostic test at home for $300–$500. You'll get a number and a report.
The number is useful. It's also one number, in isolation, without the cortisol curve, the blood panel, the CGM data, or anyone to interpret the pattern across all of them.
At KINS, the epigenetic test is the headline. But it sits inside a stack: 60+ blood markers, DUTCH cortisol panel, CGM trace, HRV tracking, gut microbiome analysis. Each layer fills a gap the others can't see. The organ-system breakdown tells us where to intervene. The blood chemistry tells us why. The cortisol curve tells us what the stress system is doing right now. The CGM shows the metabolic texture.
The 14-day stay wraps the data in a protocol — and then retests to see what moved.
Can you actually reverse biological age?
Yes. The evidence is peer-reviewed, not anecdotal.
A 2023 study in Aging showed that diet, exercise, sleep optimization, and stress management reversed biological age by an average of 4.6 years in 8 weeks.
But "reverse biological age" is a headline, not a protocol. What actually moves depends on what's driving the acceleration. My own data suggests the driver is chronic stress — hormone system, metabolic system, liver. The protocol that addresses those specific systems will be different from the protocol for someone whose inflammation or immune age is the problem.
That's why the test comes first. Not the supplement stack. Not the biohacking protocol. The test.
FAQ
How is this different from a 23andMe test?
23andMe reads your genetic code — fixed at birth. An epigenetic test reads the methylation patterns on top of your DNA — changing constantly based on how you live. Genetics is the hand you were dealt. Epigenetics is how you're playing it.
How accurate are epigenetic clocks?
The best-validated clocks (Horvath, GrimAge, DunedinPACE) predict mortality risk more accurately than any other single biomarker. They're not perfect — but they're the best tool aging science has produced.
Will my insurance cover it?
No. Epigenetic testing is not covered by insurance anywhere. It's $300–$500 out-of-pocket for a home kit, included in the KINS clinical stay.
How often should I retest?
Every 6–12 months if you're actively intervening. More often than that and the noise overwhelms the signal.
Up next:
- The math of reversing biological age — what the peer-reviewed evidence actually says
- Best epigenetic tests compared — TruDiagnostic vs. MyDNAge vs. Elysium vs. Hooke
- The 14-Day Deep Reset →
References
- Horvath S (2013). DNA methylation age of human tissues and cell types. Genome Biology, 14(10), R115. PubMed
- Lu AT, et al. (2019). DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. Aging, 11(2), 303-327. PubMed
- Belsky DW, et al. (2022). DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation biomarker of the pace of aging. eLife, 11, e73420. PubMed
- Fitzgerald KN, et al. (2023). Potential reversal of biological age in women following an 8-week methylation-supportive diet and lifestyle program. Aging, 15(6), 1876-1893. PubMed
This is educational content, not medical advice. Epigenetic testing is a research tool, not a diagnostic. Discuss results with a clinician.