Study
Supplements and Drugs Are Associated With Biological Age in a Cohort of Exceptionally Healthy Individuals.
In a cohort of 4,260 health enthusiasts, a delayed-release calcium-alpha-ketoglutarate plus vitamin supplement was associated with 1.8 years lower biological age, but regular AKG showed no significant benefit.
Summary Can a delayed-release AKG supplement make people biologically younger? Show / hide ↓
Researchers studied 4,260 health-conscious adults who bought saliva tests estimating their biological age and completed lifestyle questionnaires. Biological age is an estimate based on chemical marks on DNA, compared with a person’s actual age. People taking a delayed-release form of calcium-alpha-ketoglutarate, designed to release later during digestion, plus vitamins had an average biological age 1.8 years lower than expected. People taking regular AKG did not show a clear benefit. Because the researchers compared people at one point in time, the results cannot show that the supplement caused the difference.
What this means for you: This is not strong enough evidence to buy the supplement for aging benefits. The participants may have differed from non-users in other ways, and the age test itself is not among the best-validated methods.
weak evidenceResearchers led by Brian K. Kennedy analyzed 4,260 individuals who purchased saliva-based DNA epigenetic tests between 2020 and 2025 and completed detailed lifestyle and supplement questionnaires. Seventy-one percent of the cohort reported supplement use. Using a proprietary 9-CpG epigenetic clock with a mean absolute error of 5.4 years, the team evaluated 84 commonly used supplements. A commercially available delayed-release calcium-alpha-ketoglutarate (dAKG) plus vitamin supplement, identified as Rejuvant, was associated with an average 1.8-year lower Age Residual (the difference between biological and chronological age). This association held after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, health status, and additional covariates. Participants who reported taking regular AKG (not the delayed-release formulation) showed a much smaller, statistically insignificant benefit. Among medications, antihistamine use showed a non-significant trend toward benefit, limited by sample size. The study is cross-sectional, meaning it cannot prove causation: people who take supplements may differ from non-users in unmeasured ways. The 9-CpG clock is proprietary and less validated than established clocks like GrimAge or DunedinPACE.
A delayed-release calcium-alpha-ketoglutarate plus vitamin supplement was associated with 1.8-year lower Age Residual in a cross-sectional cohort of 4,260 health enthusiasts.
Cross-sectional design cannot establish causation. The 9-CpG clock is proprietary and less validated than GrimAge or DunedinPACE. The cohort is self-selected (people who buy epigenetic tests), which may introduce selection bias. The benefit was specific to the Rejuvant formulation, not generic AKG, raising questions about whether the delayed-release delivery or other ingredients drive the association.