When Feeling Healthy Isn’t Enough: How GlycanAge Revealed a Hidden Cancer Risk

When people begin paying attention to longevity, it usually happens after something goes wrong. In the case of Giuseppe Rodio, it happened when everything seemed perfectly fine. He felt healthy, he looked young, and he had a family history of longevity. So when he took his first GlycanAge test at 34, he was convinced it would confirm what he had always believed about his body. Instead, GlycanAge revealed a hidden issue that no check-up had ever picked up. 

Giuseppe, it’s nice to meet you, even if it is just virtually for now. You’ve been testing with GlycanAge since the very start of our company, and we’re excited to share your journey. 

Can you take us back to your first test? When was it, what did the result show, and how did you feel when you saw it?

My first GlycanAge test was about eight years ago, when I was 35. And yes, I think I was one of the very first people to be tested. The reason to test was Nina, the founder of GlycanAge, with whom we were and still are very good friends. She came to me and told me they are starting a new company with her father, and it’s this blood test that looks into the inflammatory state of your body and, based on that, gives you an estimate of your actual age, or biological age, as they call it today. It sounded quite interesting to me, and I was like, “Okay, let’s do it, why not?”  

At that stage in my life, I had a carefree attitude toward my health. I think I was arrogant because I came from a healthy family with longevity on my father’s side. I’ve also always felt young at heart and in my body too, so I was sure I was going to come out much younger than my chronological age.  

I remember vividly the moment when I opened my first results, because I was shocked. The report showed my biological age as 56 years old, which was 21 years older than my chronological age. And I remember this sinking feeling since everything I believed about my health and about myself was crashing in an instant, because I was put in front of the reality of my body. Initially, there was a mix of skepticism, since it was an early-stage startup at the time. I was thinking, “Maybe the science is sound, but maybe they're calibrating the accuracy.” Then I started thinking and reflecting, and I think this is the most useful thing that I got from GlycanAge - to start thinking about my health, rather than taking it for granted.  

So I started analysing how I was living and realized that my lifestyle actually wasn’t the best - too much sugar, constant travel, stress, lack of sleep, and the typical “entrepreneur chaos.” Since I started realizing that such a lifestyle is taking a toll, I thought - maybe the biological age of 56 actually has some solid foundations.  

I spoke with Nina and your science team, who interpreted my results and for the first time in my life, at 35, I started looking at my health, not as something that was taken for granted. I felt empowered as it was something that I could take charge of, improve, and have a healthier future.

What changed after that first test? What did you actually start doing differently, and what do you think was the biggest value of the test for you? 

I think it’s mainly because I self-reflected, and there was a growth journey, since my approach was very childish when I took the test - a feeling which was a mix of skepticism and sadness. And again, this is the great value of GlycanAge even today - that it makes you shift perspective. And that’s important, especially when you're young, because then you're usually really carefree, you don’t care. But whatever you do when you're young eventually catches up with you.  

So I started thinking of something that I can improve to be healthier. I cut sugar nearly completely. I started doing a mixed diet of like three days vegan, three days normal. I started to exercise more harmoniously, because my approach to exercising was always to push as hard as I could. But then I started thinking that maybe that was an excess, and it was too much strain on my body. Another key point was less stress, even from work, because I left my entrepreneurial life ventures, and I went into a full-time job instead. And even relationship-wise, things went better in my life.  

So I also kept testing. I tested again after around a year, and then another year after that. In general, I try to test once a year, some years twice. If I look at my GlycanAge history now, I have had around 10 or 11 tests over the past 7 years. Going forward, I want to test even more often. 

That’s quite a consistent testing history - seems like you’re one of the most frequently tested people in our whole community.   

Can you walk us through that journey? How did your results change over time, and what kind of improvements or patterns did you see as you made those lifestyle shifts? 

Yes, so the second time I tested, my GlycanAge decreased from 56 to 47, dropping by nine years. It showed me that the changes were working, and it gave me a lot of motivation to continue. After that, I started going deeper and investigating more about my body - I looked at gluten sensitivity, and I did a few genetic tests with other providers to understand if there were predispositions that might also be influencing inflammation.   

GlycanAge is a good place to start from and then deepen your understanding. It truly gave me the curiosity to start investigating more about my health and understand my body more. For example, after running other types of tests, I discovered I have a genetic tendency toward developing issues with gluten if I over-consume it. So, I started cutting gluten where I could. I continued living more consciously, especially on diet and exercise.  

Then my third test improved even more. I was 38 chronologically and 39 biologically, almost matching. The team at GlycanAge used to joke and call it the curious case of Benjamin Rodio, because I was getting younger by changing my lifestyle. Again, I was very happy about what GlycanAge gave me - that shift of perspective that made me look at my health differently and made me take action proactively.   

Then, during the pandemic, I returned to Italy. I experienced a lot of stress, and I also ate more carbohydrates and sugar because of the environment and routine changes. My GlycanAge increased again by six or eight years, even though I had not had COVID at that point. I  believed stress and diet were the biggest drivers. I tried reducing gluten again, but I was not consistent. Then, a year later, I tested again, and the increase was even higher, around 70 years biologically. That was when it became worrying, so I decided to look for the reason more proactively.  

I did a standard blood test. Most markers looked fine, but my platelets were already high. I did not pay attention at the time because I did not understand the relevance. Looking back, that was the first clue.  

One and a half years later, in 2023, I repeated the blood test, and the platelets were three times the normal range. When I compared it to the 2022 result, I realised it had already been elevated and I had missed it.  

That led to further checks with a hematologist, including a bone marrow biopsy, which confirmed I had thrombocythemia. It is a benign cancer that causes chronically elevated platelets and creates a constant inflammatory state, usually without obvious symptoms. Very often, this condition goes undiagnosed because you are mostly okay, but it carries chronic inflammation, and if you are not mindful, you can easily fall into illness. So, that was the moment I realised GlycanAge had essentially detected something two years before other tests did. The rise in my biological age was reflecting inflammation long before I understood what was causing it.

Oh, wow, what a journey - you really had your ups and downs and probably never suspected such an outcome. Is there anything you can do to stop or reverse the condition?

Not really. It cannot be reversed, you can only monitor it and reduce risks. It is classified as benign, but it carries a higher risk of clotting if unmanaged. Unless it becomes very serious, it’s really the lifestyle adjustments that can help you sustain yourself in good condition. Lowering stress and staying active, let’s say, are very important because movement supports blood circulation.  

In the years after I took more tests, my biological age kept rising, together with my platelet levels. The condition still doesn’t give me any symptoms, fortunately, but the platelet count has been worsening over time, and the test has been signalling that my inflammatory state keeps increasing. So now it’s very important for me to monitor it closely - both with my hematologist and through GlycanAge. It’s a rare condition and not easy to spot, but GlycanAge picked it up.

You mentioned that you were quite unaware of your health in your early 30s. After the GlycanAge test, the blood tests, and discovering this benign condition, did you become more of a “biohacking type” - experimenting, tracking, and trying to optimize your biological age? 

No, I would not say so. My approach to life is still very laid-back. I am just more aware now. I understand that what you do in your twenties and thirties will catch up with you, even if you feel great in the moment. What changed is the mindset. I do not take health for granted anymore. Today, we have tools - GlycanAge, blood tests, all kinds of tracking that allow you to actually keep an eye on your health and influence how you age, as long as you care about it. 

I still believe people should enjoy life, go out, have fun, but maybe just be a bit more mindful about recovery, sleep, and how you treat your body along the way, because now you can measure the impact. And that gives you more ownership over how you age. 

You mentioned the importance of simple habits. What is one non-negotiable thing - your personal “forever routine” - that you always do for your wellbeing?

The first one is exercise. I am not always perfectly consistent, but I never abandon it. I do strength training a couple of times a week and cardio a couple of times a week. If I cannot train, I walk or take the stairs. Just keeping the body active during the day is important.  

The second is small rituals - a late herbal tea in the evening and a bit of meditation or mindfulness. It helps me diffuse at the end of the day and go to bed more rested. These little things make a big difference for me. 

It really is the small things that make the difference. And the fact that we can now measure their impact is powerful. In that sense, what role does GlycanAge play for you today in managing your condition and your lifestyle adjustment in general?

Nowadays, GlycanAge is both awareness and empowerment for me. It helps me understand what my body is going through because of my condition, and at the same time, it gives me a data point I can actually track. I like that I can see the impact of my lifestyle choices over time and try to bring the inflammation down. 

And I have to say, you guys have done amazing with the insights. In the beginning, it was just, “Okay, you are ancient, good luck.” Now there’s guidance and support, and I feel I have you guys on my side. My goal is to lower the inflammation enough to match my chronological age - I don’t know if I’ll get there because of the thrombocythemia, but I’ll try, and with GlycanAge, I can keep monitoring it. 

Many people feel scared when they get a higher-than-expected result, especially the first time. Having gone through that shock yourself, what would you tell someone who is in that position now? 

Leave the shock, let it sink in, and then take charge. The proactive approach and the shift of mentality are very important because once you do that, you can improve, or you can investigate. And you can figure things out well in advance. For me, it was late, and fortunately, my condition is steady, but if you spot something early - like the beginning of diabetes - you could even prevent it altogether. So that awareness and empowerment are super important. I’d say: leave the fear, take charge.