Science Behind Glycans

Glycans are sugar molecules that surround and modify proteins in your body. They respond to your lifestyle choices and indicate the inflammatory state of your immune system, which in turn determines to your biological age.

Glycans have a large influence on your unique biology and are regulated almost equally by our genes on one side and environment and lifestyle choices on the other.

Glycans play a vital role in keeping us healthy but are also involved in most major diseases. As we age, the balance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory glycans in our body changes.

Various inflammatory effectors like excessive or unsuitable diet or fitness regimen, hormone changes, surrounding environment, ethnic background, etc. can cause an imbalance between pro and anti-inflammatory glycans. This leads to low-grade systemic inflammation, which can speed up the process of ageing and increase the risk for many diseases.

GlycanAge determines your biological age by looking at the state of your immune system and inflammation.

We analyse the glycans attached to the most common antibody in your blood, called Immunoglobulin G or IgG.

The type of glycans attached to IgG are able to change the function of IgG from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory and vice versa.

We need both functions for a strong immune system, but the balance between them will determine our general health status and consequentially our biological age.