BHARAT Study: Learnings so Far

Studying aging across a population as vast and varied as India's comes with its own design problems, and this panel worked through several of them. One key finding: a simple cheek swab can serve as a good proxy for markers like HbA1c and tracks meaningfully with differences in epigenetic clocks across Indian populations, offering a genuinely non-invasive way to measure biological age. The discussion also linked early, heavier exposure to infectious disease with differences in later immune system development, and pointed to how sensitive biomarkers are to food, lifestyle and socioeconomic context — a reminder that a single national reference range doesn't hold up across a country this diverse. Working with gut microbiome data brings its own challenge: telling genuine biological variation apart from background noise, which matters for how confidently the data can be used. And running through it all was a more human point — people largely trust the communities they already know when illness strikes, so a study built to work at real scale has to be designed around that trust, not around what's simplest to administer. 🔔 Subscribe and stay tuned! More: 🌐Longevity India: https://linktr.ee/longevity.india Aging is something we all experience — in our families, our parents, and ourselves. We often talk about it, but we rarely record it. At Longevity India, we’re trying to change that. Through a few simple questions, we’re trying to capture what aging looks like in Indian homes: our diets, health habits, and everyday lives. Take the surveys here: https://lnk.bio/LongevityIndiaSurveys