Apple Health Age: what it measures and how to lower it

Health Age is a number in Apple's redesigned Health app that compares your health readings with what's typical for your real age. It sits in the new Longevity tab and draws on Apple Watch data such as VO2 max, resting heart rate, heart rate variability and sleep, plus lab results if you add them.

Apple announced it in September 2026 and is testing it in iOS 27.2. Apple hasn't published the formula, so the best guide to moving it is the research on the readings it uses.

Who can get Apple Health Age

You need an Apple Watch and an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence. Apple said the redesigned Health app arrives in late 2026 in US English first, with more languages to follow. If you don't see a Longevity tab, your iPhone, region or iOS version doesn't have it yet.

Lab results are optional, but reports say Health Age works better with them. You can add them by hand or sync them from medical records. In the US, Apple also offers a $119 blood panel through Quest Diagnostics that you can buy from the Health app.

What goes into it

Coverage of Apple's announcement lists the inputs as VO2 max, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep and blood biomarkers. The app shows which categories pull your Health Age up or down. It doesn't show the weights.

Each of those inputs is linked to how people age. Cardio fitness is one of the strongest. In 122,007 adults who took a treadmill test, the least fit quarter were about five times as likely to die over the following years as the fittest 2%. A meta-analysis of 87 studies found each 10 beats per minute higher resting heart rate was linked to a 17% higher risk of death from any cause.

How to lower your Health Age

Work on the inputs, starting with the one that's furthest behind for your age.

Raise your VO2 max. Steady cardio and intervals both raise it at any age. Two or three sessions a week of zone 2 plus one harder session is a common plan. Apple Watch updates VO2 max from outdoor walks, runs and hikes, so it needs those workouts to see a change. See VO2 max and longevity.

Lower your resting heart rate. A 2018 meta-analysis of 191 studies found that every type of exercise it looked at lowered resting heart rate, and endurance training and yoga lowered it significantly in both men and women. Alcohol, poor sleep and illness push it up for a few days. See resting heart rate.

Look after your HRV and sleep. Both are noisy from night to night and respond to alcohol, late meals and irregular bedtimes. A steady bedtime is one of the simplest changes there is. See heart rate variability and sleep regularity.

Expect weeks, not days. VO2 max and resting heart rate shift over a month or more of training.

How accurate is Apple Health Age?

Apple hasn't published how it's calculated or how well it predicts health, so there's no way to check it yet. Its inputs have known limits. In a 2025 study of 28 mostly fit adults, Apple Watch read VO2 max about 6 ml/kg/min below a lab treadmill test, which would make a fit person look older than they are on that input.

Like every number of this kind, Health Age is an estimate against typical values, not a direct measurement of biological aging. Use it to track your own direction over months. Talk to your doctor before acting on a result that worries you.

What it leaves out

Health Age centers on the heart, sleep and blood. Strength, balance and body composition also predict how people age, and a watch can't measure push-ups or a one-leg stand.

That's where Ageon is different. It scores six domains, including strength and mobility, from three quick tests and the same Apple Health data, with or without a Watch. It estimates an Ageon Age from the inputs that change most with age, like VO2 max, push-ups and balance, and publishes its full method. See how Ageon compares with Apple Health Age, or try the free biological age calculator.