Samsung’s redesigned BioActive sensor delivered some super-accurate results when we tested the latest Galaxy Watch products, but it also helps unlock an all-new health insight: AGEs index.
Providing you have a Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Watch Ultra, you’ll have access to the new metric – one designed to give you an insight into your metabolic health.
The problem, then? Well, the AGEs index has thus far proven incredibly hard for users (us included) to grasp – and most people are reporting identical levels on Samsung’s scale.
We discussed this in detail in our Galaxy Watch Ultra review, but there are countless threads on Reddit and elsewhere from users reporting the same scores and issues.
Below, we’ll attempt to demystify the health feature and help you get more out of it.
What are AGEs?
AGEs are ‘advanced glycation end products’. In simple terms, these are compounds that form when protein or fat combines with sugar in the bloodstream.
If your food has been grilled, fried, toasted, or exposed to any other form of high temperature, the ‘end products’ can also form before you’ve even consumed it.
Our bodies have methods to help negate these harmful compounds – such as enzymes – but this activity only goes so far in eliminating AGEs.
Diet, as a result, is considered one of the biggest factors when looking to affect the glycation and the formation of AGEs.
What do studies say about AGEs?
In the past few decades, AGEs have become an increased subject of interest in the research community – not least because evidence continues to show elevated levels of the compounds correlating with negative health outcomes.
Studies are incredibly complex to dissect, as evidenced in this 2022 paper from Twarda-Clapa et al.. Yet, there is a general agreement from research that AGEs can be managed by changes in food processing (steaming vs. grilling, for example) and avoiding a high-sugar diet.
As explained in a 2017 study by Prasad et al, those negative health outcomes are also relatively well-established: “Elevated AGEs are associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality, severity of coronary atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease mortality as well as chronic kidney disease.”
How does Samsung measure AGEs?
The redesigned BioActive sensor we mentioned above now features many more types of LEDs, and Samsung says it’s also worked to enhance their performance and arrangement.
These design factors appear to directly enable snapshots of AGEs, with Samsung crediting the increased array of green and red LEDs (and the increased diversity, with yellow, violet, and ultraviolet ones now included) for unlocking the biomarker.
This method likely uses the same skin autofluorescence technique described in Cavero-Redondo et al’s 2018 meta-analysis of AGEs measurement, though it’s obviously unknown just how accurate Samsung’s interpretation of this is.
Samsung has also suggested that the AGEs index is the first of many preventative health features to be unlocked by this new sensor setup.
How does the Samsung AGEs index work?
Wearing your Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Watch Ultra overnight will result in a snapshot assessment of your AGEs, with this then viewable in the Samsung Health app or on the smartwatch.
This isn’t a score, as you might find with your sleep stats or Samsung’s new Energy Score. Instead, your AGEs are graded from low to high.
As explained earlier, a lower amount of AGEs is preferable, but this isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Health app; you’re left to figure that out yourself.
Given that the value of your AGEs snapshot exists on a sliding scale, it’s also difficult to tell precisely where it sits. However, the app’s graph (as shown above) does show slight changes.
As research shows, this slight movement is normal – and AGEs aren’t something that will fluctuate dramatically each day.
But, as we alluded to earlier, a lot of users are reporting very similar scores – around 7-8/10 on the sliding scale – which is also where ours has roughly sat for the last few weeks.
This isn’t necessarily wrong information or inaccurate tracking, but the lack of upfront explanations from Samsung about the feature, information related to typical or expected ranges, or perhaps even coaching on improving your AGEs, means it’s not a feature that’s easy to gel with.
We should also note, however, that this is a feature that’s still designated as ‘Labs’, so it’s likely that improvements such as this are in the pipeline.
