The second post in a four-part series on longevity.
Week 2: In Search of the Modern Fountain of Youth
The human desire for renewal and immortality appears almost universal, and it’s captured the imaginations of royalty, adventurers, and commoners alike. Many of us remember the famous tale of Ponce de León and his search for the fountain of youth somewhere in Florida!
But the tales go much further back. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great was rumored to have found the Water of Life. It was thought to grant eternal youth. Unfortunately for Alexander he didn’t make it past 32 years. Ouch. To be fair, he might have caught malaria or some other wretched tropical disease, but still!
Today the search for longevity is a little more down to earth, and the science of longevity has evolved into a mostly respectable field. Much of the focus is on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging. Some researchers like to examine those pockets of peoples whose diets and practices are associated with long lifespans, such as Okinawans or Sardinians. Others look at genetics and epigenetics, the interaction between the environment and lifestyle and your DNA. As it turns out, the age-old question “is it nature, or nurture” can be answered pretty succinctly today: it’s both!
And yet, the field is still littered with a lot of curious claims and behaviors. Seems like the promise of immortality has made more than one person go a little bonkers. Take tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who’s spent north of two million a year in his efforts to extend his lifespan. In addition to taking over 100 supplements a day, having his last meal at 11 am, and other peculiar practices, he’s taken the blood of his own son and transfused it into himself! His goal? To reverse his biological age to 18. Will it work? Even if it did, would most people, and their kids, be willing to engage in such odd behavior? Likely not anytime soon!
The thing about Bryan Johnson? He’s experimenting on himself. While his methods are unconventional, he’s not selling snake oil, per se. Others have been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Remember that amazing news a while back that all you had to do to extend your lifespan was drink a little red wine? Hey, those Italians on Sardinia probably drink a glass or two, and look at how long they live!
Too often we hear the news about the amazing breakthrough but miss the follow up story about how that news wasn’t so great, after all. Take David Sinclair, a famous Harvard researcher whose research purportedly showed that resveratrol, by activating a single enzyme called sirtuin, could extend the life of yeast, flies, worms and mice. Dr. Sinclair was not bashful about his so-called findings, stating that it is “as close to a miraculous molecule as you can find”. Only natural that it piqued the interest of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, aka GSK. They bought Sinclair’s company for $720 million! Quite the payday, right? Well, turns out GSK could never reproduce the research, and closed the program without developing a single drug. Lawsuits, as you might expect, followed. Hey, at least they got a heck of a tax write-off!
We’re all familiar with the saying “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Now, we believe that we’ll see a lot more advances in longevity science in the coming years. Maybe, just maybe, one of those advances will be a pill you can just pop with your morning coffee. But in meantime, what can we do to live the longest, healthiest lives possible?
In our last blog post we touched on how we’re looking to not only live longer, but also live longer without chronic disease and all the attendant problems. If you read the last article, you’ll remember our four horsemen. Avoiding these grim riders is just the first step. In order to increase healthspan, we must also protect our cognitive function, physical fitness, and emotional health. We spoke at length about the importance of nutrition, and especially protein.
So, let’s say you’ve got your diet under control, you’re eating enough protein, and hopefully it’s making you feel fuller and therefore keeping the munchies at bay! We all know that when we get hungry, our thoughts too often turn to the carb-heavy favorites such as potato chips, cookies, and like, because they offer that immediate payoff! Our blood sugar levels rise, and we feel pretty good… for a little while. To stave off the cravings, remember to keep protein front and center!
So, what’s the real fountain of youth? Or more precisely, what’s the best way to stay healthy as we inevitably age? Turns out, it’s something you already knew: physical activity. Isn’t life funny? How often do the things we need turn out to be right in front of us all along?
In order to stay healthy, avoid injuries, and even keep our brains more fit, we need to increase and maintain our muscle mass and bone strength. That’s right. The proverbial fountain of youth isn’t a supplement, special alkaline water, or a pill: it’s your own muscles! Keeping fit is your not-so-secret superpower! And, while cardiovascular fitness is great, and your heart will very much thank you for it, it’s necessary but not sufficient.
If you want to go fishing and catch a fish or two (and I’m not talking about those folks who catch catfish with their bare hands), you might start with a fishing rod. But it’s not sufficient. Sure, it’s necessary, but you need other things. You need a hook, line, bait, some patience. Some knowledge of where to find the best fishing hole in the area wouldn’t hurt either!
So, by all means, keep up the walking, jogging, or wogging, which is apparently an Olympic sport now! Ok, maybe they call it “racewalking” but I think I’ll stick with calling it wogging. However, if you aren’t doing some strength training in addition to cardio, you’re selling your future self short. If your goal is aging gracefully, or at least delaying the onset of physical decline, you’ll need to ensure you incorporate different activities into your routine. Building and keeping muscles and cardiovascular fitness are both essential in ensuring you have the stability, flexibility, mobility and aerobic efficiency to live a long, healthy life.
I know some people might think of a Bulgarian dead lifter when they hear the words “strength training” but there are many different types. Yes, you can do traditional free weight exercises such as the dead lift and bench press, but strength training includes simple barbell exercises, a cable machine, or resistance bands. You can even use your own body weight!
In fact, one of the more challenging exercises is the good old-fashioned pull-up. Ever tried “wall sitting”? It’ll really give your quads a workout! The other day my husband said, hey, go out in the garage and try hanging from a bar. Hanging from a bar like a monkey? How hard could that be? Well… let me just say, forget the pull-up! Try hanging from a bar for a minute! Talk about working on your grip strength. And have you ever tried the plank? Looks easy. Apparently, a guy from the Czech Republic held a plank for over nine hours! Meanwhile, back on planet earth where the rest of us live, you should feel pretty good about yourself if you can plank for a minute or two.
Given that there are a lot of options, it’s only natural to wonder what kind of strength or resistance training exercise is right for you. As with so many things in life, it depends! Dr. Attia talks about the Centenarian Decathlon, where he encourages people to identify activities they’d like to be able to do at age 100. Maybe you have stairs in your house, and you would really like to continue living there. Or maybe you love to travel, and would like to be able to lift your own luggage. It could be as simple as carrying groceries, working in the garden, or any of a multitude of activities that allow you to retain your independence. Or, just maybe, you’d like to keep wogging!
A good first step is to start thinking about what aging might look like for you, and then work on your list and… get lifting!
Ok! That’s a wrap for this week. Remember, even though we all apparently have to age, and it looks like red wine alone won’t save us from our fate, we can take action that will meaningfully improve our odds of living longer, and healthier!
Next week we’re diving into the world of mental and emotional health. Hey, it’s not just about eating protein and dead lifting! We’ll finish off the series in week 4 with an overview of snake oil… err, medications and supplements. Just kidding! You know we’re fans of supplements as long as you know what supplements your body needs! We’ll also touch on the future of longevity. While we’re not going to get into sleep and its impact on longevity, but if you’re interested in learning how to sleep better, take heart: we’re dedicating the entire month of May to sleep health!
Until next time!
Alicia