A clean environment, fresh food, physical activity and medical advances can allow people to live longer
Fancy living to the age of 120? Increasingly, it’s a question of when, rather than if.
The world’s leading gerontologists have long been searching for the most effective ways to hold back the years. But last month, at an international symposium on longevity held in Geneva, Switzerland — a country with the world’s second highest life expectancy (82.9 years compared to the average of 70.4) — new research showed how it might soon be possible to slow down the biological, or “inner”, ageing process. According to scientists, such breakthroughs may enable us to far exceed current life expectancies.
Claudio Franceschi, Professor of Immunology at Bologna University, who describes ageing as “a disease”, is convinced that we can “remodulate our bodies as they change.
“The recipe isn’t easy, but we’ ll find it.”
A number of Silicon Valley billionaires have funnelled their own millions into the anti-ageing cause, too. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has invested in Breakout Labs, a funding body dedicated to tackling degenerative diseases, while Google’s Larry Page has directed $750m of company funds into Calico, its biotech research arm.
While future generations may benefit from such cutting-edge technologies, for those of us alive today the gen from Geneva is that small lifestyle changes have the greatest positive impact on our longevity.
According to those at the symposium, tweaks to our daily routines — from what we eat to the unguents we slather on our wrinkles — are our best hope in the fight against the ageing process.
“A clean environment, fresh food, physical activity and medical advances can allow people who are young today to live until 120,” says Professor Vladimir Khavinson, past President of the European region of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics. “If they lead a healthy life, they will have a good start. The main goal for us now must be to allow people to stay healthy for as long as possible into their old age.”
So here are five things we can all do to improve our chances of becoming supercentenarians. What are you waiting for? It’s later than you think …
The single greatest hope in the battle against ageing — and the one most keenly highlighted by scientists in Geneva — is the use of peptides, both within and without the body.
Often referred to as “small proteins”, naturally occurring peptides (short chains of amino acids) increase the production of human growth hormone, more commonly known as HGH, which helps to metabolise fat and stimulate muscle and bone growth.
Once you hit your twenties, the body’s natural production of HGH slows by 14 per cent every decade. “Peptides can be seen as a trigger that switch on specific mechanisms inside our cells,” says Professor Khavinson, who began looking into peptides during the Cold War, while serving in the Soviet medical military corps. “The production of protein is vital to maintaining the
1 Keep taking the peptides: