The SECRETS the of SUPER-AGERS

From aa daily G&T to simply brushing your hair — the tips for staying young I’ve learnt from my older patients

OVER the course of my career, I’ve met many old people who, despite their advanced years, seemed not to have aged much at all. They have wrinkles and grey hair, but there’s something about them that radiates youthfulness and life. You cannot imagine them ever actually dying.

Increasingly, scientists have started looking at these ‘super-agers’ — socalled because of their apparent resilience to the normal ageing process — to see if there is something that could be harnessed as a potential elixir of life.

Of course, longevity is not necessarily so desirable if your old age is dogged with ill-health and discomfort. Many of us would rather live a shorter, healthy life than a long one cursed by debilitating disease. Yet medicine constantly intervenes when sometimes it would do much better to just step back and let nature take its course.

What’s interesting, though, is these super-agers seem to have it all: they remain fit as a fiddle despite advancing age, and live long and healthy lives.

There’s no doubt that genetics plays a big part, but it’s not the only factor here. Recently, scientists from Northwestern University in Chicago presented their findings about super-agers based on years of research.

Though they all had quite unique takes on life, with no clear common pattern of behaviour, they all share two things, as Professor Emily Rogalski, who led the research, explained.

These were: a ‘unique personality profile, highlighting optimism, resilience and perseverance’, and an active lifestyle.

So what else can super-agers teach us about how to age successfully? Diana Mackintosh, the 99-year-old mother of theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh, apparently never holidays with anyone over 65, saying: ‘All they want to do is eat and sleep. I can’t be doing with wasting time.’

One of those interviewed for the US study swore that her long, healthy life was down to martinis at noon with friends.

While there may be no sure-fire way of becoming a sprightly centenarian, here are some of the interesting tips my patients have taught me over the years.

TRY TO STEER CLEAR OF DOCTORS

ONCE, when I was working in a hospital, an elderly and wonderfully grumpy lady was brought in after she’d fallen while out shopping. She was adamant that she’d only fallen because someone had tripped her up and furious she’d been admitted.

‘A lot of fuss about nothing,’ she muttered, proudly telling everyone she never saw her GP, never took any medication and, in her 90s, wasn’t about to start now.

The social workers were in a panic that such an elderly woman was living alone in a flat up three flights of stairs: she needed to be in a care home, they told her.

‘I don’t care if I fall down the stairs and die,’ she shouted. ‘I’d rather die there than in an old people’s home.’ Eventually, a wise consultant intervened and discharged her back home.

What fascinated me about her — and many similar older people I’ve come across — is that they make it through life with only fleeting interaction with the medical profession. Of course, it could be that because they’re so healthy, they never need to see a doctor. But the

other argument is that when you see

doctors, they tend to interfere. They

admit you to hospital, where you pick up

infections; they prescribe medication

that has side-effects and interactions.

One man I once saw in A&E, who was

in his 80s and still working as a gardener,

didn’t even have a GP. He’d last seen a

doctor when he was in the army, in his

20s.

I wonder if a lot of this comes down to

temperament. You cerrtainly never come

across a super-ager who’s a hypochono

driac. They are far too busy getting on

with life to worry about common or garr

den aches and pains oailments.

AVOID MEDICATION IF YOU CAN

FOLLOWING on from avoiding doctors,

it always surprises mee how many of the

really old people who are so sprightly

take very little regular medication.

On my first ward round as a junior docne,

tor in geriatric medicinat nearly every

patient’s bed the consuultant took out his

pen and, with a flourissh, crossed off the

medication they’d beeen taking prior to

admission. I thought he was mad, but