Body of vital know- how

DID you happen to catch that ITV series a couple of years ago, 100 Years Younger In 21 Days, where a bunch of mostly out- of- shape celebrities began by having their biological ages measured?

According to the notes

I scribbled down at the time, ex- EastEnder Sid “Rickaaaay” Owen, who was 46 then, was told he had the body of a 98- year- old ( although do bear in mind my handwriting is dreadful).

Even so, he and the others, nearly all of whom received a similar wake- up call ( they included Russell Grant, Sherrie

Hewson and Roy Walker, is it all coming back to you now? It isn’t? Oh, never mind) were told not to abandon hope.

People with a biological age depressingly higher than their real age, which is an awful lot of us, can take significant steps towards fixing this.

It just needs one or two lifestyle changes. Well, all right, maybe six or seven.

It’s pretty much the same message that’s put across tonight on Channel 4 at 8pm in HOW TO BEAT… AGEING ( those three dots aren’t because I forgot the title halfway through typing it, by the way, although obviously that does happen, but because “How To Beat” is a series which in future weeks will have other words tagged on the end, such as

“Stress”, “Pain” and “Germany On Penalties”).

Hosted by Kate Quilton and Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, tonight’s show takes a bunch of volunteers, puts each of them through an initial test to establish their own current biological ages, reveals the results, scares the bejaysus out of them ( Alan, 51, from Cumbria, finds out he has the body of an 82- year- old), then sets out to weave its magic.

Except it’s not really magic. Not for the most part.

The lifestyles of some of these people – the eating, the drinking, the not exercising or sleeping properly – are so blatantly unhealthy that they’d need to be fairly moronic not to figure out the answer for themselves, or at least a big chunk of it.

Eat more fruit, eat more veg, drink more water, drink less booze, get more exercise, get more sleep.

You don’t say. But some revelations are genuinely intriguing.

Most notably, the benefits of what’s called “cold environment endurance training”, which basically means exercising like crazy in temperatures low enough to freeze your bits off.

Apparently, this boosts the flow of blood to the brain, which can slow down its degeneration quite dramatically.

So, yes, I’m definitely going to start doing that. First thing tomorrow, in fact.

Oh, no, hang on, tomorrow is Friday the 13th, isn’t it?

Best not tempt fate. I’ll start next month.