HOW TO STAY YOUNG
BBC1, 9pm
WORRIES about getting older used to focus on the body – the elderly having falls or struggling with hypothermia in the winter – but anxieties have now switched from the body to the brain.
Dementia is the terror of which we’re all dreadfully aware.
This final episode looks at the ageing of the brain and what techniques, treatments and foods we can utilise to keep it healthy and active. The programme doesn’t patronise as it’s presented by Angela Rippon who is cheerfully honest about ageing, the worries it brings, and the changes she’s been forced to confront.
The show visits a researcher in Edinburgh whose work suggests only a quarter of the differences in how we age are caused by genetics. This is good news as it implies our fate isn’t fixed at conception. Rather we can take practical measures to stave off decline.
But you won’t be burdened by too much science here. This programme is sprightly, as it hopes to make its viewers feel, so it also looks at the effects of dog-walking and table tennis in staying young, as well as the role of certain foods, such as purple sweet potato, enjoyed by the hearty old folk of Okinawa who enjoy long life expectancy and low rates of dementia, though Japanese society could also play a part: “It’s in our culture to respect the elderly,” they explain.