How to live for ever (almost!)
LIFESPAN: WHY WE AGE — AND WHY WE DON’T HAVE TO
by David A Sinclair PhD (Thorsons £20, 416 pp) ASKED recently how long he would like to live, David Sinclair thought: ‘It would be nice to see the 22nd century.’
That would require the Harvard genetics professor to make it to a ripe old 131 — a goal he thinks is unlikely but ‘not beyond the laws of biology or way off our current trajectory’, given the rapid advances in medical research. ‘If I do make it that far,’ he says, ‘maybe I’ll want to stick around even longer.’
This infectious optimism runs all through Sinclair’s evangelical book, challenging our assumptions about how our minds and bodies must respond to the passing years. He simmers it down to simple terms to help us understand how his colleagues hope to slow and even reverse the ageing process.
Now 50 (with, he boasts, unwrinkled skin, no grey hairs and the heart of a 30-year-old), he also offers lifestyle tips including taking saunas, avoiding food microwaved in plastic, and taking daily doses of vitamins D and K with his breakfast of homemade yoghurt.
THE AGE-WELL PROJECT
by Annabel Streets and Susan Saunders (Little, Brown £14.99, 368 pp) WATCHING their relatives die, too soon, of heart disease, cancer and dementia, two women in their late-40s began to wonder if they still had time to avoid a similar fate.
The mass of research information they collected inspired this conversational guide to a longer and happier life.
Some of their tougher advice includes upping the exercise, cutting the sugar and fasting in short bursts. The latter can produce startling health benefits (possibly even slowing tumour growth) and can mean simply ensuring you leave a good 12 hours between dinner and breakfast.
The merrier news comes in their celebration of the benefits of delicious foods, such as eggs, avocado, walnuts and the olive oil they repeatedly describe as ‘liquid gold’. They also make a good case against those boring ‘brain training’ apps and suggest we try an oldfashioned game of ping-pong instead.
EXTRA TIME: TEN LESSONS FOR AN AGEING WORLD
by Camilla Cavendish (HarperCollins £20, 320 pp) ACCORDING to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, people in their 50s and 60s underestimate their chances of survival to age 75 by 20 per cent.
At that age, we are programmed to think we’re winding down, both physically and mentally. Camilla Cavendish’s own father — an historian and great cat lover — refused to own another pet after the age of 50 in case he left it homeless. Yet he lived in good health until the age of 86, dictating his last article for History Today from his hospital bed.
David Hockney became the world’s foremost iPad painter at 76; Tina Turner made the cover of Vogue at 73 and David Attenborough is making hit TV series in his 90s.
In this robustly researched guide to happy, productive and socially valuable longevity, Cavendish (former policy advisor to David Cameron) offers practical advice that extends well beyond the obvious diet, exercise and crosswords. Learn about Dutch balance exercises and German Mehr generation enhä user — putting nurseries and older people under the same roof to the benefit of both.