In its State of Aging Report for 2022, the Center for Aging Better states that England is becoming an increasingly difficult country to grow old. In 10 years, the number of over-65s will have increased from 11 million to 13 million people, 22 percent of the population.
However, despite living longer, the number of years spent in good health is decreasing. What can we do to prevent that?
It seems that a 26-year-old biomedical scientist from the University of Copenhagen has some of the answers, and they might surprise you.
Nicklas Brendborg’s book, Jellyfish Age Backward is, he says, citing anthropologist Ashley Montagu, a guide to “how to die young as late as possible”.
The title of the book refers to the Turritopsis, a small jellyfish that turns back into a polyp under stress of adulthood. It then grows back with no physiological memory of having been older. It can do this repeatedly. Imagine that.
Brendborg takes us on a fascinating biological odyssey as we look to creatures like the naked mole rat, the ancient Greenland shark and disease-free tribes to find clues as to how we too could live longer and age better.
“People are just animals, so we share a lot,” he says. “Often you don’t really know what is biologically possible, and the best way to find out is by studying nature.” After all, trees and lobsters grow stronger with age, not weaker. Then how can we be more lobster?
In a world where one week we read that coffee is going to kill us and the next that it prolongs life, it’s no wonder we are confused about this question.
Brendborg thinks we’re not looking at it from the right angle. If we eradicated major diseases tomorrow, life expectancy would only increase by a few years.
“We are trying to cure cancer, dementia and heart disease, but ultimately all of these diseases are caused by aging. In principle, if we could slow down the aging process, we could reach all these areas at once,” he says.
Here are some of the ways Brendborg suggests we could do that.
Stress can be good for you, as long as the dose is right
“The secret to longevity seems not to be to live without hard times, but to be able to withstand the onslaught,” Brendborg says in his book. We are on a mission to eliminate stress from our lives. However, it seems that the maxim “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” has some truth in it (think trees and lobsters again). It’s a process called hormesis.
“Certain types of stress can be beneficial to biological organisms,” Brendborg says. “Unlike a car that wears out, we undergo a repair process.” He cites exercise as a good example of this. “When you run, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, you do some damage to your bones and your muscles. That translates into a message to your body that you need to get stronger, and that’s what it does.”
This is why, according to Brendborg, the optimal training regimen is stationary training, HIIT (high-intensity interval training), and some resistance work. If you focus on one type of exercise, it should be cardiovascular.
The Scandinavian culture of saunas and winter swimming supports the stress theory. The stressors on the body from heat and cold make it stronger. Studies from Finland show that sauna enthusiasts have less cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure and longer life. So find a sauna at your local gym and, if you don’t feel like jumping in a lake and channeling your inner Wim Hof, brace yourself for an ice cold blast at the end of your shower.
There is also intriguing research in Brendborg’s book about people living in higher-than-usual radiation areas who live longer than average.
Brendborg is not a proponent of radioactive substances, but it is an interesting, albeit extreme, example of how stressors can be good for the body, provided the dose is right.
Throw away the multivitamins
Free radicals and antioxidants have long been buzzwords for health and beauty; the first is seen as bad, the second as good. Antioxidants neutralize those pesky free radicals, but free radicals are a normal byproduct of our metabolism. Ultimately, they contribute to our aging and death, but they can play a positive role. Antioxidants aren’t all we see them either.
Brendborg emphasizes that some dietary supplements that contain antioxidants do not help people live longer. Research suggests that people who take them are more likely to die and that they may promote the growth and spread of certain cancers. Antioxidants can also negate the benefits of exercise, as exercise produces free radicals, a form of “oxidative stress,” which, as we now know, can be good for us and help us get stronger.
Our bodies are adept at excreting what we don’t need, but one thing we cannot excrete is iron, which is found in most multivitamins. Iron is important for our bodies, but too much of it is poisonous.
In his book, Brendborg refers to the Iowa Women’s Health Study of 39,000 women. Those who took iron supplements had a higher risk of dying early than those who didn’t. For men, Danish research found that high levels of ferritin (the protein that stores iron) are also linked to an increased risk of premature death. He emphasizes that our belief that “more is better” when it comes to health is flawed. Save your money.
Flossing can save your life
Every time I think of waving out the floss, I think of this book, and then I floss. This could be the equivalent of Baz Luhrmann’s song “Wear Sunscreen”. Brendborg highlights studies that showed that bacteria commonly found in the mouth (Porphyromonas gingivalis), which cause the gum disease, were also found in the brain tissue of deceased Alzheimer’s patients and in blood clots. Studies showed that people in their 60s with gum disease had a higher risk of developing dementia two decades later.
Another bacteria, also found in the mouth, is strongly associated with colon cancer. “We don’t know exactly why these bacteria are where they shouldn’t be, but we do know that getting periodontal disease is associated with an increased risk of all these diseases and an increased risk of dying early.” If there was ever a case where you had to spend a few extra minutes removing food particles from your mouth to prevent bacteria from multiplying, this is it.
Donating blood can also extend your own life
Throughout history, draining blood has been considered to have health benefits. Scientific experiments on older mice have shown that removing blood and replacing it with a saline solution rejuvenates them. In people who donate blood, the lost blood volume is replaced by fluid from the rest of the body, and the blood cells are replenished over the weeks.
“It can be a beneficial stressor,” says Brendborg. He emphasizes that a recent study has shown that toxic chemicals that come from our households and cleaning products can also be removed through blood donation. “Blood donation won’t be as effective as a weekly jogging habit, but it’s easy to do and there’s a health benefit.”
Always look on the bright side of life (or try to) – and socialize
Staying positive is easier said than done for many of us, but mentality does affect our health. Brendborg says studies show that those who feel younger than their actual age tend to live longer. The placebo effect is not a myth.
“You can give people fake drugs to tell them it’s a new drug and it’s relieving their symptoms. It can have an impact on the immune system. We’ve seen it on blood sugar levels, where believing something is healthy or unhealthy can affect how your blood sugar is affected,” he says.
Instead, he talks about the ‘nocebo’ effect, where negative expectations can be self-fulfilling. For example, those who said they were in poor physical condition, even if this was not true, performed poorly on physical tests.
Also linked to our view is the issue of loneliness. The tendency to withdraw from company may be one of the reasons depressed people have poorer health, says Brendborg.
“People with depression tend to have accelerated brain aging,” Brendborg says.
“This may be due to the high stress burden of loneliness. We are the most social of all animals and relationships and a sense of belonging is one of our core needs. Loneliness is one of the factors most strongly correlated with early death, surpassed only by smoking.”
A strong sense of community and purpose is one of the factors that connect the inhabitants of the ‘blue zone’ regions of the world – places such as Okinawa in Japan and Sardinia in Italy, which are home to the world’s longest-lived inhabitants.
Fiber, Fasting and the Power of Garlic
You are what you eat or, if you fast, when you eat. Fasting or time-limited eating is preferable to calorie restriction. This triggers our friend hormesis, making us stronger.
“It’s an old obsession,” Brendborg says. “Calorie restriction is one of the most robust ways to prolong life, but in the long run, it’s pretty miserable.”
The holy grail, he says, is said to be a drug that fools your body into thinking it is fasting.
Meanwhile, the key is to avoid eating overly processed “Frankenfoods.” Brendborg is a strong believer in garlic, a key feature of the Mediterranean diet, “the healthiest of all diets tested”. There’s good evidence, he says, that garlic lowers “bad” cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Eating more fiber also gives the life-prolonging good bacteria in our gut something to feed on.
Brendborg says the goal of aging is that maybe in 20 years someone who is 70 will be as healthy as someone who is now 55. To some extent this has already happened.
“There is hope,” he says, “that in the next five to 10 years we may see the first drug that slows aging. It would be a huge milestone in this area.”
Brendborg’s book is a wealth of fascinating information, from reminding us that coffee drinkers may have lower death rates because coffee suppresses appetite, to how longevity favors smaller people, as illustrated in species like dogs, for example. But for now, adopting these habits can prolong your life in a healthy way before the youth elixir arrives in pill form.
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