The brain gets rusty and the body deteriorates as we age.
Sometimes we are unlucky and there are strikingly many cases of neurological disorders in a family, but we can do a lot to stay healthy and slow down our aging process.
That is the starting point of Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, leader of a research group at the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen.
Read his best advice for a longer life here:
What should everyone know about aging?
I wish everyone knew that aging is a biological process that we can influence.
We know from the animal kingdom that animals can age in many different ways. Thanks to research with model organisms, we also know that there are many ways to delay old age and the mortality that comes with it. It is therefore important to realize that although we cannot do anything radical against ageing, we can make people healthy for longer.
What advice would you give to people who want to live a healthy and long life?
First, it seems that periods of fasting can be very healthy. For example, daily fasting – I do that myself – from 8 pm in the evening until 12 am the next day, so skipping breakfast.
When our blood sugar drops, a lot happens in our body. Our cells become aware that less energy is available and so they start optimizing processes in their cells, for example by breaking down and rebuilding old proteins in the cell. The mitochondria (small structures in our cells that make energy from the food you consume) will also produce energy optimally and cells will divide a little more slowly. And that is probably good news for our stem cells. Fasting can also be good for reducing the risk of cancer because cancer cells are very dependent on sugar.
Instead of breakfast, you can drink a cup of black coffee. It contains no calories and therefore does not break the fast. In addition, coffee is associated with a reduction in virtually all forms of disease. As many as four to five cups a day reduce the mortality rate of almost all age-related diseases, with the exception of cancer.
Exercise and a good night’s sleep are also important if you want to live a long life, as is a good social network.
It’s also good to eat less meat and more vegetables, and don’t be afraid of fats. Vegetable oils and fats appear to be associated with a lower mortality rate.
What surprised you most in aging research?
When we recently did a trial with a number of participants where we tested different interventions, it turned out that fasting was actually the most effective when we look at certain markers of aging. More so than exercise, which actually turned out to have a fairly minimal effect.
Most people benefit from fasting, but one of the things that happens when you fast is that you can lose a little bit of muscle and bone mass, which isn’t exactly helpful when you’re older, as it can lead to osteoporosis, among other things . Thus, it is important, especially for underweight and normal-weight elderly people, to do some form of exercise while fasting to limit muscle and bone loss.
What should I avoid at all costs if I want to live as long as possible?
Smoking and not moving. Not moving is much worse than being overweight. If you smoke and do not exercise, you will live on average about 15 to 20 years shorter.
What do you do to age healthily?
I fast, exercise and drink black coffee. I eat relatively little meat. I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t eat meat a few days a week.
I try to sleep well although I have a 1 year old child at home so that can be quite a challenge.
In addition, I take two supplements. Both pills increase the amount of NAD (a naturally occurring substance that we need, among other things, when cells have to repair damage to the genetic material, ed.). And finally, I also use what is called metformin, a drug that is prescribed for diabetes, because we have seen in a study with mice that it increased lifespan.
But I wouldn’t advise that to others: I’m a doctor and I’m experimenting a bit myself, but we don’t know what the long-term side effects of the pills will be in healthy people.
2023-08-03 09:00:53
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