How to Prolong Life

[A sample page]

This chapter suggests some ways to extend our lifespan. The best method, of course, is to choose our parents carefully, to get a handful of genes for longevity and health. There are some actions that we can do, regardless of our genes, to help prolong our life. However, we want to prolong our years of being active and alert. Merely sitting inert in a rest home for a decade is not an appealing thought. Personally, I’d gladly swap ten such years of vegetation for just one more year of being able to go walking, play music, and enjoy my partner’s company.

Starvation

Research by Richard Weindruch and Roy Walford shows that starved animals live considerably longer than their well-fed cousins. So far the experiments have been performed only with rodents. Typically, reducing the calorie intake by about thirty per cent increases lifespan by fifty per cent.

The animal doesn’t have to be half-starved from the moment it’s born. A severe diet starting in middle age is quite effective at prolonging life. Researchers at Riverside, California showed that middle-life starvation switched several dozen mouse liver genes into renewed activity, just like juvenile mice. Of course, the mice were always hungry!

Starvation seems to work in two ways: midlife death is delayed, and maximum life is increased. There are measurable changes in the biochemistry of these hungry animals. Biochemists are trying to discover synthetic drugs that would mimic the effect of starvation without actually requiring calorie restriction.

Although these theories have not been confirmed in humans, that certainly isn’t going to stop some people from following them. (The ability of humans to follow fad diets is unlimited.) The technique is straightforward: cut food intake down by about one-third. Aim for a ten or twenty percent weight loss. Make sure that the food is vitamin- rich and well balanced. Find an absorbing hobby to take your mind off your incessant hunger.

The exercise pill

Do you know about the Exercise Pill? No? It’s buried in a deep vault somewhere in Nebraska, along with the other secret inventions — the pill that turns water into petrol, the car engine that runs 200 miles on a gallon of petrol, and the after-shave that makes men sexually irresistible. What a shame.

While we wait for Indiana Jones to raid the vault and bring the secret formula to light, the bad news is that there is no way round the absolute need for physical activity. ‘Physical activity’ is much the same as the vulgar word ‘exercise’, except that you don’t have to wear Lycra®.

To read more like this, buy my book: Yes, I want to buy now Not ready to buy? Back to home page