How to Slow Down Your Biological Clock

Death is inevitable. But the trip getting there is far from universal.

Average life expectancy at the birth of the whole world is now there 73 years old But varies considerably between countries and even between individual states in America. Me, and probably, many readers, I know people who have barely lost a stage as they age, as well as people who suddenly declined by entering their golden years. These realities invite the question: how can we slow our biological clock considerably? And are we going to get closer to a fountain of young people in the near future?

The man not if a centenary

There are good and bad news.

First, the bad news. There is probably a difficult limit to our longevity. A study last year find This, while life expectancy has continued to grow almost everywhere since the beginning of the 20th century, the increase rate has considerably broken the United States and other high-income countries over the past 30 years. Today, around 3% of women and 1% of men in the United States should reach 100. This research and others suggest that the extension of radical life is outside the table, at least in the predictable future.

However, all hope is not lost. Many researchers in the aging have started to call for a new perspective. Rather than simply focusing on the extension of our lifespan, they support, we must also work to improve our health – the relatively good health years that we have left in our hourglass. This is not a strict distinction. Research on the oldest known humans revealed that they are generally healthier than the average person throughout their lives. But there are also people who still die in the 1970s or 80s while encountering few chronic health problems which generally afflict their peers in advance.

The obvious ABCs of longevity

The good news is that there are several ways to strengthen or maintain our health as we get older. Many of them should not surprise, such as physical activity. Any quantity and form of exercise, whether jogging,, HalterophiliaOr Flexibility trainingIt’s good for you, whatever your age.

“There is no doubt that the regular exercise is associated with an improved lifespan and a healthy lifestyle,” said Gizmodo Sanjai Sinha, associate professor of clinical medicine at Mount Sinai System and doctor at the Health Center in Hudson Yards. “There are data that connects exercise to a decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.”

The diet also plays a central role in the slowdown in the clock. Many different regimes have been linked to longevity and general health, but the most coherent, according to Sinha, is the Mediterranean diet. This diet is encouraging to eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, moderate consumption of fish and poultry, and limited consumption of red and transformed meats, refined sugars and saturated fat. An examination in 2023 of 40 clinical trials find The Mediterranean diet has surpassed six other diets in life extending their lives in people with higher cardiovascular risk.

There are also things that we can avoid or at least moderate our consumption to prolong our lives. Smoking, heavy alcoholic drink (the data is more uncertain with Light to moderate consumption), and the sedentary behavior has all been linked to a shorter life. The fact that certain unknown or unexpected health risks could also drain our lifespan even more complicates the image. A just study this week find A possible connection between faster aging and frequent nightmares, for example.

Duds and anti-aging breakthroughs

There are still a lot of things that we do not know about the biology of aging, and we know even less when it comes to slowing it into therapy. Of course, you can browse online pharmacies and storage shelves and spot dozens of supplements or other products that claim to have anti-aging effects, but by looking at it, the data supporting these claims are generally unmatched or very preliminary. This month, NIH scientists have not found evidence Aging is linked to the drop in taurine levelsA semi-semi-semi-semi-old amino acid sold as a supplement, unlike previous research.

“Although they can have positive impacts on certain genes and proteins that have been linked to aging, these supplements have not been proven in any human test well designed to prolong the lifespan,” said Sinha. “I do not believe that these products or substances stand out from the rest.”

This does not mean that there are no promising longevity drugs in progress. Last year, a national study of 3,000 people out of 65 began METFORMINE test – Type 2 diabetes drug with long long use – for longevity (the test should end by 2030). Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent organ rejection, is also studied in the trials for anti-aging And age -related disorders. And researchers of longevity like Anthony Molina, professor of medicine at the University of California of the San Diego School of Medicine, hope that we will find real successes among some of these trials early enough.

“Such clinical trials are made possible by progress in the development of biological aging biomarkers, which can be assessed in coordination with functional / clinical results reporting on the state of health through ages,” said Molina, also scientific director of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging and the Center for Healthy Aling, said Gizmodo. “I expect that in the coming years, we will tease what actually works and what is not supported by data in humans.”

Scientists also continue to make new discoveries on the biological engines of aging. Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, for example, have studied a line that they prompted “immune resilience” – the ability of the immune system to repel infections and other real threats without causing too much unnecessary inflammation. In a study in April, they find That people of average age with the best immune resilience can have a 15 -year survival advantage over those who have the poorest.

“Inflammation is absolutely essential, but it must be in the right place, the right amount, the right type and the right duration,” UT Health San Antonio and director of the Veterans Affairs Center told Gizmodo for South Texas Health Care System.

Reasons of optimism

Lifestyle habits largely recommended such as exercise and healthy diet are associated with immune resilience, note Ahuja. But he hopes that one day, doctors can provide personalized therapies that stimulate a person’s resilience and, similarly, maintain their healthy aging. With a sufficient detailed analysis of people’s genetics, metabolism, microbiomas and other innate characteristics, it supports, it will be possible to create the ideal regimes of health of health or preventive drugs for an individual person, similar to the way doctors can now change the treatment of cancer on the basis of the unique composition of a tumor.

We are not yet quite there, of course. But here is an additional incentive to hope: optimism itself seems to help you live longer and healthier.

“People often ask me what a magic food would be, a superfood. And I would say that a real superfood is your attitude, your state of mind. There are people who look at life and stress in a positive way. And when they do, we think – based on data that we and others have developed – that they maintain, if you maintain it, a little an anti -inflammatory state, “said Ahuja.

No one lives forever. But we can do a lot to make our time here as pleasant and healthy as possible. With a little luck, many more advice and tips for longevity will emerge in our life.