Want to feel 50 at 80? 'Super Agers' researcher shares his do's and don'ts

Cardiologist Eric Topol is 1 of the starring aesculapian researchers successful the world. A laminitis of the Scripps Research Translational Institute successful La Jolla, Calif., Dr. Topol is besides the writer of a New York Times bestselling caller book, “Super Agers: An Evidence Based Approach to Longevity.”

I precocious sat down with Topol to sermon his book’s insights into slowing down, oregon turning back, our aging clocks to go much similar ace agers — oregon who helium calls the “Wellderly” — radical who unrecorded good into their 80s and 90s without immoderate chronic unwellness oregon disease.

A broad reply to that question requires speechmaking his book, written for a laic assemblage funny astir the latest (and upcoming) technological breakthroughs successful longevity medicine. But successful our hour-long conversation, Topol discussed respective do’s and don’ts for anyone seeking to marque 80 the caller 50.

1. Do: Strengthen your immune system

If determination is 1 main thesis to Topol’s book, it’s that steadfast aging is simply a relation of a beardown immune system, which tin support against diabetes, cancer, bosom illness and different chronic conditions. “I support saying to myself that aged happening astir the economy: ‘It’s the immune system, stupid,’ you know?” Topol told me. “Because it truly is.”

He suggests focusing connected habits that enactment and physique immune health:

• Regular spot and absorption grooming builds beardown immune systems and is the azygous champion mode to widen lifespan and, importantly, wellness span.
• Keep a Mediterranean-style fare that maximizes full foods, colorful vegetables, thin meats, olive lipid and minimal dairy, and minimizes ultra-processed food.
• Get deep, restorative slumber — important for supporting your body’s immune function.
• Maintain alleged “lifestyle+” factors, similar spending clip successful nature, avoiding biology contamination similar food-borne plastics and airborne toxins, and maintaining beardown friendships and a regular societal calendar.

I’ll spell deeper into immoderate of these circumstantial strategies, similar slumber and nutrition, below. But the communal denominator is supporting a robust immune function, Topol said.

“We should beryllium having immune strategy investigating arsenic we get older,” helium said, “because it is the crushed wherefore aging tin wounded us.”

2. Don’t: Limit your aesculapian attraction to lone what your security covers

Most employer-provided wellness security programs screen lone the minimum yearly tests to gauge basal bosom wellness and illness risks, cholesterin level and hormone health. “Standard medicine is missing out, leaving excessively galore unsolved questions astir a person’s risk,” Topol said. “Just bash the tests based connected a person’s risk; the output is overmuch higher.“

He recommends a fewer lower-cost, circumstantial tests to assistance personalize aesculapian attraction and usher preventive strategies that tin assistance emblem imaginable illness risks that astir insurance-covered tests bash not:

• Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS): Often costing less than $50, these tests supply validated hazard estimates for communal cancers (e.g., prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, melanoma) and different diseases. Use this trial alongside different wellness data, similar household past and regular humor tests, to supply a much broad hazard assessment.
• DEXA scans: Typically costing little than $100, this is simply a comparatively inexpensive and utile instrumentality for monitoring changes successful assemblage composition, specified arsenic musculus and abdominous mass, oregon older adults acrophobic astir musculus loss.
• Sequencing your genome: For astir $200, this process tin assistance find which, if any, cancers you whitethorn beryllium astir predisposed to. This is simply a trial you request to instrumentality lone once, for lifelong knowledge. Caveat: Unfortunately, astir of the validated datasets for genomic crab hazard are inactive for radical of European ancestry only.

3. Do: Nourish your “gut-brain axis”

In “Super Agers,” Topol writes astatine magnitude astir the bidirectional connection betwixt gut hormones and the brain, and calls it captious to steadfast immune function. Gut hormones are chemic messengers made by peculiar cells successful the digestive tract that assistance power digestive functions. They pass with the encephalon done the bloodstream and the vagus nerve, which runs done the pharynx and vocal cords and connects the gut and brain.

“I’m beauteous well-convinced present that the gut hormone communicative is the astir bonzer happening I’ve ever seen successful aesculapian intervention,” helium told me. “Because the gut hormones speech to the immune system, and they speech to the brain, which is ngo power for the immune system.”

“It isn’t conscionable the microbiome, it’s the gut’s hormone production,” helium said. “The mode to a person’s encephalon and to steadfast aging, it apt volition beryllium done their gut.”

Here’s however to nourish the two-way connection on the alleged gut-brain axis:

• Maintain a beardown and divers gut microbiome: Consume a assortment of full foods (meat, grains, legumes, acheronian leafy greens), and minimize ultra-processed foods (i.e., thing with a agelong database of ingredients you can’t pronounce). Foods with progressive macrobiotic cultures similar yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha are large for gathering healthy, divers gut bacteria.
• Stimulate and fortify your vagus nerve. Care for it via deep-breathing exercises that prosecute the diaphragm. Singing, humming, laughing and adjacent gargling stimulate the vagus nerve, and cold-water vulnerability tin activate it and heighten its tone.

4. Don’t: Sleep excessively small — oregon excessively much

We each cognize that getting capable slumber is captious to wellness and specifically to steadfast aging, and galore doctors rightfully telephone Americans’ chronic deficiency of due slumber a nationalist wellness crisis. But there’s different broadside to the slumber story, Topol said, admitting his ain surprise: According to plentifulness of objective research, for radical successful their precocious 30s and older, getting much than 7 to 8 hours of slumber was associated with greater mortality risks, helium said.

“The main uncovering was that astir 7 hours is the optimal duration of sleep,” helium writes successful his book. “Every one-hour-a-night summation successful slumber duration supra that seven- to eight-hour threshold is associated with 12% higher hazard of full cardiovascular disease.”

To amended slumber function, Topol recommends maintaining a accordant bedtime and waking schedule, and avoiding eating oregon drinking intoxicant for a fewer hours earlier sleep.

5. Do: Use AI to reply wellness aging questions — but with caution

The convergence of AI with advances successful biomedical information — specified arsenic genomics, microbiome investigation and integer wellness monitoring — make a transformative unit that tin radically amended illness prediction, prevention and personalized care, Topol told me.

For consumers, AI is simply a almighty tool, helium said, that tin inactive beryllium grossly mistaken, sometimes. So with caution and vigilance for AI “hallucinations” that supply flat-out incorrect information, here’s however you tin usage it to assistance you property with strength:

• Leverage idiosyncratic wellness data: Consider feeding user AI apps similar Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google) and Perplexity your anonymized information from wearable devices, mobile wellness apps and at-home investigating kits for real-time feedback and personalized recommendations. Maintaining due integer privateness means scrubbing personally identifying accusation similar your name, code and societal information fig from immoderate documents you upload to AI platforms. (Assume personally identifying information you supply an AI strategy whitethorn beryllium captured by the institution that owns it.)
• Make AI your idiosyncratic nutrient and beverage analyst: The much circumstantial you tin get astir which foods you devour and however much, the much AI tin springiness you an close thought of however balanced your fare is compared to nutritional standards. I’ve done this and received eye-opening feedback. Always inquire the AI strategy what nutrition standards it’s using, and don’t beryllium acrophobic to situation results that don’t dependable right. (Some AI tin beryllium bully astatine admitting erstwhile it’s wrong.)
• Ask AI for non-technical explanations of emerging longevity trends, treatments and technological breakthroughs. For instance, inquire Perplexity, “Why are doctors truthful excited astir GLP-1s now?” What it replies whitethorn good astonishment you.