7 Medicine-Proven Longevity Keys

Man has sought the secret of immortality for thousands of years. For some, that quest today involves things like sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, experimenting with cryotherapy, or bombarding yourself with infrared light.

Almost all of them Aging experts They are skeptical that such actions significantly extend the upper limit of human life. Many people practice what they believe to be simple behaviors They can stay healthy for a long time, reaching 80, 90 and 100 years in good physical and mental condition. Such patterns of behavior are not strange enough to infect one’s young blood.

“People are looking for a magic bullet,” Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, US said the scientific director of the National Institute on Aging. “And here’s the magic pill”.

Here are seven tips from aging experts on how to add more good years to your life.

It was the first thing that experts recommended Keep the body active. This is because study after study shows that exercise reduces the risk of premature death.

physical activity Keeps heart and circulatory system healthy and provides protection against numerous chronic diseases affecting the body and mind. Also Strengthens muscleswhich may reduce the risk of falls in older people.

“If we spend time in our adulthood developing our muscle mass, our strength, our balance and our cardiovascular endurance, as the body ages it will begin to lose that. Then from a strong place for what’s going to happen,” explained Anna Chang, a professor of medicine specializing in geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

The best exercise is An activity you like And you keep doing it. You don’t even need to do much: The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, which means just more than 20 minutes of walking a day is already beneficial.

Experts did not recommend one particular diet over any other, but generally advised eating in moderation Tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods. The Mediterranean diet — which prioritizes fresh produce in addition to whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and olive oil — is a good model for healthy eating and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.

Some experts say maintaining a healthy weight is important for longevity, but Columbia University professor of health and aging policy Dr. For John Rowe this is less of a concern, especially as people enter old age. “I was always more concerned about my patients who gained weight,” Rowe said.

Sleep is sometimes underestimated, but it plays an important role in healthy aging. Research has found that the average amount of sleep a person gets per night is related to the risk of dying from any cause, and that achievement Better sleep quality Consistency can add years to your life.

Sleep seems especially important Brain health: A 2021 study found that people who slept less than five hours a night had twice the risk of dementia.

“As people get older Need more sleep not less“said Alison Moore, professor of medicine and chief of geriatrics, gerontology and palliative care at the University of California, San Diego. Overall Seven to nine hours is recommendedhe added.

It goes without saying, but Smoking increases the risk of all kinds of deadly diseases. “There is no dose of cigarette smoke that is good for your health,” Rowe said.

We are beginning to understand how bad too much alcohol is. More than one drink per day for women and two (and possibly even fewer) drinks per day for men increase the risk of heart disease and atrial fibrillation, liver disease, and seven types of cancer.

All of the above healthy behaviors help control high blood pressure, cholesterol and prediabetes and prevent them from developing into more serious diseases, but sometimes lifestyle precautions are not enough. That’s why experts say it’s necessary Follow your doctor’s advice To keep things under control.

“It’s not fun taking medication, it’s not fun controlling your blood pressure and blood sugar,” Dr. Chang recalls. “But when we optimize all those things into one package, they also help us Live a better, healthier and longer life“

This Psychological health It often takes a back seat to physical health, but Anna Chang made it clear that it’s just as important. “Isolation and loneliness are as harmful to our health as smoking,” he noted, adding that they put us at “higher risk of dementia, heart disease and stroke.”

Personal relationships are the key not only to living with greater health, but also to living with greater happiness. According to the Harvard University Study of Adult Development, Strong relationships are the biggest predictor of well-being.

John Rowe tells his medical students that one of the best indicators of how well an elderly patient will do in six months is to ask “How many friends or family did you see last week?”.

Swear Think positive It can help you live longer. Some studies have found that optimism is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and that people who score high on tests of optimism live 5% to 15% longer than those who are more pessimistic.

This may be because optimistic people have Healthy habits and lower rates of some chronic diseases, but even after accounting for those factors, research shows that people who think positively live longer anyway.

If you want to choose a healthy practice for your longevity, “do some form of physical activity,” says Dr. Alison Moore said. “If you can’t do that, focus on being a positive person.”

The New York Times. Exclusive to Clarins

Translation: Roman Garcia Azcaret