What works from those who know

You want to live an active, engaged counterclockwise life. You want to be healthy and vibrant, “youthful” in the best sense of the word — the sense that has nothing to do with a wrinkle-free face and everything to do with energy and vitality.

Yep, me too.

So what do you do? Actually, I think the more important question is: Whom do you trust to inform you about what to do? Whom do you trust to alert you to ways to live and sustain a well-er than well life?

How about taking advice from the pre-eminent peer-reviewed science journal in the U.S.? Oh yeah. Science has just published a special issue on aging, and I’m going to give you the highlights. And be your interpreter. Otherwise your eyelids may grow heavy merely from reading this snappy headline: “Geroscience Interventions with Translational Potential.”

Here’s the latest, credible, vetted information about paths to counterclockwise living.

Dietary restriction. DR – sometimes called CR (calorie restriction) is the most studied intervention for delaying aging. It involves a lifetime of under-eating (as much as 30 percent fewer calories than your body presumably needs) while simultaneously getting all the nutrition your body needs. This is very very hard – and not at all fun – to do. You don’t want to hear this, so feel free to skip over this part: It works. And not just in mice and monkeys. People who practice DR/ CR enjoy important health benefits, including reversal of a variety of disease risk factors.

Exercise. You know this already. A large body of literature provides substantial evidence for the many and varied health benefits of exercise.

mTOR inhibitors. What if I told you that mTOR is a serine/threonine kinase, which belongs to phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase related kinases family? What if I didn’t? Suffice to know that we want to INHIBIT the sucker, and that inhibiting its action increases health span, reverses cardiac decline and improves the immune system. In mice. A recent study found immune-boosting in actual humans.

Metformin. Bet you’ve been reading about this one. FDA just approved studying it as an “anti-aging” drug. It is already widely used in the treatment of diabetes. Promising.

NAD precursors. NAD stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. It’s a coenzyme found in all living cells that plays a central role in cellular energy production — as in happy mitochondria, efficient disposal of the waste products of energy production (aka free radicals). The body makes it. You can lend a helping hand by taking a precursor like nicotinamide riboside. Mice studies look very promising (improve health span and cognitive function), and scientists are excited. Well, as excited as scientists get.

What else does Science say?

Taking “youth” hormones? “Largely controversial.”
Tinkering with telomeres? “Possibility of increased cancer risk.”
Accepting health advice from random websites? “Stupid.”  Okay. I said that.