I’m an ageing expert, three easy ways to look young and live longer
A TECH millionaire trying to live beyond age 200 has sparked a global debate about whether someone can really reverse the ageing process.
A new Netflix documentary called Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever chronicles the life of Bryan Johnson, inset, an entrepreneur who spends millions each year to feel 18 again.
The fitness fanatic, 47, wants to reach a stage where one year of chronological time can pass while his biological age stays the same.
But Dawn Skelton, Professor in Ageing and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University, reckons his plans will be short-lived.
She said: “Since I first started doing research into exercise in older people over 30 years ago, our life expectancy has gone up.
“This is because we have the NHS, brilliant medications, good sanitation and there’s no wars in the UK.
“But I think people trying to live until the age of 200 are fighting a losing battle and wasting money.
“Cell death starts almost the minute you start walking, and over time you can’t preserve the nervous system, because they [cells] have a time clock.
“You can reduce the speed they die off and stop illness or accidents but there’s still a time clock on every cell in the body.”
The new programme, from Tiger King director Chris Smith, follows Johnson’s journey as he tries to avoid death.
His main purpose is to have multiple lifetimes with his son Talmage as he says, “one hundred years is not enough”.
To achieve his aim, he wakes up at 4.30am, eats all his meals before 11am and goes to bed at 8.30pm.
He takes over 100 pills a day, has given up booze, bathes his body in LED light and sits on a high-intensity electromagnetic device to strengthen his pelvic floor.
And his daily routine includes monitoring his body fat, heart rate variability, blood, stool samples and the number of erections he has per night.
Johnson also took part in the first “multi-generational” plasma exchange — swapping blood with his son and then his own father.
He claims to only age for 7.6 months for every year that passes and said his own dad’s speed of ageing dropped by 25 years for six months after receiving a litre of his plasma.
But Prof Skelton questions whether Johnson really wants what he’s so desperate to have.
She said: “In my lifespan of working in ageing, the Queen was writing a few hundred telegrams and now the King can’t do them because there’s thousands every year.
“But I don’t think we will ever see anyone reach 150. I would lay money on the fact he won’t live until 200. He’s doing a lot of things linked to longevity but he can’t stop the inevitable.”
The expert also questions whether anyone could mentally cope with living until 200. In the UK, the number of people aged 65 and over has grown by nearly half in the past 30 years.
The figure for people aged 75 and over has increased by 89 per cent over this period too. In Scotland, the population aged 90 plus is set to triple by 2033 — with people aged 60 already outnumbering those 16 and under.
LIVE YOUNG
TIPS to living longer - just not to 200.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY:
Across the UK we’re very sedentary. Physical activity guidelines are 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week, something that makes you warmer or out of breath, and for some people that’s a run or brisk walk, or a slow walk depending on your fitness level.
You also want to do strengthening work twice a week that makes your muscles warmer or tighter, and twice a week we should be doing something that improves our balance.
DIET:
A lot of people now try calorific restriction. If you think back 100 years ago, when poverty was worse than it is now, people sometimes didn’t have food for days.
Research suggests people who practise calorific restriction regularly live longer and that’s mostly from monks and nuns who fast at monasteries. Being overweight puts excess pressure on the body. Vegans need to eat plants with good protein otherwise muscles will reduce in size.
STAY SOCIAL:
There’s strong research that shows men live longer if their wives are still around. It’s probably that they’re eating better and being more active as they’re doing something with their other half.
We also know, mental health-wise, men tend to live longer if they are in a household with others. With quality of life, social interaction reduces the chances of anxiety, depression and loneliness.
As a result, charity Age UK projected that the number of over-50s who are lonely will increase to two million by next year. Similarly, Age Scotland revealed that 58 per cent of over-50s experience loneliness most or all of the time and 47 per cent spend less money on socialising because of the cost-of-living crisis.
This means that two people on every street in Scotland are lonely and only have their TV or a pet for company.
Such sad statistics are the reason why Prof Skelton doubts living until 200 would be enjoyable for anyone.
She said: “Would you really want to? By that point all your family and friends will have died off so mental health -wise it could be damaging.
“You’re likely to have serious mobility issues and get to the point you’re in a wheelchair and in a care home, so why would you like to live that long?
“The planet won’t cope either if we all live excessive amounts of time, there’s already not enough food and we have a carbon footprint that’s terrible.”