Six surprising daily changes to add a decade to your life

Telegraph

2 days ago

If you ever needed a reminder to make small changes to protect your health in the future, here it is: a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine has found that focusing on key cardiovascular risk factors (such as high blood pressure and cholesterol) and making the right lifestyle changes by the age of 50 can add a decade to your life. We asked the experts which small habits they would add to their day to help add 10 years to their lives.
1. Try the 'Scandinavian sleep method' or a 'sleep divorce'
Thanks in no small part to Covid isolation, snoring and Gwyneth Paltrow, sleep divorce is increasingly becoming the nocturnal life choice for couples who crave blissful peace at bedtime. A YouGov study revealed that 37 per cent of Britons say they sleep better alone, and in the United States 35 per cent of couples are happily sleeping in either separate beds or separate rooms from their partners. And the benefits are bountiful.
'Changing the sleep environment can be transformative,' says Dr Stephanie Collier, a psychiatrist at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. 'Fewer night-time interruptions mean better rest, sharper thinking and more emotional resilience – and people are also less snippy. Physiologically, the benefits are just as compelling: reduced cardiovascular stress, stronger immune function, and even a lower risk of obesity and diabetes. Sleep also plays an important role in motor performance and concentration – areas that directly affect a person's risk for accidents.'
In other words, the knock on effects for increased longevity are obvious. However, not all couples want to sleep apart. Or perhaps they do, but they just don't have the physical space to accommodate such a life change. In which case, why not try a sleep 'trial separation'? All the advantages, none of the inconvenience of trying to squeeze a bed into the home office.
'You don't need a second bedroom to start prioritising sleep,' counsels Dr Collier. 'Couples can stagger bedtimes or use silent alarms to avoid disrupting each other. If movement or temperature is an issue, try the 'Scandinavian sleep method' (separate duvets on the same bed). If your partner is a loud sleeper, white noise machines, fans or earplugs can work wonders. Even partial separation, like sleeping apart during workdays and reuniting on weekends, can lead to meaningful improvements in sleep.'
A new study by Australian researchers published in the Sports Medicine journal reports that following a structured dance programme could offer greater psychological and cognitive benefits than some traditional exercise activities. By analysing participants ranging in age from as young as seven right up to 85, and from healthy subjects to those suffering from chronic disease, the findings suggested that several forms of structured dance activity were as good (if not better) for you as team sports, walking and even martial arts.
' Dance can improve several aspects of health – physical, psychological, and cognitive,' says Dr Alycia Fong Yan, a senior lecturer in exercise and sport science at the University of Sydney and lead author of the study. 'My research has found that dance is equally as effective, and in some cases more effective, as standard exercise. So if dance is an attractive physical activity for someone, then they will be more likely to engage with dance regularly, increasing their total weekly physical activity volume and reaping health benefits in the long term.'
As a former professional dancer and dance teacher, Dr Fong Yan was not surprised by the results of the study in terms of dance's effectiveness in reducing fat mass, lowering triglycerides (a type of fat found in your blood) and improving cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and day-to-day functionality. She did, however, find it interesting that benefits on mental health were seen across the age spans and across many health conditions, too.
'We found the effectiveness of dance interventions was most evident in the domains of self-efficacy, anxiety, depression, motivation and health-related quality of life, particularly in older individuals,' she says. 'Structured dance was found to be equally as effective as exercise for improving anxiety, depression and Parkinson's disease-related quality of life.'
Although the study didn't suggest any single dance program to be more effective than others, both partnered and individual routines were found to be beneficial. 'From an exercise science perspective, higher intensity dance genres with faster tempos will increase heart rate and meet the moderate to vigorous physical activity recommendations,' Dr Fong Yan concludes.
'For older adults, dance styles with challenging balance elements, quick changes of directions and complex movement sequences will mimic the exercises in falls prevention exercise programs. Dance styles that include some bouncing, jumping and rapid footwork will be beneficial for bone health as the loading on the lower body is novel, high impact and fast to stimulate bone growth. Any dance genre that has music that you enjoy will motivate you to keep going back.'
3. Take an omega-3 supplement
If you want a healthy heart, better brain function and a reduction in inflammation – the tent poles for a longer, healthier life – you need your omega-3 fatty acids. Nutritionists will point to oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines) and plant-based alternatives (flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts), but a recent study found that upping your omega-3s might also help delay the ageing process. The science is that these fatty acids could play a role in preserving our telomeres – the protective caps made from DNA and protein that are located at the end of our chromosomes. Telomeres shorten as we get older and are linked to age-related diseases. In the study, taking an omega-3 supplement was found to lengthen those telomeres.
'Inflammation and oxidative stress can shorten telomeres, and each of these processes have been associated with faster ageing,' explains Dr Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, an academy professor at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. 'Omega-3 can reduce those two conditions, and thus could buffer telomeres from their damaging effects. Large studies have already linked higher omega-3 levels with lower all-cause mortality, but our research showed that omega-3 supplementation had positive effects on inflammation, oxidative stress and telomere length, providing one obvious pathway for these reductions in mortality.'
An additional study suggested the omega-3 supplementation benefits could be further boosted if accompanied by doses of vitamin D and regular exercise. 'Omega-3's benefits likely depend on the person's starting point – their age, weight, activity level, sleep, dietary omega-3 intake and mood,' Dr Kiecolt-Glaser adds. 'But the research is promising.'
We all know walking is good. Exactly how many steps we should take a day, however, is trickier to pin down. A study in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology found that as few as 2,337 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from heart and circulatory diseases. The same study also established that at least 3,867 steps reduced the risk of dying from any cause. For older adults, walking between 6,000 and 9,000 steps a day lessened the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 50 per cent.
If you really want to get the maximum health benefits from your perambulations though, you should walk faster. A new study by Dr Elroy Aguiar, an assistant professor in the exercise science department of kinesiology and his team at the University of Alabama found that the quality as well as the quantity of exercise had a significant impact.
'Our study, and several others, have shown that even small amounts (1-5 minutes) of higher intensity activity are associated with better outcomes,' says Dr Aguiar. 'These higher intensity minutes challenge the cardiovascular and respiratory systems the most, and elicit faster and stronger adaptations in aerobic fitness, even within as little as one week of exercise. Over time, this leads to better health overall.'
Increasing the intensity of exercise was shown to improve the five cardiovascular risk factors for metabolic syndrome – abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL (or 'good' cholesterol) and elevated sugar levels. However, the biggest impact according to Dr Aguiar's study, was on blood pressure.
To put this in the context of steps per day, if you're doing 8000-10,000 steps per day, you could focus on completing 2000-3000 of these steps (approximately 20-30 minutes) at a higher pace that elevates heart rate.
'Walking cadence above 100-steps-per-minute is associated with moderate intensity,' Dr Aguiar suggests. 'So walking for 20-30 minutes per day at a cadence above 100 steps per minute would be an excellent strategy to get better results, especially for those who are just starting out with exercise or who might prefer walking as their choice of exercise.'
5. Add potassium-rich avocado, banana and salmon to your weekly menu
Around one in three adults suffer from hypertension in the UK, meaning they are at a great risk of serious health problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney damage and cognitive conditions such as dementia. Recent research by the University of Waterloo in Ontario suggests eating more potassium-rich foods may be more effective in lowering blood pressure than simply reducing salt and sodium intake alone.
Because early humans ate lots of fruits and vegetables, the hypothesis is that over time our body's regulatory systems may have evolved to work best with a high potassium, low sodium diet.
Anita Layton, professor of applied mathematics, computer science, pharmacy and biology at the University of Waterloo, and co-author of the maths-based study, concluded that adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet, such as bananas or broccoli, might have a greater positive impact on your blood pressure than just cutting sodium. 'We decided to look at a potential link between dietary potassium and blood pressure because our modern diet is so very different from that of our ancestors,' Layton explains. 'We eat so much sodium and so little potassium, whereas that ratio is reversed in our forebears, as well as people in isolated tribes, where high blood pressure is very rare.'
The University of Waterloo findings reached a similar conclusion to research that appeared in the European Heart Journal that suggested people who had the most potassium in their diet were 13 per cent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people who consumed the least.
'In general, fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts are good sources of potassium,' says Prof Layton. 'Our model simulations also suggested that men may have a stronger response (measured by reduction in blood pressure) to an increase in dietary potassium-to-sodium ratio. That said, while healthy eating would almost certainly help, it won't entirely protect you from developing high blood pressure. Unfortunately, that is almost inevitable when you get older.'
6. Prioritise your interpersonal relationships
When the 'epidemic of loneliness' became a seriously worrying problem at the end of the last decade, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was so concerned at the dangers it presented that they set up a task force to encourage behavioural health scientists to investigate it. Since then, studies have shown that prolonged periods of isolation are associated with increased stress and related changes in brain structure. Having healthy social networks, research shows, can increase the odds of living a long life by as much as 50 per cent.
Julie Gibson Clarke, an independent but self-proclaimed 'reluctant' biohacker, is in no doubt how important social interaction is. As a 56-year-old single mother who has been able to reduce her biological age to ten years less than her physical age, and at a fraction of the cost of biohackers like Bryan Johnson who famously spends $2million a year to achieve similar results, we should pay attention. As Gibson Clarke says: 'In a world that often celebrates hyper-independence and optimisation, genuine connection is still one of the most powerful, evidence-backed ways to extend both lifespan and healthspan.'
She has spent a year close to the top of the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard (a competition that challenges competitors to slow their biological ageing process) and maintains that investing in connections is vital to living longer.
'So many of the things that support longevity work synergistically, so it is hard to say which is the best… but if I had to choose one I'd say: prioritise meaningful relationships,' she says. 'And I say that as an introvert! For me, it doesn't mean being constantly social – it means being fully present when I'm with friends and family, investing in a deeper understanding of the people I care about, and favouring warm, positive interactions even over the occasional 'perfect' wellness routine.'