2 days ago
Want to feel 50 at 80? ‘Super Agers' researcher shares his do's and don'ts
Cardiologist Eric Topol is one of the leading medical researchers in the world. A founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif., Dr. Topol is also the author of a New York Times bestselling new book, 'Super Agers: An Evidence Based Approach to Longevity.'
I recently sat down with Topol to discuss his book's insights into slowing down, or turning back, our aging clocks to become more like super agers — or who he calls the 'Wellderly' — people who live well into their 80s and 90s without any chronic illness or disease.
A comprehensive answer to that question requires reading his book, written for a lay audience curious about the latest (and upcoming) scientific breakthroughs in longevity medicine. But in our hour-long conversation, Topol discussed several do's and don'ts for anyone seeking to make 80 the new 50.
If there is one main thesis to Topol's book, it's that healthy aging is a function of a strong immune system, which can defend against diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other chronic conditions. 'I keep saying to myself that old thing about the economy: 'It's the immune system, stupid,' you know?' Topol told me. 'Because it really is.'
He suggests focusing on habits that support and build immune health:
I'll go deeper into some of these specific strategies, like sleep and nutrition, below. But the common denominator is supporting a robust immune function, Topol said.
'We should be having immune system testing as we get older,' he said, 'because it is the reason why aging can hurt us.'
Most employer-provided health insurance programs cover only the minimum annual tests to gauge basic heart health and disease risks, cholesterol level and hormone health. 'Standard medicine is missing out, leaving too many unsolved questions about a person's risk,' Topol said. 'Just do the tests based on a person's risk; the yield is much higher.'
He recommends a few lower-cost, specific tests to help personalize medical care and guide preventive strategies that can help flag potential disease risks that most insurance-covered tests do not:
In 'Super Agers,' Topol writes at length about the bidirectional communication between gut hormones and the brain, and calls it critical to healthy immune function. Gut hormones are chemical messengers made by special cells in the digestive tract that help control digestive functions. They communicate with the brain through the bloodstream and the vagus nerve, which runs through the throat and vocal cords and connects the gut and brain.
'I'm pretty well-convinced now that the gut hormone story is the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen in medical intervention,' he told me. 'Because the gut hormones talk to the immune system, and they talk to the brain, which is mission control for the immune system.'
'It isn't just the microbiome, it's the gut's hormone production,' he said. 'The way to a person's brain and to healthy aging, it likely will be through their gut.'
Here's how to nourish the two-way communication along the so-called gut-brain axis:
We all know that getting enough sleep is critical to health and specifically to healthy aging, and many doctors rightfully call Americans' chronic lack of proper sleep a public health crisis. But there's another side to the sleep story, Topol said, admitting his own surprise: According to plenty of clinical research, for people in their late 30s and older, getting more than seven to eight hours of sleep was associated with greater mortality risks, he said.
'The principal finding was that about seven hours is the optimal duration of sleep,' he writes in his book. 'Every one-hour-a-night increase in sleep duration above that seven- to eight-hour threshold is associated with 12% higher risk of total cardiovascular disease.'
To improve sleep function, Topol recommends maintaining a consistent bedtime and waking schedule, and avoiding eating or drinking alcohol for a few hours before sleep.
The convergence of AI with advances in biomedical data — such as genomics, microbiome analysis and digital health monitoring — create a transformative force that can radically improve disease prediction, prevention and personalized care, Topol told me.
For consumers, AI is a powerful tool, he said, that can still be grossly mistaken, sometimes. So with caution and vigilance for AI 'hallucinations' that provide flat-out wrong information, here's how you can use it to help you age with strength:
