Longevity: live healthy for longer

Ever since the Netflix series about the world’s “blue zones”, longevity has been on everyone’s lips: What is the secret of the people in these regions, where more centenarians live than anywhere else on earth and are in good health? What can we and age researchers learn from them?

What is longevity?

The healthy ageing in the blue zones, for example on Sardinia, on the Greek island of Icaria or the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, shows that the secret to a long, healthy life – or longevity – is a simple and conscious lifestyle.

This is also confirmed by longevity research. Research today assumes that we can influence up to 70% of healthy ageing ourselves through our lifestyle.

Can you extend your life expectancy?

“Blue zone research shows that fresh food from healthy soil, exercise, social contacts and a meaningful life are key to ageing healthily,” says Bettina Kneip. The doctor and Ayurveda specialist runs a holistic practice in Zurich and Zug.

What we eat, how we exercise, who we socialise with, what thoughts we have and how we feel emotionally have a significant influence on the inflammation levels in our body.

If we are frequently or chronically stressed, the levels of our stress hormones are constantly high. “This raises the inflammation levels, weakens the immune system, slows the metabolism, and the body has trouble getting rid of free radicals, which are waste products that form in the cells,” explains Kneip.

How do telomeres affect life expectancy?

High inflammation levels make us more susceptible to illness and speed up the ageing process. Scientific studies indicate that they accelerate the natural ageing process of cells.

As we get older, the telomeres – ends of the chromosomes – lose more and more of their protective properties. The telomores act as protective caps at the ends of the chromosomes, protecting genetic material from damage. However, as the cells divide, these caps shorten until at some point they are so short that a cell can no longer divide and dies.

This happens every day. And the older we get, the more of these dead cells we have, which causes the body to age, as evidenced by stiff joints, deteriorating cartilage, wrinkly skin and memory loss.

It is this ageing at the cellular level that we can influence with our lifestyle, primarily by finding ways (see tips below) to keep inflammation levels in the body low and to strengthen your immune system. “Both these elements determine how well our body can get rid of free radicals, i.e. harmful waste products, from our cells and how well our metabolism works,” says Kneip.

Organs age at different speeds

Longevity research has also recently discovered that not all cells age at the same speed, for example the cells of your heart may age faster than those in your liver or kidneys. And, in fact, the biologically oldest organ accelerates the ageing process of the entire body.

In future, scientists want to use protein tests, which are currently only available at very high prices, to identify the “oldest” organ in order to specifically slow down the ageing of this organ and thus increase a person’s longevity.

Tips for a long and healthy life

But even if science will soon be able to control the ageing of our organs, potentially up to 70% of the factors that determine our health will still be up to us. Find out here how you can make sure that you live a healthy life for longer.