In a few weeks I will be 67 years old, more than two-thirds of my way to my goal of reaching 100, and, hopefully, getting a birthday card from the monarch.
But how likely is it that I — or any of us — will reach this milestone?
As part of my research I went to Okinawa, an island off the coast of Japan. It’s been dubbed ‘the land of the immortals’ because it has the highest proportion of centenarians anywhere in the world.I met Craig Wilcox, a professor of public health and gerontology at Okinawa International University, who runs a research programme that’s examined more than 1,000 centenarians in the region.
He tried to cheer me up by explaining that even if you inherit just the ordinary FoxO3 genes, there are ways to activate them so they behave more like the protective version. These include intermittent fasting , regular exercise, stress reduction — and more surprisingly, consuming plenty of red and purple foods, such as reddish-purple sweet potatoes and shrimp and salmon.
Professor Wilcox thinks going on a low-calorie diet that’s rich in vegetables and foods containing antioxidants helps activate genes such as FoxO3 that play a part in healthy ageing. I went to a Moai that had been created to support an elderly cardiologist whose wife had died. Once a week his friends would gather at his house to sing karaoke , eat, dance and chat. It was a lovely atmosphere and you could see how much it meant to them all.
This led to a healthier microbiome, and in turn, a lower incidence of allergic diseases, particularly in food allergies.
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