Scientists have finally decided what exactly can be done to prolong youth.
The path to longevity is thorny, but completely surmountable. No supernatural effort is needed - only willpower. You cannot do without it in order to eat right and move at least a little. To such a seemingly primitive notion that scientists have actually come effectively, who for several years now have been analyzing numerous research papers devoted to the search for ways to rejuvenate, comparing the results and identifying the most impressive ones. And those that relate to food and physical activity are impressive.
Some of the recommendations that have been proven by science are very familiar. But this indicates that they are working and helping many. Statistically proven.
What, according to scientists, would be worth trying? With benefit and without side effects? This was recently reported by the British newspaper The Guardian in an article titled The 100-year life: how to prolong a healthy mind, a free translation of which might sound very familiar. As in Mayakovsky: "We grow up to a hundred years without old age."
We eat up to a hundred years without old age.
Less meat, more vegetables and fruits. And always with wine
The lifestyle of the inhabitants of the so-called "blue zones" - several places on Earth abounding in centenarians, many of which are over 100 years old, are recognized as worthy of imitation. They are believed to eat well. It seems to be due to this, mainly, and stay away from the next world.
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The term "blue zones" was coined by nutritionists and other gerontologists by the American writer and researcher Dan Buettner. He "mapped" those that he personally discovered. And for more than 15 years, he has been visiting them together with experts from the National Institute of Aging (Washington), “ferrying out” the secrets of local “aksakals”.
Buettner counted five blue zones. These are the Italian island of Sardinia, the Japanese island of Okinawa, the city of Loma Linda in California, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, the Greek island of Ikaria. General recommendations based on what was spied there: minimally processed plant foods, very little meat, drinking water, herbal tea, coffee. Wine is a must. Somewhere they drink it all day - in small doses. If milk, then goat.
The difference lies in the details. In Sardinia, for example, barley is most respected - in the form of barley porridge.
On the island of Okinawa, yam - sweet potato - and soy tofu are popular.
There is no special food in Loma Linda - it's just that almost all vegetarians are here.
On the Nicoya Peninsula, more than 70 percent of the diet is corn, cornmeal tortillas, beans and local squash.
On the Greek island of Ikaria, seniors start their day with a spoonful of honey. Salads and even beans are flavored with olive oil. "Mountain tea" is considered a cure for all diseases, which contains dried herbs - oregano, sage, mint, rosemary, dandelion leaves.
Ikarians have fish two or three times a week, meat five times a month, coffee two or three cups a day, wine up to four glasses a day.
* Blue zones * - where people age more slowly - not so many.
Total - less and less often
An effective and long-advocated measure - generally there is less. If you believe numerous studies on mice, flies and worms, then a tangible beneficial effect can be achieved by reducing calorie intake by at least a third.
The reason for the phenomenon is not completely clear. Perhaps the secret is in a process called autophagy, for the discovery of the mechanisms of which the Japanese Yoshinori Osumi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016.
Autophagy removes unnecessary cells from the body and removes toxins from the body. The process turns on most intensively in response to stress - including the one that arises from a calorie deficit. And as a result of starvation.
It's not just undernourished mice that demonstrate the miracles of rejuvenation. Among the people-long-livers are also full of "starving".
There are plenty of ways to limit yourself in food. There are plenty to choose from. But the most convincing is now the so-called intermittent or intermittent fasting. Its essence is simple: you can eat for 8 hours, and not for the remaining 16 hours. For example, enthusiasts eat from 12 noon to 8 pm - whatever they want, even cakes. But in moderation. And then they starve until next noon. Experts recommend repeating the "exercise" 1-2 times a week. And if it works out, then in general, over time, switch to a similar regime - the most stringent in intermittent fasting. But it seems that the result is given by more gentle schemes: with periods of fasting at 14, 12 and 10 hours, respectively.
"The combination of fasting and calorie reduction slows aging, prolongs life and counteracts age-related disorders, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke," said gerontologists at the National Institute of Aging, whose review study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Scientists have only one question: whether humans will be able to maintain intermittent fasting for many years and thereby reap the benefits seen in animal experiments.
This is what you should strive for. If you want to, of course.
Well, you really shouldn't limit yourself
You can eat as little meat as you like, but there should be plenty of vegetables. When there are not enough of them, the person begins to experience anxiety. Up to a serious mental disorder. This is assured by Canadians who have followed 30 thousand participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. It was held from 2010 to 2015. From the published results, it follows: those people whose age has exceeded 60 years, refusing even a small bowl with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes or cabbage, worry about and without reason 4 times more often. That is, they experience additional stress, which is by no means rejuvenating.
Let's move the body together and move the convolutions
On the island of Ikaria, dominoes are played in the evenings. Which, of course, cannot serve as an example of physical activity. But it is evidence of the sociability of local centenarians. After all, they play with friends, chatting at the same time and drinking wine. Strong spiritual ties are maintained in all blue zones. According to scientists, this seriously interferes with decrepitude - mental and, as a result, physical. Because the desire to move depends on how active the brain is.
You can move intensively, moderately and even barely. There will definitely be benefits, doctors say.
If health, as they say, allows, then intense aerobic exercise should be given at least 75 minutes a week. Walk fast, at about 5-6 kilometers per hour. If the physical form is not so good, then you will have to walk 150 minutes a week - slowly, at a speed of 3-4 kilometers per hour. The best option: walk every day for at least 30 minutes in a row.
Programs to engage older people in physical activity are clearly beneficial.
Aerobic exercise should be supplemented with exercises with weights that strengthen the muscles - that is, you need to "swing". You don't even have to go to the gym - full of exercises in which your own body acts as a burden. But if the desire to rejuvenate still leads to a fitness club, then you will have to be careful there - not to take on large weights so as not to damage the joints.
It is also necessary to train the brain - to move the convolutions every day. And it would be good with "weights". Scientists recommend discussing news heard on the radio or read in the newspaper, thinking about politics, doing crosswords, Sudoku, playing chess or playing preference. And even better - to solve school problems together with grandchildren.
- Nothing contributes to the restoration of nerve cells as the correct answer found, - the famous German neurologist Professor of the University of Göttingen Harold Hutter explains the essence of such exercises.
Brains really degrade from mental idleness. Numerous experiments are convincing of this. The majority of volunteers who did not bother themselves with intelligent activity for only two or three weeks, had a marked decrease in intelligence. The drop in IQ ranged from 10 to 20 points.
Mental activity saves the brain from damage. Serves both prevention and treatment. As the same professor assures, the nervous tissue is restored at any age. At 20, of course, regeneration is faster, and at 90 it is slower. But it goes. If stress doesn't suppress her.
According to Swedish scientists from the Karolinska Institute, intellectual efforts can increase the rate of regeneration up to 700 neurons per day.
The longer you load the brain, the longer you can live using the brain.
It can take 66 days to get used to "living right"
You have to understand: success in rejuvenation awaits those who have proper nutrition, physical and mental activity will become a habit. How long will it take to form? This question was answered by researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London. Conducted appropriate experiments. And described them in detail in the European Journal of Social Psychology
The experiments involved 96 volunteers. For 12 weeks, they developed three healthy habits: drinking freshly squeezed juice every day, eating fruit and, most importantly - in the sense of being difficult - running for 15 minutes. Or at least perform a set of physical exercises.
As scientists expected, the first two habits developed fairly quickly. And the third was not given to everyone. Six volunteers left the race, unable to force themselves to move those same 15 minutes a day. The rest, on average, took as much as 66 days to "get involved" in health-improving activities, to bring them to automaticity, to carry out on an internal call and without disgust.
Total: those who want to at least slow down aging, even seeing such a tempting goal in front of them, which, by the way, also contributes to the process as a whole, should be ready to overcome natural laziness. Almost 10 weeks “getting used to good things” is not easy at all. In the experiments, British scientists are encouraged by one thing: they still proved that a good habit can be developed through repeated repetitions.
Wine is healthy. But in moderation. And if not in moderation, then in a place of longevity, you can drink yourself to cirrhosis of the liver.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY