Travel, plastics and, er, gorillas!

Annabel and I have long appreciated the benefits of travel to help us age well. We know our brains and bodies thrive on new experiences, new places, new people.

So we weren’t surprised to read research published last month in the Journal of Travel Research (not a publication we’d come across before) that suggested travel could be the best defence against ageing. The paper is heavy on the theoretical: applying the theory of ‘entropy increase’ (which means increase in disorder – in this case, poor health and decline as we age) to tourism. The key take away is that when we have positive travel experiences, we remain in a low-entropy state and are more able to maintain long-term health. In addition, a Chinese study published last year associated travel with lower risk of dementia. It followed more than 6700 people aged over sixty. At a four year follow up, the incidence of cognitive impairment and dementia was significantly lower among participants with at least one ‘tourism experience’ (defined as traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment) in the two years before the study begun.

A positive ‘tourism experience’

I’ve just returned from a very positive ‘tourism experience’ in Rwanda. Not a country that was on the bucket list, but when my husband was invited to play in a charity cricket tournament in Kigali, it seemed the perfect opportunity to explore. Aside from the last UK government’s attempts to send migrants to Rwanda, much of what I knew about the country before I visited related to the genocide against the Tutsis 30 years ago, in which up to one million people were murdered in 100 days. The scale of it is unimaginable.

Even the smallest village has a genocide memorial, and many people we spoke to had a profoundly affecting story to share, either their own or those of family members. But what is so uplifting visiting now is the collective sense of unity and progress. Resilience is an over-used term in response to trauma but, as a nation, the Rwandans have shown extraordinary levels of forgiveness as they’ve rebuilt the country, coming together in ways it would be hard to imagine elsewhere. This is a small step on the road, but once a month, the whole nation spends a Saturday morning collecting litter in their local community. Even the president joins in! The result is an incredibly clean environment, and a strong sense of pride in the country. Another such initiative sees roads closed until 10am on a Sunday morning to allow for outdoor exercise together. We’d love to see that here in the UK!

1000 hills

Rwanda is a stunningly beautiful place for outdoor exercise: it’s known as ‘the country of 1000 hills’. Its rolling green terrain and temperate climate make it a perfect place to explore. We visited chimpanzees, monkeys and – most excitingly – one of the 12 mountain gorilla families which live on the Rwandan side of the Virunga Mountains. We share up to 98% of our DNA with these gentle giants. They’re so incredibly human! I sat on the ground and watched a gorilla mother tenderly care for her baby. They’re so like us but, unlike us, have so little impact on the planet. It’s the human great ape that’s wreaked havoc here. (And I realise the irony of getting on a long-distance flight to work this out).

Rwanda is taking steps to reduce the impact of humans on the environment as much as it can. Plastic bags are banned countrywide (if you’re spotted with one at the airport it will be taken away) but plastic water bottles are not. We were told we needed to drink bottled water, but it always came in plastic containers.

Plastics and ageing well

I know that access to clean water is a privilege, and not one I take lightly. But I’m also conscious that micro- and nano-plastics from food and drinks containers enter our bodies and accumulate there. They impact every aspect of our health from fertility to the cardiovascular system, and from blood pressure to cancer risk. And they cross the blood-brain barrier, our first line of defence against neuron-damaging chemicals (more detail on that here).

An onslaught of new research dives deeper into how they impact health. A paper published last month reported that microplastics have been found in the olfactory bulb above our nasal cavities (Annabel wrote about the olfactory bulb here) which may be another way for them to burrow into the brain. And a study out last week linked PFAS, the ‘forever chemicals’ found in food and drink containers to shorter sleep duration and increased sleep disturbances. The always excellent Dr Rhonda Patrick has a new podcast on the effect of microplastics on health and longevity – catch it here. And Annabel listed her tips on ditching plastics in a post here.

Beans and roots for longevity

One last thought about Rwanda: it produces enough food for its population of 12 million – which is pretty impressive for a country the size of Wales. Root crops like potato, cassava and sweet potato grow very well, as do beans, so we ate a lot of those. I’ll leave you with some recipes from the archive that foreground beans and roots:

Sicilian chicken with potatoes and artichokes

Baked stuffed sweet potatoes

Fava bean ful

Sweet potato bean cakes

Lebanese baked beans

Susan

 

Photo: Richard Saunders