I was recently in Brussels and took the opportunity to visit the city’s fabulous collection of Old Masters. The Brueghels (or Bruegels, as you prefer) caught my eye – not only for their colour and verve but for their insight into how our ancestors lived. Look closely at these paintings of sixteenth century village life…
HRV, the power of NO and mouth taping to help us age well
It’s a truism, health-wise, that we can’t change what we don’t track. So keeping on top of our stats is an important part of the Age-Well journey for Annabel and I. I keep an ongoing record of routine tests like cholesterol levels, blood pressure readings, blood glucose and Vitamin D levels. In addition, I have…
WHY WE SHOULD BE WALKING … BACKWARDS
There’s been lots of good news for walkers recently. A study published last month found that over-60s who walked between 6000 and 9000 steps a day cut their risk of heart disease (including strokes and heart attacks) by 40-50 percent, when compared to a more typical 2000 steps a day. In fact this study found…
HOW TO TIPPLE IN SOBER OCTOBER
I’ve always enjoyed a tipple. And in the past we’ve written about the age-well joys of champagne, red wine and beer. They’re still age-well joys, of course, but in smaller and smaller quantities. Not just because we’re getting older (although that’s a perfectly valid reason for drinking less – the ageing body finds it increasingly…
ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH LIGHT? ENOUGH DARK?
Have you noticed the longer, lighter days? Isn’t it lovely? But are you spending sufficient time outdoors? Or in a sunny spot? Are you turning off Netflix/your laptop/your phone when darkness falls? If you are, bravo! If not, you might want to read on. There’s a fair bit of science here, so scroll to the…
Would you try the ‘Green’ Mediterranean Diet for better brain health?
We’ve long extolled the virtues of the Mediterranean diet as one of the most effective ways to age well. Heavily researched for decades, it’s the gold standard nutritional pattern for healthy longevity. A quick primer: the Mediterranean diet isn’t a ‘diet’ at all, but a way of eating traditional to southern Europe. It’s heavy on…
HOW TO KEEP YOUR HEART HEALTHY
I’m just back from a research trip to the Arctic Circle, where I was investigating living in near-darkness (hence my Northern Lights photograph), snowshoeing, and the diet of the Sami people, amongst other things. While I was away, it was the anniversary of my father’s death. He died from a sudden, unexpected heart attack, the…
WHEN TO FALL ASLEEP – AND FOR HOW LONG?
I’ve been thinking about sleep recently. We all know it’s important. But how important? And what else should we know? Three years ago, when I met Professor Hornberger, an expert in dementia and ageing, he was adamant that the quality of sleep mattered most – not the quantity. He explained the importance of slow-wave sleep…
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT SELENIUM?
The talk in geroscience circles over the last fortnight has been all about selenium: can selenium supplements give us the longer healthier life we want? The excitement was sparked by an experiment that found mice given selenium supplements had an improved health span (a longer disease-free period at the end of their lives). How does…
WHY A 12 MINUTE WALK IS ALL IT TAKES (AND A SPECIAL OFFER)
This week a recent report on exercise caught my eye. As the days shorten and darken, as the weather closes in, those long walks we all took in the magnificently sunny lockdown #1 don’t seem quite so appealing. For those of us in the UK, lockdown #2 has been subject to repeated deluges of rain,…
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