MODERATION, MODERATION, MODERATION

I’m high in the Alps this month on an artists’ residency.  While the other artists are busily in their studios painting, drawing and stitching, I’m doing most of my work on foot, clambering up and down mountains as I pull together thoughts for a future book.

I was feeling very virtuous about all this exercise until I came across a surprising study  from the Finnish Twin Cohort. This study suggests that the link between exercise and longevity might not be as strong as we’ve been led to believe.  Reading it reminded me of the December 2024 study of taxi and ambulance drivers. In case you missed that one, taxi and ambulance drivers have the lowest rates of death from Alzheimer’s. Now, we know about the importance of spatial navigation (I included an entire chapter on why we should all be walking with maps rather than google dots in my book 52 Ways to Walk and I also covered it here).

But really? Neither taxi drivers nor ambulance drivers are known for their great diets or high levels of exercise.  So have we been worrying unnecessarily about what we eat and how much we move?

Well, perhaps.  And perhaps we’ve been overly worried about sugar too (I’ll get to that). But first let’s get back to the Finnish Twins. For this study, researchers tracked 11,000 twins over a period of 15 years and then followed mortality records for another 30 years. This enabled them to compare genetically identical individuals, while simultaneously isolating the effects of how they lived – their lifestyle choices.

They found that the most physically active participants had a 24% lower mortality rate when compared to the least active. But once the least active 10% of participants was removed, there was very little difference. In other words, being very sedentary wasn’t good, but that was about it.

However, the very fittest and most active were almost equally at risk: both very high and very low movers showed marked signs of biological aging.  The ‘winners’ were those who were moderately active.

And after stripping out the usual suspects – smoking, booze and high BMI – the association between physical activity and longevity faded still further, with (I’m quoting longevity guru, Dr Peter Attia, here) ‘no significant difference between highly and moderately active individuals.’

This reminded me of another recent study (also published in December) about the alleged baddie, sugar. Scientists in Sweden studied nearly 70,000 people over 22 years and found that people who had the occasional sweet treat had better health outcomes than people who had no treats at all. ‘The occasional sweet treat could actually be good for your health,’ explained the authors.

And alcohol? Well, that argument also seems to be clearing. A major study carried out by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine after reviewing years of scientific evidence on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and health outcomes came to the conclusion that moderate drinking (2 small glasses of wine for a man or one for a woman, daily) had few adverse impacts on health. With the exception of breast cancer – where the link seems clear.

The problem with alcohol is more to do with understanding what moderate drinking is – the size of glass is critical and restaurants typically like to serve large glasses!

I think all this is pretty clear: have a daily walk, as lengthy as you like, but don’t push your body to exhaustion. Equally, don’t spend your days on the sofa (unless you’re spending them with a map or doing ‘the knowledge’!). Have a piece of (decent) cake every now and then but avoid daily sugary drinks. Have the odd glass of wine, but savour it rather than guzzling it. It really is all about moderation…

Finally, I thought I’d throw in a recent study of combined Vitamin D and Omega 3s.  I’ve been taking these supplements for a while. Both Susan and I are fans, thanks to a slew of studies suggesting they really do make a difference to ageing well. So if you’re not yet taking both a Vitamin D and an Omega 3 supplement, you might want to sit up and pay attention to a study published this week.

This study, published in Nature Aging, found that taking a daily Vitamin D and an Omega 3 supplement over 3 years slowed biological aging by 3 to 4 months, with even greater effects when combined with exercise.  The researchers pointed out that while ‘3-4 months’ of life extension might not seem very much, it was more important to think about how the combined supplements reduced the prevalence of age-related conditions.  In other words, it’s the improved health that really matters. One of the researchers noted that ‘we found omega-3 lowered the rate of falls by 10% and reduced the rate of infections by up to 13%, while omega-3, vitamin D and exercise combined lowered the risk of pre-frailty by 39% and invasive cancer by 61%.’

How much to take? In this study they used 2000 iu of Vitamin D and 1 gram of omega-3, daily.

So there we have it: moderate exercise, the odd glass of wine and slice of cake, an omega-3 and a Vitamin D supplement. I’ll take it!

Annabel

PS Lots of lovely cake recipes on the blog, including this raspberry beauty and my all-time favourite (and sugar free) green tea fruit cake. Enjoy!