A Natural Age

We're living longer than ever before. But in the UK, people spend, on average, the last 16 to 19 years of their lives in poor health.¹ The real goal isn't just to add years to our lives. It's to add life to our years.

Lifespan and healthspan

Scientists now talk about two different measures. Lifespan is how long we live. Healthspan is how long we live in good health: active, clear-minded, independent and well. Closing the gap between the two is one of the great health challenges of our time, and one of the great opportunities.

The encouraging news is that much of it lies in our own hands. A large study of family trees covering more than 400 million people estimated that our genes explain well under 10% of how long we live.² The rest is shaped largely by how we live, what we eat and the world around us. (See Not Written in Stone.)

What really drives ageing?

Scientists have identified a set of hallmarks of ageing, the processes that gradually wear the body down.³ Among them are:

• Tiring mitochondria, the power stations in our cells, which make less energy and more wear and tear as we age.
• Chronic, low-grade inflammation, sometimes called "inflammaging", which quietly fuels many conditions of later life. (See The Quiet Fire.)
• "Zombie" cells, old cells that stop dividing but refuse to die, sending out inflammatory signals to their neighbours.
• Shortening telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes.
• An imbalanced gut microbiome, now recognised as a hallmark of ageing in its own right.

What's striking is how many of these respond to the way we live. They aren't simply a countdown clock. They're processes we can influence, every day.

Ageing isn't something that simply happens to us. It's something we take part in, one day and one choice at a time.

Lessons from the longest-lived

Around the world, there are communities where people reach 100 far more often than usual, from Okinawa in Japan to Sardinia in Italy and Ikaria in Greece. Their lives look very different, yet they share common threads: diets rich in vegetables, beans and whole foods; natural movement throughout the day; strong families and communities; and a clear sense of purpose. (See Born to Move.)

Large studies tell a similar story. Researchers following more than 120,000 adults in the US found that five healthy habits, not smoking, a healthy weight, regular exercise, a healthy diet and keeping alcohol to a minimum, added around 14 years of life for women and 12 for men, compared with having none of them.⁴

Sardinia was where the idea began. In the mountain villages of Nuoro and Ogliastra, researchers found that men reached 100 almost as often as women, something seen almost nowhere else. They circled the villages on their map in blue ink, giving us the term "Blue Zones".⁵ Life there is simple: shepherding on steep hillsides, minestrone of beans and vegetables, sourdough barley bread and goat's cheese.

On the coast of southern Italy lies Acciaroli, a fishing village where an unusually large number of people live into their 90s and beyond. When researchers from Rome and California began studying the villagers, one thing stood out: rosemary, which grows wild there and finds its way into almost every meal. Rosemary is rich in rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid, and in laboratory studies, carnosic acid switches on the body's own antioxidant defences.⁸ Along with olive oil, fish and an active, sociable life, it may be one ingredient in the village's remarkable longevity.

The body's longevity switches

Deep inside our cells are ancient pathways that sense whether food is plentiful or scarce and decide whether to grow or to repair. Learning to work with them is one of the most exciting areas in longevity science:

• Autophagy, literally "self-eating", is the cell's recycling system. It clears away worn-out parts and damaged proteins. Its discovery won the Nobel Prize in 2016, and it slows down as we age.
• Sirtuins are a family of proteins that help repair DNA and keep genes switched on and off correctly. They depend on a molecule called NAD+, which declines with age.
• mTOR and AMPK act like a seesaw. When food is plentiful, mTOR drives growth. When energy runs low, AMPK switches the cell into repair and maintenance mode.
• Nrf2 is a master switch for the body's own antioxidant and detox defences. (See Lightening the Load.)

Remarkably, many of these switches can be flipped by the way we eat and live, and by compounds found in plants.

Nature's longevity compounds

Resveratrol. Found in the skins of red grapes, in blueberries, peanuts and Japanese knotweed, resveratrol became famous in 2003 when scientists showed it activated sirtuins and extended the lifespan of yeast.⁹ In mice fed an unhealthy, high-calorie diet, it improved their health and helped them live longer.¹⁰ The picture in people is more complicated. Resveratrol is poorly absorbed and quickly broken down, and in a study of older adults in the Chianti region of Italy, the amount people took in from their usual diet wasn't linked with living longer.¹¹ It's a fascinating compound, and a reminder that the whole grape, or the whole diet, usually matters more than a single molecule.

Spermidine. This compound, found in wheat germ, soya beans, mushrooms, peas and mature cheese, switches on autophagy. In mice, it extended lifespan and protected the heart.¹² In a study that followed people in northern Italy for 20 years, those who ate the most spermidine had a lower risk of death, comparable to being around five years younger.¹³

Urolithin A. Pomegranates, walnuts and raspberries contain compounds that some people's gut bacteria turn into urolithin A, which helps the body recycle tired mitochondria. In a trial in older adults, it improved signs of mitochondrial health in muscle.¹⁴ It's another example of how a healthy gut helps unlock the goodness in our food.

Fisetin and quercetin. These plant pigments, found in strawberries, apples, onions and capers, can help clear away the "zombie" cells that build up with age. In mice, fisetin reduced these cells and extended lifespan.¹⁵ Human trials are now under way.

Sulforaphane. Formed when broccoli and especially broccoli sprouts are chopped or chewed, sulforaphane is one of the most powerful natural activators of Nrf2, the body's antioxidant master switch.

Olive oil polyphenols. In the large Spanish PREDIMED trial, people who followed a Mediterranean diet rich in extra virgin olive oil had around 30% fewer heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease than those on a lower-fat diet.¹⁶ (See Stressed Plants, Stronger Medicine.)

A gift from Easter Island. In the 1960s, scientists collected soil from Rapa Nui, Easter Island, and found a bacterium that makes a compound they named rapamycin, after the island. It blocks mTOR, and it has extended the lifespan of mice more consistently than almost anything else tested.¹⁷ It is a prescription medicine with side effects, not a supplement, but its story shows how nature keeps leading us to longevity's secrets.

Eating less, living longer?

The most reliable way to extend lifespan in animals is to eat less without becoming malnourished. In people, the two-year CALERIE trial asked healthy adults to eat around 12% fewer calories. Their pace of biological ageing slowed by a small but measurable amount.¹⁸ Gentler approaches, such as not eating late at night and leaving 12 hours or more between your evening meal and breakfast, may tap into some of the same repair pathways.

What doesn't kill you: hormesis

One of the most fascinating ideas in longevity science is hormesis: small, short doses of stress that make the body stronger. Just as a muscle grows when it's challenged, our cells respond to brief, manageable stress by switching on their repair, antioxidant and recycling systems, leaving them more resilient than before.

• Exercise is the classic example. It briefly creates oxidative stress, and that stress is the signal that switches on the body's own defences. Remarkably, when people took high doses of antioxidant vitamins C and E while exercising, they lost some of exercise's benefits for insulin sensitivity, because the pills blocked the very signal the body needed.¹⁹
• Heat. Sauna bathing triggers protective "heat shock proteins". In a Finnish study following more than 2,000 men for 20 years, those who used a sauna four to seven times a week were around 40% less likely to die during the study than those who went once a week.²⁰
• Cold. A cold shower or a dip in cold water sharply raises noradrenaline, a hormone and brain messenger linked with alertness and mood.²¹ Research on its long-term benefits is still growing.
• Fasting. Periods without food switch on autophagy and other repair pathways, as described above.
• Plant compounds. Many of the compounds plants make to survive stress, such as sulforaphane and resveratrol, seem to work by gently "stressing" our cells too, a process sometimes called xenohormesis.
• The mind. The same principle applies to the brain: learning new skills, solving problems and creative challenges keep it adaptable as we age.

The key is the dose. A short, sharp challenge followed by rest makes us stronger; constant, relentless stress does the opposite. (See The Cortisol Clock.) If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure or are pregnant, speak to your GP before trying saunas, cold water or fasting.

The pillars of a natural age

• Nourish. A colourful, mostly plant-based diet of whole foods, rich in fibre and polyphenols, feeds your cells and your gut bacteria alike. (Read more in Food as Medicine and The Master Regulator.)
• Move, and build strength. Muscle is one of the body's great protectors as we age. In a study of almost 140,000 people in 17 countries, weaker grip strength predicted a higher risk of heart disease and early death.²² Walking, gardening, dancing and lifting all count.
• Rest. Deep sleep is when the body repairs itself and the brain clears away waste. It's one of the most underrated longevity tools we have.
• Soothe stress. Long-term stress speeds up wear and tear throughout the body. Time in nature, breathing practices and calming herbs can all help.
• Connect. A review of 148 studies found that people with strong social relationships had a 50% greater chance of survival over the study periods than those with weaker ones.²³ Loneliness affects health as much as many well-known risks.
• Find purpose. Okinawans call it ikigai, a reason to get up in the morning. In a study of nearly 7,000 older adults in the US, those with the strongest sense of purpose were less than half as likely to die during the study as those with the weakest.²⁴
• Lighten the load. Reducing everyday exposure to pesticides and other chemicals eases the burden on the body's detox and repair systems. (See Why Eat Organic?)

A whole-body view

Naturopathy has always seen the body as a connected whole, with its own remarkable ability to heal. Healthy ageing isn't about chasing a single supplement or treatment. It's about supporting every system together: digestion, hormones, immunity, the nervous system and the mind. When one improves, the others often follow.

And it's never too late. The body keeps responding to good care at every age, and many of these changes begin to make a difference within weeks.

At Rootwise, healthy ageing means looking after the whole of you. We'll help you build daily habits, nutrition and, where helpful, herbal support for more energy, resilience and vitality, now and in the years ahead.