How to age-proof your face, body and brain (it’s never too late to start)
You can make a real difference to health and longevity with a few simple changes.
How healthy is your body? As we get older, everything from our heart and joints to our brain and gut microbiome are vulnerable to wear and tear, often exacerbated by the cumulative effects of poor diet and exercise choices. The result is that we are increasingly at risk of illnesses that can seriously threaten our chances of a long and healthy life.
And as waistlines expand and levels of activity dwindle, this decline begins ever earlier. Conditions that were once associated with old age are developing in early adulthood. This week it was revealed that cases of type 2 diabetes — risk factors for which are obesity and belly fat — in the under-40s have soared by 23 per cent in the past five years. A record 148,000 young adults have been diagnosed with the condition. Their risks of dementia, osteoarthritis, brittle bones and heart disease have
increased too.
The good news is there are plenty of steps we can take to prevent this damage and protect our bodies from midlife onwards. Here is what the latest science recommends.
Age-proof your brain
Don’t fry food, and eat more berries, spinach and onions
Although the biggest risk factor for dementia is age, the condition is not an inevitable part of ageing. “There’s plenty of evidence that maintaining a healthy diet, weight and lifestyle from midlife lessens the chances of developing some forms of the condition,” says Rhiannon Lambert, a dietician and the author of The Science of Nutrition.
Certainly, the more fruit and vegetables you consume the better, according to scientists from Harvard University. In a study they found that people with the highest intake of flavones and anthocyanins — powerful antioxidant plant compounds — from these foods were 19 per cent less likely to report confusion and forgetfulness as they aged. Berries, spinach and onions were found to be particularly beneficial, but the overriding message from the study was to aim for five daily servings of as wide a variety of fruit and veg as possible for optimum cognitive health.
With about 180mg of total flavonoids per 100g serving, strawberries were ranked as one of the best brain-boosting foods by the Harvard team — cherries, apples and pears were also high scorers. Eating a single pear or half an apple a day made a positive difference to cognition when consumed in addition to other flavonoid-rich foods, the Harvard team said.
Blueberries, providing 164mg of beneficial anthocyanins antioxidants per 100g, are another potent brain booster. Drinking 30ml of blueberry juice (providing the equivalent of 230g of blueberries) every day for 12 weeks was shown by nutritionists at the University of Exeter to improve cognitive function in a group of healthy 65 to 77-year-olds compared with those who drank a placebo product. Generally, though, the less processed a food the better — and that means consuming unjuiced, unpulped and uncooked food whenever possible. While two heaped tablespoons of cooked spinach a day helped to prevent mental decline in older adults, eating spinach raw maximised the effect by increasing flavonoid intake, the Harvard researchers found.
How you cook your food can make a difference in other ways. “High levels of compounds called advanced glycation end products, or AGEs, are associated with inflammation that precedes Alzheimer’s disease, and they might contribute to the tangling of proteins in the brain that is implicated with the condition,” Lambert says. “AGEs form inside the body when blood sugars combine with protein or fats, but high levels can form in foods cooked at very high temperatures.” So, for example, frying beef produces about four times the AGE levels of stewing the meat, poaching salmon is preferable to grilling it, and boiling potatoes produces low levels of AGEs compared with frying.
Age-proof your heart
Take a brisk walk every day
According to the British Heart Foundation, heart and cardiovascular disease (CVD) — caused by narrow or blocked blood vessels that lead to a heart attack, angina and some strokes — cause a quarter of all deaths in the UK. There are many risk factors, including physical inactivity and poor diet, but the older you are the more likely you are to get CVD, and setting measures in place to protect your heart is vital.
Your first step should be to walk daily and at as brisk a pace as you can. Last month researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Leicester studied data on 88,000 middle-aged British adults and found that those who exercised more vigorously to the point of breathing hard each week — that included walking at a brisk pace of at least 100 steps a minute — had lower rates of heart attacks, strokes and heart disease over the next seven years. Increasing the amount of time spent doing vigorous exercise by 20 per cent each week slashed their heart disease risk by 23 per cent, and the author Tom Yates, a professor of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health at the University of Leicester, advises swapping a 15-minute stroll for a fast 7 to 8-minute power walk can enhance heart health.
Fitness trainer Matt Roberts says: “If there is a single thing we should always aim to do for our health and fitness it is to get breathless through exercise for 10 minutes minimum per day, to provide the heart with some positive stress in order to keep our cardiovascular system working well and to stay healthy.”
It’s never too late to start, and even octogenarians can benefit. In August Dr Moo-Nyun Jin of Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital in Seoul presented findings to the European Society of Cardiology that showed, of 7,047 adults aged 85 or older, those who walked every day had better longevity. “We found that walking at least one hour every week is beneficial for people aged 85 years and older,” he says. “Put simply, that means walking for ten minutes every day.”
Eating plenty of heart-friendly foods is helpful too. “Both Nordic and Mediterranean-style diets, packed with wholegrains such as fruit and vegetables, nuts and rye bread, have been shown repeatedly to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Lambert says. “Both of these diets include some oily fish and poultry, but minimal processed meats and refined foods. High intakes of saturated fat from animal produce are not beneficial for the heart, and the more plant produce you eat the better.”
Age-proof your joints
Move more and eat broccoli
Feeling more stiff and achy as you get older? According to the charity Versus Arthritis, about ten million people in the UK suffer some level of joint pain. This is mostly caused by osteoarthritis, which is the result of damage to cartilage — the smooth, rubbery layer that covers the ends of bones — and often due to wear and tear as we get older. “Sitting is the enemy and movement the very best thing for our joint health and mobility,” says Bill Ribbans, a consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery and professor of sports medicine at Northampton University. “We need to move in as many different ways as we can every day to keep our joints primed and well functioning.”
A diet high in sugar and fat has been shown to make joint inflammation worse, and while few popular joint supplements will make much difference, a Cochrane review involving 9,110 people showed that chondroitin, alone or with glucosamine, was better than a placebo in improving the pain of osteoarthritis, although the benefit was small.
Diet is important, and Professor Ian Clark, a molecular cell biologist at the University of East Anglia, believes that broccoli is one of the best foods for joint protection. It contains sulforaphane, a naturally occurring compound that Clark has shown helps to slow down the destruction of cartilage in joints with early signs of osteoarthritis. “Eating plenty of broccoli means sulforaphane gets into the synovial fluid of your joints, improving the cartilage,” he says.
Drinking more green tea is another positive step towards healthy joints. It contains the phytochemical compound epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a potent antioxidant shown to limit the production of certain molecules in your immune system that can trigger joint pain.
Age-proof your bones
Do weight-bearing exercise to avoid fractures
One in two women over 50 and one in five men are expected to break a bone as they age because of poor bone health. Last week the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) warned that we risk weakening our bones through our increasingly sedentary lives. According to the charity, a drop in commuting as more people work from home has contributed to adults being 13 per cent less active than they were a year ago — and it’s taking a toll on our bones. The skeleton relies on physical activity as well as a bone-friendly diet to stay healthy, and even daily walking can help to boost bone density. Even better is to add resistance workouts, such as lifting weights, and high-impact weight-bearing activity such as running, jumping and skipping. These provide forces that pull down on the skeleton to strengthen it and are excellent ways to build strong bones.
Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell, a researcher at Loughborough University’s national centre for sport and exercise medicine and lead author of a paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on the subject last year, says that weight training at least twice a week, lifting progressively heavier weights, is something we should all do to protect our bones. “Ideally lift weights that feel fairly heavy for you and that you can lift no more than 8-12 times as a starting point,” Brooke-Wavell says. “Choose exercises that work major muscle groups in the arms, legs and back, progressing until you can eventually manage three sets of each after several months.”
What you eat is important too. Sarah Leyland, a clinical adviser at the ROS, says that diet goes hand in hand with exercise for bone health. Most adults need 700mg a day of calcium, “although some people might benefit from getting as much as 1,000mg daily,” she says, and it doesn’t have to come from dairy. Almonds, sesame seeds, pulses, fortified soya and nut drinks are all good sources, and a supplement of vitamin D is recommended because it helps the body to absorb calcium. “A 10mcg vitamin D supplement is the minimum,” Leyland says. “Someone who has osteoporosis may be advised by their doctor to take as much as 20mcg a day.”
Prunes are a surprising bone-friendly food — they contain minerals, vitamin K, phenolic compounds and dietary fibre, which combine to boost bone health. Eating 5-10 a day has been shown to boost bone density in women.
Age-proof your gut
Eat almonds and wholegrains
As we age, the number and variety of beneficial bacteria we harbour in our gut microbiome — the vast population of bacteria, fungi and yeasts that inhabit our intestines and act as an organ that is crucial for health — slowly declines. Boosting the health of your microbiome can be an important age-proofing weapon. Last month researchers at the Baycrest Centre for geriatric care in Canada reported how the gut microbiome is now thought to play a role in brain health and dementia risk, while another group of researchers recently confirmed a distinct overlap between deterioration in gut health and a rise in age-related disease.
Most adults don’t consume enough fibre, and rectifying that is perhaps the most important step we can take for long-term gut health. Women in the UK consume a daily average of 17.2g and men 20.1g, far less than the recommended 30g. High-fibre foods, such as wholegrains, pulses, nuts and seeds, fruit and vegetables, are bulky and fill you up, and they work wonders on the microbiome. “Two important compounds — propionate and butyrate — are produced in the intestines when dietary fibre is fermented by gut bacteria,” says Alex Ruani, a doctoral researcher in nutrition science education at UCL and chief science educator at the Health Sciences Academy. “These are short-chain fatty acids that are known to bolster the gut microbiome.”
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After a study published last week, almonds shoot straight to the top of the best prebiotic foods to protect your gut. Alice Creedon, a researcher in the department of nutritional sciences at King’s College London, found that snacking daily on 56g — the equivalent of approximately 46 almonds — or adding ground almonds to food boosted levels of butyrate, making the nuts of considerable benefit to gut health. “Butyrate is the main source of fuel for the cells lining the gut,” Creedon says. “When these cells function well, they signal the gut to absorb certain nutrients and help to ensure the gut wall is strong.”
“Increasing your intake of other prebiotic foods, including cashews, pistachios, apples and dates, can also help to produce these gut-protective short chain fatty acids,” Lambert says. “And some studies have shown that prebiotic foods containing a particular form of fibre called inulin, including chicory, artichoke, bananas and leeks, help to maintain the gut’s barrier and prevent inflammation.”
Probiotic fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir, kimchi and kombucha provide live strains of beneficial bacteria to top up your gut’s existing population. “They are mainly of benefit when your microbiome is off balance after illness or a course of medication,” Lambert says. “Eating fermented foods 1-5 times a week has been shown to produce subtle improvements in gut bacteria, so it is worthwhile if you like them.”
Age-proof your hearing
Running, cycling and meditation can help
Our hearing deteriorates as we get older, and the decline is exacerbated by exposure to loud noises and can be a result of hereditary and autoimmune conditions. UK government figures show about 40 per cent of people aged 50-plus (71 per cent of those over 70) experience some hearing loss. “A regular annual test over the age of 40 is important to keep tabs on deterioration,” says Gordon Harrison, the chief audiologist for Specsavers. “If you notice sudden or gradual hearing loss, you should get a test as soon as you can.” Tests are free on the NHS, or can be booked privately at pharmacies or online.
Walking, running and cycling are all forms of aerobic exercise that boost body circulation and increase the supply of nutrients to the ears and ear canals to help to preserve hearing. When researchers from Bellarmine University tracked the aerobic fitness levels and hearing ability of 1,082 female participants aged 20-49, those with better cardio fitness levels were 6 per cent more likely to have good hearing compared with those who were unfit.
Meditation may help — it has been shown to improve blood flow to the brain and within the ears, which helps to preserve hearing. People who meditated daily for 15 minutes on at least four days a week had enhanced hearing skills and “greater sensitivity to sound” compared with non-meditators, according to psychologists at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
Diet can play a part in preventing hearing problems as we get older. A review published last year revealed that eating too much saturated fat — particularly that in biscuits, cakes, processed meat and savoury snacks — can have a harmful effect on hearing, while consuming more fruit and vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish, seeds and nuts, and a high intake of vitamins A, C, and E can help to prevent the development of age-related hearing loss.
Age-proof your eyesight
Eat an orange every day
Typically first affecting people in their fifties and sixties, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes progressive deterioration of the central area of the retina, is the leading cause of sight loss in the UK, with about 70,000 new cases reported every year. Glaucoma, caused by damage to the optic nerve, and cataracts (cloudy patches on the lens) are also commonly associated with age-related vision problems.
What we eat can make a difference, and some nutrients have been shown to help to prevent or slow down vision loss by reducing free radical cell damage in the eyes. These include the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, found in leafy green vegetables, kiwi fruit and egg yolks, which protect macula cells from oxidative stress. David Cartwright, chairman of the charity Eye Health UK, says kale “is the single best source of both lutein and zeaxanthin, and we should eat it often”.
A daily orange is a good idea because flavonoids specific to the fruit appear to help to protect against eye disease. In an Australian study of 3,000 people tracked over 15 years, those who ate at least one serving of oranges daily had more than a 60 per cent reduced risk of developing AMD, a level of protection not seen from other common foods such as tea and apples. “Even eating an orange once a week seems to offer significant benefits,” wrote the researchers at the University of Sydney.
Cartwright says we should routinely wear sunglasses on bright days to minimise UV damage from the sun that can raise the risk of AMD, and should book an eye test every two years. “About 14 million Britons don’t have regular sight tests, and that is the biggest threat for our future eye health,” he says. “If you notice any changes in your eyes or vision, you should see an optometrist sooner.”
Reference
Peta Bee | Saturday November 05 2022, 12.01am, | The Times