The Longevity Coach #1

If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. 
And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it. - George Burns

Next-generation aging experiments have already led to findings that extend the life span of mice by up to 30 percent, but do we really want to live to be 130? If the last third of life sucks, then what’s the point? Rank-and-file moguls just care about quality time left, and they are patronizing a new breed of lifestyle guru, the longevity coach. They claim to optimize body and brain power to conquer the ravages of time. These wellness concierges are employed by companies like New York–headquartered Parsley Health, which has raised some $36 million in funding on the back of its $175-a-month “holistic medical practice,” and Paris-based Salvagene, which promises to use “artificial intelligence in combination with deep genomics to achieve maximum health optimization.”

JILL KARGMAN Town & Country DEC 03, 2021

Deep genomics can kiss my ass.

As a young boy, I learned that all the males in my family die by the age of thirty-eight. 38. Distinctly remember my father’s thirty-seventh year, when he’d come home from work, eat dinner and nap on the couch until bedtime. It was like he was waiting for the thunderbolt that would take him away. Like his dad. Like his grandpa. And his grandpa’s father.

My father celebrated his eightieth birthday on a gambling junket to Las Vegas.

Where he lost all his money and tripped on the curb. Welchesque. But he survived.

He survived another half-dozen years, because longevity can be a fickle creature.

My little brother died at thirty-four. And here I am still. None of those Welch men were runners. Coincidence? I think not. I am a runner. Plus I’ve dodged more bullets than Audie Murphy. Look him up, kids. Even my references are old.

Positive self-talk. What are the little voices in your head telling you?

They should be saying, “Yes, you can. Yes, you can.”

Unless it’s a second helping – ‘No, you shouldn’t.’

If not you, who? If not now, when? If not this, why not that? Don’t get me started.

Saw this post on Xitter. I follow Steve Magness because he usually says what I already believe and says it so much better. Easier than doing my own research.

Ways to live healthier & longer that are backed by actual evidence:

1. Exercise: Most days a week=conversational. Occasionally, intense.

2. Strength train.

3. Eat mostly real foods.

4. Cultivate genuine relationships.

5. Sleep 7+ hours.

6. Don’t smoke.

7. Have ways to cope with stress.

Steve Magness@stevemagness

Seven (7) steps, that seems like a doable number. Easier than the Ten Commandments, for sure.

1. I walk every day I am possibly able. Regardless of climatic conditions. As long as I can get out of bed.
2. Strength is my weak spot. There are reasons.
3. Real food costs more but we try. Plus nobody here likes to cook.
4. I am writing to you right now and it’s genuine.
5. Get seven hours nightly. And an hour more in the afternoon.
6. I smoke, but as little as necessary. Doctor-prescribed. There are reasons.
7. You handle stress by doing the first six steps, it seems to me.

All this talk about our 46th President being too old to serve a second term, despite his better-than-average performance as Leader of the Free World, makes me wonder about peak performance in one’s later-than-average years.

I am six months younger than Citizen Trump and I would make a better President.

For one thing, shorter speeches with no mention of windmills.

Novelist Marilynne Robinson offered these thoughts:

Frankly, I’m less than a year younger than Joe Biden, so I believe utterly in his competence, his brilliance, his worldview. I really do. You have to live to be 80 to find this out: Anybody under 50 feels they’re in a position to condescend to you. You get boxed into this position where people who deal with you are making assumptions about your intellect. It’s very disturbing. Most people my age are just fine. What can I say? It’s a kind of good fortune that America is categorically incapable of accepting: that someone with a strong institutional memory, who knows how things are supposed to work, who was habituated to their appropriate functioning is president. I consider him a gift of God. All 81 years of him.

New York Times, February 15, 2024

Didn’t know ‘longevity coach’ was an actual thing.

A famous old runner announced his fitness comeback after a disturbing blood test, while a new buddy described the startlingly scary results of his latest doctor’s visit and I thought, I can help these guys.

Back away from the cheeseburger, sir. I am not going to tell you again.

I can help those guys. Just graduated from six-weeks of physical therapy after being diagnosed as ‘unbalanced and weak-assed.’ You try standing on just one leg for a minute.

Plus I am friends with some serious OGs.

Hal Higdon

You are of an advanced age and so I am soliciting your input. How have you stayed sharp as a tack? Has to be more than running through the dunes.

First, I ran. Numerous studies beginning and ending with Ken Cooper have proved that running/exercise will both extend your lifespan and maintain quality of life. Without realizing  that fat, I ran because I was (reasonably) good at it. Ken told me that people who accidentally or instinctively start to run and keep doing it may ad 8-9 years to their lives. And he has the data (thousands tested at his clinic) to prove it.

So I started to run and never stopped. But I also followed a diet that was good for my health. The Golden Standard, according to a dietitian friend I wrote a cookbook with, is 55% carbs, 30% fats, 15% protein. Also the advice: Eat a large variety of lightly processed foods. (Pete Pfitzinger also claims that he never  eats anything that comes wrapped in plastic.)

Add to that strength training and other exercises such as bike riding and walking.

Do that and you can celebrate your 93^rd birthday.

There’s something about running itself. Essential somehow with layers that simply transcend the physical. For example, genuine relationships often blossom and last a lifetime because of running.

The question at the heart of a lot of running science journalism is the same one that animates fawning celebrity profiles: “What is it that makes you so gosh darn wonderful?” To be fair, it’s a trickier question than it might seem at first glance. Millions of people swear by various forms of endurance exercise, despite the fact that it’s, well, hard. It’s reasonable to wonder what it is, exactly, that we get out of running—and how we can get more.

The latest mystery ingredient to catch scientists’ attention is oxytocin, the hormone associated with social bonding and an eclectic mix of other functions in the brain and body. We’ve long associated the feeling of runner’s high with endorphins, though research has also implicated endocannabinoids and GABA, and other lines of research have linked running’s mood-boosting powers to elevated serotonin and its cognitive benefits to BDNF.

And that’s just a partial list. Whether oxytocin is yet another beneficial brain chemical whose levels are boosted by a good workout has been a subject of debate for many decades, but a handful of recent studies is bolstering the claim that it is. It’s clearly not the whole story of what makes running good, but the findings add a new wrinkle to our understanding of how running affects health and wellbeing.

I lost track of where I found this. Really.

Jon Anderson

“Genuine relationships” keeps ringing. I am friends with runners I’ve known for over half a century. Remember talking just last year with Olympian Jon Anderson as we were celebrating the golden anniversary of our 1973 Boston Marathons.

He was first, I was 493rd.

Jon mentioned how he was still walking a few times a week with Bruce Mortenson, his teammate on the winning team in Boston that year. Sounds like a genuine relationship to me.

Jon’s only seventy-four, just a kid for our purposes, but his friendships have longevity, that’s for sure.

First, Bruce still jogs some.
Yes, my relationships with other runners is certainly important and keeps me interested in our sport and in keeping fit in old age.  I stopped competing in the mid-80s and got away from cardio-vascular exercise for quite a few years.  But my deteriorating condition/shape hung over me.  I was irregular until I started working out at my golf club with some guys I played a lot of golf with.  Bowl of soup and a bullshit session followed the workouts. A few years before the pandemic, my wife started regular almost daily workouts with a friend of hers.  This sent me a signal or two, I guess. 

So, I started working out more.  We have a basement that has been turned into a small workout facilty … I mostly use the rowing machine and stationery bike.  Rowing machine was described to me by a friend (3-time Olympic kayaker) as a “torture machine”!  Anyway, I now try to alternate. one day on the machine and bike and one day on a long walk, up to the pink house and in the hills around Hendricks Park.

If you don’t know exactly which pink house, the walks are usually about an hour plus and 3.5 to 4 miles.

Don’t consider genuine hate for some of neighbors ‘relationships’ per se, so I listen to audiobooks. What with Pearl getting outraged by seven Comanche warriors and Clara running off to marry that boring horse trader, meanwhile Gus has knocked up the whore Maggie, but is it really his child in her belly? Truth be told, I have a genuine relationship with Larry McMurtry. He’s my Bruce Mortenson.

Run if you can. Walk if you can’t. Bike, swim, row, whatever.

In Florida, some of us like to hunt for pythons or cocaine bears.

Move. Get off your butt. Hourly.

Challenge Yourself

We are quick to attribute good eating habits and exercise as keys to ageing gracefully. But what about the question of never losing the competitive spirit? A healthy rivalry, whether against a near-aged competitor or your younger self, combined with the hope of achievement, seem to play an important part.

Certainly that’s the case for Yuichiro Miura.

At 86, alpinist and professional skier Miura, is another senior citizen who has celebrity-like status both in and out of Japan. In his 40s he attempted to ski down Mount Everest with a parachute on his back, a practice known as speed riding, to decelerate his descent. His feat was documented in the film “The man who skied down Everest”, which won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1975.

At 70 years old, he returned to Everest and became the oldest person in the world to summit. That record was broken when Miura again made the climb at 75, and then again at the age of 80. In early 2019, Miura attempted to climb, then ski down Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America. At Plaza Colera located around 6,000m above sea level, Miura was ordered to stop by his doctor, who had accompanied him, due to concerns about the risk of heart failure triggered by the high altitude. Once back in Japan, Miura explained during a press conference that he decided to accept the doctor’s orders because he still hopes for another attempt. He is now working towards his goal to summit Everest again at 90. 

Johanna Airth for the BBC 30 March 2020

Think of being lean the same as being fast. Feels that way to me, at least.

Lose weight and you will feel lighter in more ways than one.

Lift weights. I am going to start. Soon. Used to lift some heavy stuff; turns out I’m not built for that either.

Set easy goals. Lose a pound, lift a pound. Or two.

Another key to a long life – get a dog.

One you can carry if you have to.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/way-walk-could-reveal-more-120023803.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/well/move/prostate-cancer-risk-exercise.html