Million-dollar longevity clinics, IV drips, personalised genome sequencing – the quest for a longer, healthier life often feels like a science fiction movie with an exclusive ticket price.
But as the wellness industry chases expensive, hi-tech immortality, longevity expert Dr Eric Topol, one of the world’s most cited medical researchers, argues the real secret to a longer, healthier life is not hidden in a vial or a complex algorithm – it is surprisingly ordinary.
In his book Super Agers: An Evidence-based Approach to Longevity, Topol, who chairs the department of translational medicine at Scripps Research in the US, says that activities we can perform in our daily lives have been proven to extend our lifespan.
Topol’s reasoning is twofold. First, he says, we know enough about our immune system to help our body delay the manifestation of age-related diseases, or even stop them altogether.
We can do this in three ways: through what he calls “Lifestyle Plus” – adopting an augmented list of daily habits that promote a healthy immune system; by taking advantage of new classes of drugs; and by using AI’s powerful data-processing capabilities.
Second, he says, we now have much of the data, and the means of processing it, to accurately predict, on an individual basis, what diseases we may suffer from in our older years.
That allows us to take steps to either avoid such diseases, or moderate their effects when they develop, adding years to our lives in the process.