“You want to be younger, because the older you are from a biological perspective, the more chances that you’re going to run into one of these diseases associated with old age.”
We are living longer than ever before – globally, the average age expectancy is about 73, while in New Zealand in 2025, it’s closer to 83.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re staying healthy for longer; our lifespan and “healthspan” can be vastly different. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has calculated that the healthy life expectancy for US men is 63 and 65 for women.
“We’ve solved a lot of the stuff which meant that average life expectancy was in our 30s to 40s a couple of hundred years ago – mainly through nutrition and bacteria and all those sort of things. We have got [that] sorted,” MacPherson says.
“Nowadays, the challenges are diseases of old age. So yes, we are getting to be 80 or thereabouts in terms of lifespan, but we’re quietly declining – and uncomfortably so – when we get health conditions.
“The real challenge now is how do we extend our healthspan and take it from the average [age] when we can all be expected to be healthy, and push that out to 73, 83, 93, 100.”
There are several hallmarks or drivers of ageing – signals that our bodies aren’t working as well as they did when we were younger.
They relate to different aspects of cellular function and health. One primary driver of ageing is our DNA and how that works for us.
“It’s our instruction set, and when your DNA is working really well, it means your cells are working well. Over time it breaks down … probably the best way to describe it now is like lagging internet, you’re just not getting those signals through in the right way.”
Kiwi biotechnologist Greg MacPherson says that while we’re living longer than ever before, our health declines as we age.
Another hallmark is that your mitochondria, “the little power packs inside your cells”, start declining from your 40s.
“It means you don’t have as much energy in terms of how you feel, but also you don’t recover from injuries as quickly,” explains MacPherson.
“You need healthy mitochondria to run the cells, but you also need them to deliver the energy for the proteins that can repair and maintain your cells.”
By our 50s, our bodies aren’t as good at “housekeeping” – getting rid of or recycling cells.
“Your immune system, whose role is defence and repair, gets a bit tired – so it overlooks bits where it doesn’t have to repair. At the same time, you’ve got more and more cells getting to the end of their lives, so [that’s] a big hot mess of inflammation which spreads through your body and causes aches and pains.”
MacPherson says that as more research is done, that list of hallmarks will grow. And while drugs to target these are under development, it’s a slow process to test and approve them.
“I realised that there are natural ingredients that are really safe and really common that we all get health benefits from, and are actually probably something to do with targeting the hallmarks of ageing.”
He’s used that research to create The Cel Protocol, a series of supplements formulated with antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and polyphenols that have been shown to benefit cell health.
A study published in March this year showed promising results from a clinical trial of these supplements conducted on 51 US adults aged 54 to 84 across a year.
At the end of the trial, participants were shown to have improved muscle strength and body functions, as well as a mean reduction in their biological age by 5.71 years.
“We asked them to take our products for a year and tested their biological age, and also their physiological measures of ageing, at month zero, month three, month six and month 12,” MacPherson says.
“The physiological changes that we saw meant that people were stronger, leaner and lighter … so it was quite exciting to see both physiological youth reversal as well as biological.”
Others have noted that there were some limitations with the study, and that more work needs to be done as well as randomised controlled trials on larger groups to confirm the findings.
MacPherson says plans for future research are under way.
Exercise is one area of wellbeing that can help slow down ageing. Photo / 123RF
“We’re very busily working on an upgraded formula now that we understand the thesis around targeting the hallmarks of ageing … then we will do a clinical trial, once we’ve got that formula locked down.”
More recently, SRW Laboratories won the NutraIngredients Healthspan Innovator 2025 award in the UK.
If expensive supplements and epigenetic testing aren’t in your budget, MacPherson says there are steps you can take today to slow down the clock.
“There’s stuff you can do for free, which you don’t have to go and buy supplements for,” he says.
The “foundational five” areas of health that affect ageing are diet, exercise, stress, sleep and socialising.
“It’s not stress that ages you, it’s how you manage it,” MacPherson says.
“Go into nature, meditate, be mindful, whatever’s your thing – manage your stress and you can literally see it in your cells and measure it.”
Maintaining meaningful social relationships will have the same effect.
“Hanging out with friends, family, and if that’s not your thing, get a pet – it’s about a reason for being. People caring about people and people caring about you. Those sorts of things are quite measurable in terms of the ageing process.”
These aren’t new concepts; we know how important things like sleep and exercise are. But they’re areas that can be difficult to manage amid the demands of modern life.
“What we’re doing when we do that is we’re optimising our biology,” MacPherson says.
“For hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve been in social groups and we’ve shared dinners and we’ve exercised and we’ve eaten food that suits our biology, not necessarily the fast food that we’re experiencing today. We were probably exhausted, so we slept well – we were out physically working.”
So, what does a futurist do to preserve his longevity?
“I go for walks in the bush, I do some meditation. I attempt to eat well, mostly – I do enjoy the occasional steak. I go to the gym, so exercise, and I have an app called Headspace that helps with my meditation. I’m not particularly good at that, but it’s a work in progress.”
MacPherson is chronologically 55. His biological age is about 52.
“It’s not amazingly younger, but I have Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease which is going to age me faster than the average population.
“I’m quite happy with that number, just because of that little life complication.
“But if I could be younger, I certainly will – and I’m quite driven with the next round of formulation to do even better in terms of how we can slow or reverse biological ageing.”
Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis’ real-life stories.