\u201cYou want to be younger, because the older you are from a biological perspective, the more chances that you\u2019re going to run into one of these diseases associated with old age.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are living longer than ever before – globally, the average age expectancy is about 73, while in New Zealand in 2025, it\u2019s closer to 83.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we\u2019re staying healthy for longer; our lifespan and \u201chealthspan\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve 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,\u201d MacPherson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowadays, the challenges are diseases of old age. So yes, we are getting to be 80 or thereabouts in terms of lifespan, but we\u2019re quietly declining – and uncomfortably so – when we get health conditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are several hallmarks or drivers of ageing – signals that our bodies aren\u2019t working as well as they did when we were younger. <\/p>\n
They relate to different aspects of cellular function and health. One primary driver of ageing is our DNA and how that works for us. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019re just not getting those signals through in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiwi biotechnologist Greg MacPherson says that while we’re living longer than ever before, our health declines as we age. <\/p>\n
Another hallmark is that your mitochondria, \u201cthe little power packs inside your cells\u201d, start declining from your 40s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means you don\u2019t have as much energy in terms of how you feel, but also you don\u2019t recover from injuries as quickly,\u201d explains MacPherson.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
By our 50s, our bodies aren\u2019t as good at \u201chousekeeping\u201d – getting rid of or recycling cells. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour immune system, whose role is defence and repair, gets a bit tired – so it overlooks bits where it doesn\u2019t have to repair. At the same time, you\u2019ve got more and more cells getting to the end of their lives, so [that\u2019s] a big hot mess of inflammation which spreads through your body and causes aches and pains.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacPherson says that as more research is done, that list of hallmarks will grow. And while drugs to target these are under development, it\u2019s a slow process to test and approve them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d MacPherson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
MacPherson says plans for future research are under way.<\/p>\n
Exercise is one area of wellbeing that can help slow down ageing. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019ve got that formula locked down.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, SRW Laboratories won the NutraIngredients Healthspan Innovator 2025 award in the UK.<\/p>\n
If expensive supplements and epigenetic testing aren\u2019t in your budget, MacPherson says there are steps you can take today to slow down the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s stuff you can do for free, which you don\u2019t have to go and buy supplements for,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The \u201cfoundational five\u201d areas of health that affect ageing are diet, exercise, stress, sleep and socialising.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not stress that ages you, it\u2019s how you manage it,\u201d MacPherson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo into nature, meditate, be mindful, whatever\u2019s your thing – manage your stress and you can literally see it in your cells and measure it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maintaining meaningful social relationships will have the same effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cHanging out with friends, family, and if that\u2019s not your thing, get a pet – it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
These aren\u2019t new concepts; we know how important things like sleep and exercise are. But they\u2019re areas that can be difficult to manage amid the demands of modern life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing when we do that is we\u2019re optimising our biology,\u201d MacPherson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor hundreds of thousands of years, we\u2019ve been in social groups and we\u2019ve shared dinners and we\u2019ve exercised and we\u2019ve eaten food that suits our biology, not necessarily the fast food that we\u2019re experiencing today. We were probably exhausted, so we slept well – we were out physically working.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what does a futurist do to preserve his longevity?<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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\u2019m not particularly good at that, but it\u2019s a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacPherson is chronologically 55. His biological age is about 52.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not amazingly younger, but I have Crohn\u2019s disease, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease which is going to age me faster than the average population.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite happy with that number, just because of that little life complication.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if I could be younger, I certainly will – and I\u2019m quite driven with the next round of formulation to do even better in terms of how we can slow or reverse biological ageing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019 real-life stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou want to be younger, because the older you are from a biological perspective, the more chances that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3225,25638,10791,104908,198,69252,8608,124,104906,15209,692,194,424,64676,111,43,139,69,84095,104907,312,4739,1961,61,1316,49493,1530,1959],"class_list":["post-159144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-according","tag-add","tag-ageing","tag-biotechnologist","tag-can","tag-clock","tag-comes","tag-could","tag-futurist","tag-greg","tag-he","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-macpherson","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pharmacist","tag-rewind","tag-says","tag-six","tag-this","tag-to","tag-when","tag-wish","tag-years","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}