Age Proof
Professor Rose Anne Kenny
Lagom
Here’s a test for you. Stand on one leg and raise the other leg off the ground. Stand for as long as you can for up to 30 seconds. Your arms are free to move but make sure you do not hook the leg around the other leg, or rest on it. You can choose either leg for the test. Now, if you lasted for longer than 5 seconds, repeat the test with your eyes closed.
This is one of the age-related tests in a book by Professor Rose Anne Kenny who has 35 years of experience with ageing medicine and is at the forefront of scientific research into the subject. If you couldn’t last as long as 20 seconds with your eyes closed, you need to read this book as the earlier the factors of aging are addressed, the earlier the outcome of living a longer and healthier life can be influenced.
Over the last 200 years, average human life expectancy has doubled in most developed countries. We are not just living longer, but minimising age-related diseases such as cataracts, arthritis, dementia and kidney diseases. Professor Kenny points out that it is not just living longer that is important but living fitter, healthier, happier lives in the later years.
So what are we doing right and what can we do better to age proof ourselves? Professor Kenny’s ground-breaking research reveals why and how some people have a lower biological age (how our body looks and feels) than chronological age (the number), and the role played by food, fasting, genetics, sex, physical exercise, sleep, cold water, childhood experiences, expectations, friendships, inequality and much more.
The book reveals that many of the factors that influence biological aging are within our control to modify and improve. Factors such as diet, exercise and attitude towards life can actually change our DNA … as can illness, alcohol, smoking, obesity and stress.
We still have a lot to learn from the world’s ‘Blue Zones’ – areas of the world where inhabitants live longer. As well as looking at lifestyle factors, shown by the nuns who live into their nineties and septuagenarians who take up sport for the first time, Professor Kenny delves into the science behind some debilitating things that deduct years from our life-expectancy.
Lezly Herbert
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