Alex Janin of the Wall Street Journal (who wrote earlier articles on metformin and rapamycin) continues to mine the longevity enthusiasts for new articles… which is spreading the word of the approaches people here are using. I don’t know if exercise is the most powerful, but it is an important factor.
@Boldi and others here are featured in this new article - see link below:
Longevity researchers have spent decades hunting for a magic pill to slow the aging process. But the best solution—at least for now—may be the simplest one: Move more.
No single thing—whether it’s regular cold plunges or off-label drugs and supplements like metformin, rapamycin or taurine—has a track record that can match exercise’s in terms of protecting against age-related diseases and helping people get more from their later years, a vast body of research shows.
The muscle and bone growth stimulated by exercise can help older adults maintain their independence, lessen fatigue and protect against bad injuries from falls, the leading cause of injury-related death among those over 65.
“It’s really remarkable how many of these different hallmarks of aging exercise can target,” says Nathan LeBrasseur, an exercise and aging researcher and director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic.
Thanks! The last quote was in reference to a conversation in a rapamycin Facebook group where she and I were both members (and several were strongly anti-protein). It’s always tough to distill a 30 minute conversation into three short paragraphs, but she was extremely kind and considerate.
While regular exercise can play a part in promoting longevity up to a certain limit, the remainder of your lifespan is largely determined by your genetic makeup and elements of chance.
I think exercise is key for optimizing healthspan… and is a good place to start, along with diet. Then layer on longevity therapeutics that are becoming available with more evidence. Sure - not much we can do on genes or random chances yet… so we focus on what we can control.
Exercise is a great way to avoid shortening your lifespan through inactivity. But it’s kind of like saying “we don’t need rapamycin because quitting cigarettes is the best longevity intervention”.
Avoiding self-inflicted health problems is definitely good. But that can really only get you back to baseline. If we want to go beyond that, we’re going to need more interventions.
Yes - I spoke to her about rapamycin and directed her to a number of researchers and doctors to talk to… and it sounded like she had spoken to many already (Green, Kaeberlein, etc.), but it seemed little actually made it into her article.
Are you still using 17-alpha estradiol? How is it going?
Researchers currently believe that only 25% of lifespan is from genetics. The other 75% is up to your choices in life.
It is estimated that about 25 percent of the variation in human life span is determined by genetics, but which genes, and how they contribute to longevity, are not well understood.
If it was based primarily on genes, you would expect longevity not to change when people move locations. Japanese people who lived in blue zones in Japan and moved to Hawaii had life expectancies similar to Hawaiians and not their blue zone of origin and relatives. If longevity was primarily genetic, you wouldn’t see this effect. Diet and lifestyle are more important than genes.
“A limitation was that physical activity and BMI were ascertained by self report.”
People almost always overestimate their physical activity and underestimate their BMI. Thus the reported gains are for people who are probably lazier and fatter than the study estimates. Which is good! If you’re not as fat and lazy as the people in this study, you’ll do even better.
Well i will take those added years and another 40-50%. Aiming to live long enough for more great discoveries then rapa, acarbose, astaxanthin etc. But those 3 i belive will at least get me there for many new discoveries + exersize
Absolutely the most powerful way to live longer is to have “lucky” genes.
I have seen it too many times with friends and relatives.
Here is a lady that is 92 years old and doesn’t use expensive creams or cosmetics on her face. She has been featured in several tabloids.
Genes effect on controllable variables can’t be underestimated either, in case anyone missed it, this study showed that every 24 mg/dl increase in apoB above the median decreased chance to live to 90th percentile of lifespan by 60%:
I think we’re all used to go into nuance and depth, but these sorts of newspaper articles are meant to be superficial summaries. I used to work as a journalist so I have a lot of sympathy. The rule (which I didn’t follow myself) is that if you want to select what goes in give very short interviews.
As for the 17-alpha E, yes, it’s still part of my longevity stack. I’m on all four now: rapamycin, acarbose, empagliflozin and 17-a-E (I also mentioned that, but only two made it in.) I also take a PCSK9i as monotherapy (no statin).
The 17-a-E does clearly increase estradiol and IGF-1 so I’ll take vacations from it same as I take from rapamycin. But currently I feel great. Mondays on non-rapa weeks are my hardest days, with three workouts, and though I feel tired this morning (Tue), it’s a really good tired. Five years ago, before all the fine tuning, there’s no way I could have handled this sort of training volume. All my bloodwork, sexual function, everything is excellent. (I only mention sexual function because of the estradiol.) How’s all with you?
What’s causing reduction in movement speed (or movement in general) with aging? Is it fatigue, reduction in cardiovascular conditioning, or is it related to brain, for example dopamine?
