Let’s start our discussion here –
- Ageing is a terrible thing to live through in our current western world.
- No one wants to talk about ageing – it’s too depressing to think about.
- Most people are conditioned to think that you can only live to 75 or maybe 80 years of age and if you get any more years than that, then you’re lucky (or maybe unlucky if you are frail and sick).
- The last 20-30 years of people’s lives are normally occupied by worsening health, lower, vitality, sickness, regular hospital visits, and getting ready for being put into a nursing home….
- This is not how it is supposed to be! We must fight against ageing and strive for a life full of purpose, adventure, and love.
Here are the 5 most direct ‘Life-hacks’ or Bio-hacks’ I can teach you about to give you extra decades of life and supercharge your health.
Hack #1 - You must reduce stress!
Not just work stress! Stress comes in many forms – pressure to succeed, expectations from our family, friends, and work colleagues, environmental toxins and pollution, and even our inner thoughts and beliefs.
Research has shown us that those that live the longest experience –
- The best food quality
- The least pollution exposure
- Good job security
- Stable government
- Connected community
- Stable relationships
- A grounded and centred inner world
Look at those living in the ‘Blue Zones’. A large percentage of these people live to 100 or more, still working in their fields and villages, being involved with their families and communities, being connected to the earth and environment around them.
We need to create our own ‘mini–Blue Zones’ in our own life and realise how removed we have become from the important things in our life.
Here are some ways you can de-stress and slow down the pace of life -
Pulsed Magnetic Field Therapy (PEMF) mattresses and underlays
- Deep breathing twice a day – Qi Quong, Buteyko, Vagal Nerve diaphragmatic work
- Meditation and prayer (with an attitude of gratitude)
- Reading
- Time in nature, at the park, or in your garden
- Float tanks and massage
- Tai Chi and Yoga
Hack #2 - You must work on your food and what you put in your mouth!
Get back to basics. You are what you eat. Don’t follow diet fads but concentrate on real food. Eat fresh, seasonal foods, and eat it slowly. Limit foods from tins, packets, boxes as these are dead and lifeless foods with little nutritional value.
Follow these foundational eating tips -
- The Mediterranean Diet is the best for longevity.
- Put as many colours of the rainbow on every plate – yellows, reds, purples, dark greens, orange – the deeper and vibrant the colour – the more antioxidants and polyphenols the food contains.
- Intermittent Fasting has been shown to be very successful in improving glucose, insulin sensitivity, and upregulation of various longevity genes. I follow the 16:8 guide – I eat all my calories and foods in an 8 hour window and leave the other 16 hours food free. This give the body 16 hours where it is not involved in the process of digestion and assimilation – lots of healing and cellular signalling are enhanced during this ‘fasting period’. Consider skipping breakfast or dinner – whatever works best for you. Eat your other meals as per normal.
- Plentiful hydration – Drink! Drink! Drink! A loose guide is 1 litre for every 25kg of body weight.
- The gut is key to health and longevity. Most disease starts in the gut. Digestion, absorption, microbiome diversity, waste removal – they are all fundamental to extending your healthy years.
Hack #3 - You must increase the time you spend in deep sleep each night!
- The only time we repair and regenerate (using our stem cells) is during the deepest levels of sleep. There are 7 layers of sleep that the body should go through each night to recharge your batteries and repair your organs, muscles, bones, and skin.
- The brain flushes itself with cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) during layer 6 and 7 of your sleep cycle. This clears toxins and delivers building materials for brain regeneration. If you are a restless sleeper, wake frequently, are in pain, or don’t breathe well while asleep, then this brain regeneration process is dramatically inhibited leading to accelerated cognitive decline.
- 8 hours and 12 minutes is the average length of sleep required for optimal health.
- Sleep debt is a real thing. It takes 3 days of 9 hours a night just to recover 1 month of sleep debt!
- Don’t fall for the trap of believing that you OK because you are a ‘night owl’ – there is no such thing. Don’t tell yourself “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” – you must make time for good quality sleep. (Refer back to Hack #1 for how not to take your stress to bed with you)
Here are my top tips to sleep deeper and longer -
- Leave 3 to 4 hours between your food intake and when you fall sleep.
- Don't have much fluid after dinner so you don't wake during the night to pee.
- Try to be asleep by 10pm or before.
- Wear blue light blocking glasses from dinner time to lights out.
- Keep all lights dim after dinner to allow for melatonin build up.
- Do 10 minutes of meditation/relaxation before sleeping.
- Set your air conditioner to 18 degrees Celsius (perfect sleeping temp)
- Make your room as blacked out as possible - no light intrusion
- Buy quality, breathable bedding to let heat escape.
- Buy an Oura Ring to monitor and analyse your sleep patterns.
Hack #4 - You must take Longevity Gene Activators every day!
We all have a Longevity Gene Network (LGN) – a network of genes responsible for protecting your DNA code from damage, repairing your mitochondria (the powerhouses of your cells), and regenerating your whole body. These genes need to be activated so they work synergistically with each other to slow the pace of ageing and protect against developing chronic preventable diseases.
The most well-known genes in this network are –
- Sirtuins (# 1-7). These genes improve metabolic control for diabetes and insulin resistance, help abnormal cells to die properly, improve the resistance of cells to oxidative stress, control inflammation, and upregulate cell development and activity – all leading to our cells living longer.
- FOXO signalling pathway. These pathways regulate the expression of genes to optimise cellular functions such as cell death, respiration, glucose metabolism, oxidative stress resistance and mopping up free radicals, and increasing DNA longevity.
- AMPK protein. These genes function as an energy sensor that regulates the metabolism of each and every cell. These genes directly stimulate glucose uptake and fat burning to produce energy and ATP. AMPK regulates the whole intracellular energy cycle and helps our cells survive during times of stress and assault.
- mTOR signalling pathway genes (FGFR2, PIK3C3, FGFR4, FGFR1, FGF3, AKT1, mTOR, and RPTOR). These genes regulate many cellular processes, the growth of cells, clearing away of cellular debris (autophagy), and protein production by RNA.
There are some exciting studies being done on several drugs that will reverse ageing, but they are still 10 to 20 years away before they will be commonly used to treat the disease of ageing and be cheap enough for them to be prescribed to all of us.
In the meantime – nature has the answer! You can activate your Longevity Gene Network right now. Don’t wait for the miracle drug to finally come out or for some amazing discovery to occur to make us live forever – you are wasting precious time when you could be improving your life expectancy right now.
The most successful and highly researched natural molecules to extend your life and reverse your biological age are –
- NAD, NMN, Nicotinamide Riboside
- Curcumin (from Turmeric)
- Resveratrol (from Polygonum/Japanese Knotweed)
- Astragalus
- Withania (also known as Ashwagandha)
- Sulforaphane (from broccoli sprouts)
- Cinnamon
- Alpha Keto Glutarate
- Magnesium
- Brown/Red algae (astaxanthin/beta carotene/fucoidan)
-
Vitamin D
You can read all about my Longevity Medicines and Molecules on the link below. These are the best and most therapeutic supplements for all your Longevity needs.
I have been using these nutrients for nearly 30 years and have got the best results using these molecules with my Longevity Family.
https://www.longevitycode.com.au/pages/products
Hack #5 – The most important hack – You must test your progress regularly!
If you don’t measure it – you can’t optimise it!
- How do you know if the foods you’re eating, the lifestyle you’re living, the supplements you’re taking are doing anything? Are you just wasting your time and money?
- We are all individuals with different needs, issues, constitutions, epigenetics, and beliefs.
- At least 60% of our ageing is changeable/modifiable right now! And that percentage will only get higher as research continues to expand (especially with AI)
- Testing gives you a baseline to allow us to optimise your results.
- Testing allows us to learn more about your unique body and how it functions.
- Testing gives us data to analyse to target treatments and get you the most powerful therapeutic results.
These are the current Longevity Tests and Analytics I use on all my patients and health family –
- Intracellular NAD test – how much NAD super fuel is in your Mitochondria?
- Epigenetic Age Rate test – how old are you on the inside? What is your true age?
- DEXA Scan for body composition – muscle mass, fat, fluid retention, bone density.
- Ageing Biomarker Pathology Panel (60 specific biomarkers that identify where you are ageing and the diseases you might be developing)
- Wearables to collect your health data e.g. Oura ring for sleep, FIT Bits, Whoop watches etc
- Cellular Function Testing – Organic Acids Profiling to assess your health right down at a deep cellular level.
- Antioxidant/Glutathione testing (Nrf2) – how robust or fragile are your DNA defences against damage, free radical attack, and destruction?
You can read all bout these tests and order the Kits if you’re interested in doing some self-testing from the link below –
https://www.longevitycode.com.au/pages/testing
My mission in life is to assist a million people live over 100 years of age with good health and vitality