The 4 basics of living a longer, healthier life

At a time when book and video titles scream at us that we can live forever through biohacking, life expectancy in the UK and US is actually falling.

That means in the UK, boys born between 2020 and 2022 can expect to live to 78.6 years, a decrease of 38 weeks compared with 2017 to 2019. For girls, the expectancy for the same period was 82.6 years, having fallen by 23 weeks.

Life expectancy in the U.S has declined over the past few years, falling from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020 and 76.1 in 2022. It’s particularly bad news for men whose life expectancy is now just 73.2 years, compared with women’s at 79.1.

These sobering figures are what propel me to try to cut through a lot of the conflicting advice around how to optimize health and instead offer a sensible steer around some basics most experts can agree on.

It’s a no to biohacking and a yes to living to the full

I’m now dedicated full-time to exploring how to age well. I do that on this website and on my YouTube channel.

And while I haven’t joined the ranks of the biohackers trying to live forever, I do want to eek as much out as life as I can by being able to stay fit, active and mentally alert for as long as possible.

And, yes, I want to look as I feel – vibrant and energized, which means skincare matters to me almost as much as gut, physical and mental health.

But if I’ve learnt anything it’s to avoid extremes of any kind and focus more on some core basics that will take you so much further than ‘science-backed’ fads and whims.

1. Eat natural

This is, in my view, the thing that could change our national health woes in mere weeks if more effort was put into food education by governments.

Instead we end up with a mess of conflicting messages when there is one simple truth behind them all.

Cut out processed snacks, drinks and meals and eat and drink food in their natural form. Doing that alone will have a profound effect on your health.

Sure we may have different tolerance levels for certain food types, and some of us have allergies and conditions that prevent us eating specific ingredients. That’s fine, because if you’re eating natural wholefoods you can figure out what works for you.

What I feel is little understood is that processed foods don’t just contribute to weight gain, they stack up against your health in general.

They are nutrient poor, often low in fibre and higher in unhelpful fats and preservatives and loaded with sugar or sweeteners and salt.

That not only contributes to weight gain but affects the microbiome of your gut which requires fibre and nutrients in abundance to flourish.

A healthy gut affects every aspect of your being. It is impossible to overstate its importance.

And this is all supported by a massive study of nearly half a million participants which identified that those who ate a diet high in vegetables, nuts and legumes, a moderate intake of wholegrains, fruit, fish and white meat, and a lower intake of eggs and red meat, while minimising sugary drinks and processed foods, lived longest.

In other words, they simply ate naturally.

2. Balance your blood sugar

Insulin resistance is one of the greatest obstacles to aging well so we want to protect our insulin sensitivity at all costs.

Sudden spikes in glucose that come with eating higher carb meals and snacks, along with sugary treats and drinks, can accelerate aging.

Short-term glucose spikes cause us to feel more hungry, experience energy dips and tiredness, and contribute to poor sleep, headaches and brain fog.

But left unchecked, spikes in blood sugar cause the pancreas to pump out more insulin to help get blood sugar into cells. Over time, cells stop responding to the insulin and that’s known as insulin resistance.

The pancreas keeps making more insulin to try to make cells respond and eventually the pancreas can’t keep up, and blood sugar keeps rising.

It causes cause inflammation and a build-up of fat (particularly around the stomach) and can lead to more serious health issues related to insulin resistance including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

But beyond cutting back on sugar in our diet, there are some tricks we can deploy to help out.

A glucose revolution!

Jessie Inchauspe is a biochemist who has carried out a lot of research into how best to manage blood sugar levels and wrote a brilliant book, called Glucose Revolution, that provides an easy guide to how food impacts your health and straightforward changes we can make to our diet and lifestyle to balance our blood sugar and reduce the risks from age-related disease.

Doing that will also have a visible effect on our skin, and on our whole body, and is the most positive change we can make head to toe.

One of the tips, for instance, is to go for a walk or get active (even 10 minutes helps) after eating carbs or sugary meals and snacks and this in itself will help flatten your sugar spike.

She also suggests eating your veggies first to create a viscous mesh in our gut that helps slow the absorption of sugar into our blood, and taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar either diluted in water or as part of a salad dressing before your meal or snack to balance your blood sugar.

3. Exercise

We all know exercise is good for us, but a new school of thought goes even further by describing muscle as ‘the organ of longevity’.

It’s led by New York-based Dr Gabrielle Lyon who, in her book Forever Strong, explains that loss of muscle mass is one of the greatest contributors to age-related disease.

She believes weight training is essential to mitigating these effects.

I only joined a gym a few months ago and, in addition to either walking for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, or doing cardio in the gym, I now lift and pull weights at least three times a week.

I had stiff and weak knees before I started lifting weights. It is extraordinary to feel the strength coming back and I urge you, even if it’s just using resistance bands at home, to give it a try. You will feel like you are aging in reverse!

4. Sleep

It used to be seen as a sign of good strength and stamina in some ways to not require much sleep. We think of the early riser heading to the gym at 5am and pushing right through to midnight ‘maxing out’ each day.

But the reality is we need a good night’s sleep to support the function of body, mind and skin!

The Sleep Foundation shares an excellent article explaining the science behind sleep but, cutting a long story short, for most adults at least seven hours a night is required.

A lack of sleep has been linked in studies with reduced skin hydration and elasticity.

And, because sleep is when the body has the most opportunity to renew and repair itself, cutting it short gives it less of a chance to do that – and we can’t afford to skip the repair shop as we age!

It’s that simple

These four points – eating naturally, balancing your blood sugar, exercise and sleep – are truly the pillars of healthy aging.

Do this and everything else falls into place. Our skin, body and mind are interconnected so when we get the basics right the benefits are felt head to toe and they show on the surface too.

Sure, I take a few supplements that I find helpful as well, vitamin D3 with K2 being one that’s even recommended by health authorities for most people to take daily.

A fifth pillar of aging may emerge over the next few years and that is our skin.

That’s because an increasing number of scientists are flagging that the health of our skin could impact our wider health, including our levels of inflammation and even cognitive function.

It is an area I intend to explore more fully on the channel in the coming months and years as further research emerges.

But, for now, rather than fretting over which expert to believe when they share conflicting advice on social media, with average life expectancy falling it’s the basics we should be most focused on.