Live Long with Peter Bowes

Floyd Norman is busier than ever. He is 82 and still working at the job he started in the 1950s. A cartoonist all his life, Floyd enjoyed a hugely successful career creating some of Disney’s most iconic characters. As a young cartoonist he was handpicked by Walt Disney to be part of the team behind The Jungle Book.  He also worked on classics such as Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians...

Senior moments and the aging process go hand in hand. As we grow older memory lapses and cognitive problems are often assumed to be the normal course of events. But should we really worry about losing the car keys, now and then? The biological and psychological explanations for declining cognitive performance are many and varied, but Dr. Sarah Barber, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ps...

Ethel Travis wants to make history. At the age of 102, the former ballerina, artist and fashionista has her sights set firmly on the future. With a busy social calendar, good health and the support a loving family, Ethel embraces life with giddy enthusiasm. She loves to talk, reminisce and make new friends. A centenarian with the mind and body of someone decades younger, Ethel recently welcomed LL...

A hundred years from now, "physicians will have the capacity to keep people alive indefinitely,” says Dr. Michael Rose, director and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Rose has spent over 40 years working with fruit flies to try to unravel the mechanisms at work as we age. He believes that there is a point (which can be...

Phil Libin, co-founder and former CEO of Evernote, the note-taking app, recently moved into a new phase of his life. He turned 45, launched a new AI startup studio, All Turtles, and perhaps most significantly, lost a ton of weight. Phil has been a big guy since his late teens. He knew he was obese but did nothing about it until eight months ago. That’s when he decided to join the growing clan of f...

As human life expectancy continues to increase, age-related diseases are the main impediment to enjoying the fruits of longevity. High on the list is Alzheimer’s disease, the incurable neurodegenerative condition that robs sufferers of their memory and eventually leads to death. But valuable progress is being made in the understanding and prevention of the disease. A new study at the Keck School o...

Why do women live longer than men? Does the ability to bear children play a role and to what extent do evolutionary forces discriminate between men and women?  Dr. Felice Gersh is a board-certified (1984) gynecologist and the founder of a private medical practice, the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine, California. Fellowship trained in a relatively new medical field, known as functional/integrat...

The enhancement of the human body is the main goal of Geoffrey Woo, a biohacker and entrepreneur based in San Francisco. A Stanford-trained computer scientist, Geoffrey is the CEO and co-founder of HVMN (formerly Nootrobox), a nootropics company that melds biology and technology to optimize the human system. The evolving science behind nootropics, which are legal compounds designed to improve cogn...

James Maskell is a writer, public speaker, entrepreneur and advocate for a new paradigm in healthcare. The author of The Evolution of Medicine, James is the founder of the Functional Forum, an integrative medicine conference that curates discussions with leading medical practitioners around the world. Next week, James will co-host the launch of an ambitious project to make Guernsey the first commu...

Curt von Badinski is a serial tinkerer, inventor, entrepreneur and businessman. As a mechanical engineer he worked on secret projects at the aerospace company, Lockheed Martin; he developed network equipment at the IT giant, Cisco Systems, and he built a family company making camera accessories. It was during this enterprise that Curt realized his work-obsessed and sleep deprived “crazy” lifestyle...

In the months before her retirement, Sue Albert was worried that she may not survive to enjoy her golden years. She spent a lifetime in nursing, and ended her career as the dean of a health department at a California college. But Sue was burned out and sick. She had neglected her own health needs and was overweight, hypertensive and physically challenged. She decided to join a gym and, albeit relu...

The biological mechanisms at work during the aging process have long since intrigued and baffled scientists. Indeed, the very definition of aging continues to be the subject of much debate. The relationship between growing old and chronic disease is pivotal to the understanding of human longevity and the focus of many clinical studies. Dr. David Gems is a professor of biogerontology at the Institu...

People with a brain age older than their bodies could be at greater risk of dying early, according to a recent study. Dr. James Cole, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London, led a research project using MRI scans and a computer program to predict a person’s brain age. The system, which is still in development, could help spot people whose lifestyles put them at greater risk of poor health and...

Implanted devices that monitor the internal functioning of our bodies, in minute detail, could soon be part of our daily lives. Many of us already take for granted the wearable gadgets and apps we use to keep track of exercise and food intake. Technological advances in the field of body computing are moving quickly and are about to revolutionize the way we manage aging and everyday wellbeing. Dr....

Living a healthy lifestyle goes a long way towards reducing the chances of an early death, but some diseases still strike with little warning and deadly effect. You can do everything right and still get cancer. Dr. Steven Eisenberg is an oncologist, based in the California city of San Diego. Board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology, he has been recognized for his compa...

Edith Johnson Avise recently moved into a care home, at the age of 100. After a lifetime of independent living, she is finding it difficult to adapt to her new surroundings. The home, in Southern California, is comfortable and safe, but Edith still has a spirited attitude towards life. She enjoyed a successful career as an agricultural educator, or extension worker, in her home state of Michigan....

Paul Irving has no intention of ever retiring. As chairman of the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging, he is a leading campaigner in what has become known as the purposeful aging movement. A lawyer and former president of the Santa Monica-based Institute, Paul is an advocate for the elderly population, whom he sees as a talented and “dramatically underutilized” resource for society....

Imagine a future where we grow old but do not succumb to the diseases that typically define the aging process. Dr. Nathaniel “Ned” David, a molecular and cell biologist, wants to create a world where it does not hurt to grow old. The founder of multiple biotech companies, Ned is the President of UNITY, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company which aims to develop drugs that prevent, halt, or r...

When Matthew Hoffman decided to interview elderly people, to hone his skills as a TV host, he stumbled across a unique community project. Matthew, a writer and actor, is the founder of Tuesdays with Matthew, an acting class and video series for senior citizens in Los Angeles. The program, at an adult day care center, takes iconic scenes from famous movies and reenacts them with senior citizens in...

Ben Hwang is the chairman and CEO of Profusa, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company, that is developing micro sensors to monitor body chemistry. A former management consultant, Ben earned his MA and PhD in biology from the Johns Hopkins University. He has worked in a variety of biotech roles and is dedicated to developing technology that promotes good health and longevity. Profusa (@profusaI...

Eric Verdin is the president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. The institute, based in Novato, Northern California, is America's first and largest independent body focussed on the biology of aging. Until recently, Dr. Verdin was a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, in San Francisco, where he studied the role of metabolism and diet in aging....

How is human longevity influenced by our mindsets on aging, diet, exercise and stress? Inspired by research on the placebo effect, Alia Crum (@AliaCrum), an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, investigates the role mindset plays in health and lifestyle choices. She is trying understand how mindsets can have a positive impact on the way the body heals and whether they can be i...

Nir Barzilai is a professor of medicine and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the director of the Institute for Aging Research. He is best known for his work with some of the world’s oldest populations and is currently leading an international effort to aprove drugs that could target aging. Dr. Barzilai was born in Isreal and has had a life-long interest in the mechanisms tha...

Valter Longo is Director of the University of Southern California (USC) Longevity Institute and a professor in biological science. Originally from Italy, he is a cell biologist who specializes in the mechanisms of aging in yeast, mice, and humans. His laboratory has identified genetic pathways that regulate aging in simple organisms and reduce the incidence of certain diseases in mice and humans....

Olga Connolly is an Olympic gold medalist, who triumphed during the 1956 games in Melbourne. She threw the discus for her home country, Czechoslovakia. During the competition, she fell in love with, and later married, American athlete Harold Connolly – a controversial move at the height of the Cold War. Now 84, Olga has forged a career in fitness, working as a personal trainer at the University of...