Live Long with Peter Bowes

The power of food - plants in particular - to help us optimize our health and potential longevity can not be underestimated. Indeed nature itself is arguably the most powerful tool we have to thwart disease and the ravages of the aging process.  Dr. Nora Khaldi is the founder of Nuritas, a Dublin based biotechnology company that's pursuing a theory that natural foods contain all the molecular...

Finding the most effective workout and diet regime, with the goal of getting fit and lean, is, for many, the ultimate challenge.  Even elite athletes struggle as they strive to achieve their peak level of performance.  Jon Pearlman, a former #1 singles player for the Harvard tennis team, learned through personal experience that athletic prowess does not come easy.  The two time All-Ivy athlete and...

Making exercise a daily routine, from childhood, could be the key to preventing or slowing down some of the diseases of old age. Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of physical activity, in improving cognitive health, throughout the human lifespan. Jenny Etnier is a professor of sport and exercise psychology in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina. Working...

We are all used to feeling younger than our years and occasionally older than our birth date would suggest.  In effect, we have two ages - chronological and biological. Chronological age simply states the number of years that we have been alive, whereas biological age is a measure of how well our bodies are performing, in relation to the rest of the population.  So how is it determined?  LLAMA hos...

Some of the world's healthiest people spend little or no time pondering their propensity to live a long life.  They just do it. Their lifestyles are a model for longevity. There is much we can learn from these vibrant populations, in countries such as Italy, India, Japan, and (even) parts of the United States.  In this episode of the LLAMA podcast with Peter Bowes, filmmaker Daniel Kennedy di...

The science of aging is so infinitely fascinating that Dr. Sandra Kaufmann decided to immerse herself in the field, as a hobby. A pediatric anesthesiologist from Florida, Dr. Kaufmann, is also an athlete who manages to fit swimming, running and rock climbing around her busy hospital schedule.  Determined to enjoy physical activity for as long as possible, she decided to carry out an extensive revi...

Embracing science and a holistic approach to living a healthier life, has been a hallmark of the Swiss spa-clinic, Clinique La Prairie (CLP), for the past ninety years. Known for its signature treatment, cellular therapy, the medical center opened in 1931, under the guidance of  Dr Paul Niehans, an early expert in the field. Today, CLP melds cutting edge technology with a mission to help people op...

The art of growing old, gracefully and purposefully, preferably in rude health, is unique to us all. The journey, with its many twists and turns, involves myriad emotions, adventures and challenges. But Kathleen O'Brien says the process has been somewhat hijacked by society's growing disrespect for the elderly. In her book, Reclaim Your Right To Grow Old, the American writer and broadcas...

There has been "spectacular" progress in recent years in the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's.  The progressive disease, which is the most common cause of dementia, a late-in-life decline in memory and cognitive ability, afflicts 50 million people around the world. Taking family members and other carers into account, that number increases exponentially.  The condition, for...

Turning fifty can be a wrenching experience for some people.  Others discover that it is their sixtieth birthday that conjures up disturbing emotions. There is no doubt that big birthdays focus the mind on the aging process and what is often described as a midlife crisis.  But should we fear the passage of time?  Lisa Levine is a life coach and the author of Midlife No crisis, an insightful and en...

Living life to the full, at any age, has been a challenge recently.  To put it mildly.  But if Covid has taught us anything, it is that some of life's simplest pleasures are what make life itself worth living. Therein lies a metaphor for healthy aging.  Physical fitness, social contact and an active mind go a long way towards helping us live longer and better.  They are also central to the id...

Cracking the code behind aging has long since fascinated, frustrated and captivated scientists.  In our quest to live longer and better, a desire to fully understand the mechanisms that explain how and why we grow old, has been central to longevity research. In recent years some significant progress has been made. A clearer picture is emerging of the changes that occur, at a cellular level, that c...

Baby boomers make up a significant portion of the world's population.  In the US and the UK the generation born between 1946 and 1964 represents about a fifth of all people and is a hugely influential group.  So what's it like to be a boomer in 2021?  Many are still working, physically active and important contributors to the economy.  Others are retired and enjoying the fruits of their...

Why do we rush to the refrigerator during commercial breaks, while watching television?  Are we really hungry or does TV fuel our addiction to foods that we know are bad for us?  "Without your agreement at all, you're doing what we call the robot walk or the zombie walk to the kitchen to get something to eat," says Joan Ifland, Ph. D., author of the textbook, Processed Food Addictio...

At the age of eighty-one, Jean Ketcham is looking forward to sky diving again, when the pandemic is over. The co-founder of Aging But Dangerous, an international women's movement promoting active, healthy aging, is on a mission to empower women over fifty to live their lives to the full.  When Jean retired, she and her friend, C. Suzanne Bates, realized that their social circles were shrinkin...

If you're a fast walker, you're likely to live longer. The correlation between walking speed and lifespan has been widely studied and is a good indicator of our general physical condition and the number of years that we are able to enjoy optimum health. "It is a wonderful predictor," says, Dr. Cliff Bleustein, Global President and CEO of AposHealth, a home based exercise progra...

Nutritional supplementation is one of the most frequently raised topics in relation to longevity and healthy living.  But do we really need additional components in our diet, such as pterostilbene , sulforaphane and resveratrol?  Scientifically validated studies suggest some dietary supplements are beneficial to our health, but how do we decide which ones to take?  There are myriad considerations....

Cognitive decline is an all-too-familiar hallmark of age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. While there is much research that focuses exclusively on functional changes in the brain, the so-called gut-brain axis  - a connection between the digestive system and the central nervous system - also appears to play a pivotal role. It raises the question: Could nutritional in...

When the pandemic struck, instead of hunkering down, with her life on hold, Alison Weinlaeder moved into top gear with her brain-child, a new online business melding physical and mental workouts.  The speech-language pathologist, from Saint Paul, Minnesota, wanted to help people improve their cognitive abilities, at the same time as nurturing their cardiovascular fitness. Cardiomelon is a fitness...

After a diagnosis of lupus, in her 30s, Leslie Kenny was told she had a life expectancy of five years. The prognosis focussed the Berkeley and Harvard grad's mind like never before. Long before biohacking was a thing, Leslie set about changing her lifestyle, embracing safe, natural solutions, in a fight for her life. Now 56, she is aging well, healthy and a fully signed up biohacker. She is t...

It is often said that it is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle - never too late to incorporate more exercise into our daily routine or focus on a healthier diet, to reap the rewards as we age. In reality, a message that it is never too early to focus on our wellbeing and longevity, is equally important. Perhaps more so. Cathy Richards is an exercise physiologist and founder of Inspiring V...

As we push the boundaries of human longevity and our expectations for lifespan, mid-life is going to be different.  Our healthy, vibrant decades are being extended. The goal of enjoying more fulfilling years, free of diseases and physical decline is becoming a reality. The trajectory of our lives is changing.  Chip Conley is a veteran executive in the hospitality industry, formerly Head of Global...

The body's unique ability to repair itself, with a little outside help, is the focus of a growing sphere of longevity science. One area of research concerns a molecule, known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which plays a key role in many biological processes.  NAD+ declines as we age, but research has shown that, through supplementation,  youthful levels can be restored, helping...

Optimism, during this tumultuous year, has been in short supply. But as 2021 beckons, there is a real sense of hope that happier, healthier times are ahead. Cheryl Ladd, best known for her role in the 1970s detective series, Charlie's Angels, is also emerging from a rollercoaster of a year.  As well as dealing with the emotional challenges presented by Covid-19, for the first time in her life...

If the coronavirus pandemic has reminded us of anything, it is that there is nothing more important than our health and wellbeing.  Now that the vaccine is a reality for people in the UK - and the rest of the world soon -  there is real hope that the disease will be brought under control during the first part of next year.   "People in robust good health are massively less vulnerable to bad o...