Live Long with Peter Bowes

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...

The concept of healthspan - the number of years that we enjoy optimum health - has come a long way, in recent years.  In fact, Dr. Nir Barzilai, founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine,  believes we are "ushering in a future where the norm will be for people to be healthy, active and mentally sharp, during the last quarter of their lives.&q...

Lee Gutkind has spent much of his life denying his age. The Pittsburgh-based writer and teacher, renowned for his skills as an immersion journalist, has long been fascinated by the aging process and the insecurities that come with growing old. Now, aged seventy-seven, he has overcome his anxieties and age-related tensions. It followed a dark period of time, marked by the loss of loved ones and lon...

Matters of the mind may be more important to us now, than ever before. The number of new coronavirus cases is continuing to rise in many countries.  The United States - as well as dealing with political uncertainty - is reporting over 100,000 infections every day and England has just gone back into lockdown.  There are encouraging exceptions, like Australia, which, earlier this week, recorded its...

They say, 'you’re never too old.' Never too old to do something for the first time, take on a new challenge, push yourself to your physical and mental limits, or step out of your comfort zone. You only live once. But how many of us would embrace such an  adventurous attitude, in our nineties.  in this episode we meet the writer, Heidi Herman, who was inspired by her mother, to “spread mo...

What if we run out of money, as we get older?  If we live a very long, healthy and active life, will we be able to afford the kind of lifestyle that we aspire to, as a nonagenarian or centenarian?  The so-called longevity risk poses a dilemma for many people. The goal is to enjoy a vibrant healthspan but it could prove to be expensive.   In this episode of the Live Long and Master Aging podcast we...

A key pillar of human longevity is our ability to remain physically strong and active as we age. Frailty is an all-too-familiar downside of growing old. But there is much we can do to slow down and even reverse the process that leads to the weakening of our limbs.  In this episode of the Live Long and Master Aging (LLAMA) podcast, we delve into the latest clinical discoveries that could help us st...

The science and marketing sectors don’t often intersect. But when clinically validated advancements emerge from the laboratory, this unlikely alliance comes into play.  In this LLAMA podcast episode we explore how cutting edge research can be applied to our everyday health and longevity.  Dr. Stephanie Blum, Head of Translational Science at Nestle Health Science, is responsible for transforming  s...

The science of aging is rapidly evolving. Many of us are more aware of our capacity to live a long healthy life, than ever before. But the quest to understand human longevity - and perhaps figure out how we can slow down the process - is still a huge work-in-progress. Why do we age? Is it due to wear and tear on our bodies, is it all predetermined by our genes - or is there an invisible killer all...

Eventually, we will all face the challenges that come with old age. We will have less strength and energy than we once had. But what if it were possible to rekindle the drive and physical endurance of youth as we grow older?  Prof. Johan Auwerx directs the Laboratory for Integrated and Systems Physiology at École Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he studies the mechanis...