Diet and exercise habits that can reduce your ‘natural age’

New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier or exercise more can have more benefits than just getting fit or losing weight: Several studies published in the past year suggest that certain eating and exercise habits can help reduce a person’s natural “age”.

This term refers to the signs of a person’s physical health, rather than the number of birthdays they have had. Although the measurement cannot predict how long a person will live, the idea is to assess where the human body is aging based on factors such as tissue damage, physical activity or k’ cholesterol and blood pressure.

The latest research provides more evidence that some of the habits that are already known to be healthy – such as following a plant-based diet, being active throughout the day and exercising weekly – are can prevent the negative health effects associated with aging.

However, biological aging is a complex phenomenon, and experts warn that stress, chronic illness, smoking and genetics can all complicate the condition. Additionally, they said there are more reasons to exercise regularly and eat a nutrient-dense diet than simply turning back the clock.

However, here is what five studies published in the past year have found about the relationship between diet, exercise and aging.

Eat more plants and junk food

A growing body of evidence shows that a plant-based diet can help slow down biological aging.

A study published in October looked at the effects of a vegan diet on 22 pairs of identical twins. The researchers assigned one twin in each pair to a vegan diet plan, while the other ate an omnivorous diet that included meat, eggs and dairy, as well as plants.

At the end of eight weeks, the researchers measured the natural age of the twins based on their telomeres – the caps that protect the ends of chromosomes that shorten with age. Over time, that shortening can prevent cells from dividing, increasing the risk of illness or death. The study also measured changes in the participants’ DNA methylation – a process used by cells to regulate genes – which are strongly associated with aging.

The results showed that the twins who followed the vegan diet showed a significant reduction in their natural age relative to the omnivorous group.

Christopher Gardner, one of the authors of the study, says that a vegan diet consists of nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, beans and whole grains, as well as less fat. But it’s not clear which part of the diet slows aging, he added, or how long the benefits may last.

“It’s not like you can do this for eight weeks and suddenly you’re younger,” said Gardner, a nutritionist at Stanford Medicine.

Plus, not all vegan foods are healthy (french fries and sodas are even vegan, after all), so Gardner suggested a simple rule of thumb: Eat more plants and foods that aren’t. no food.

In fact, a July study found that higher consumption of antioxidant or anti-inflammatory foods, such as vegetables, olive oil, whole grains and seafood, was associated with age younger microbes, while high sugar intake was associated with older microbes. age.

One study showed the benefits of following a low-calorie, plant-based diet for a limited period of time. Among a group of 100 adults, researchers asked others to follow a strict diet for five consecutive days a month over a period of three months, while eating as they normally did eating there all the time. On diet days, caloric intake was limited to 700 to 1,100 daily calories, with all meals prepared in advance and served to the participants. The kits contained things like vegetable soup, nut bars and herbal tea. Some participants continued their normal routines for the entire three months.

The researchers assessed people’s natural age based on several measures of health, such as cholesterol and blood pressure. They found that the group that included a plant-based diet in their monthly routines had biological ages that were two and a half years older than when they started, regardless of whether they have decreased during the study.

“Every doctor in the United States, this should be part of their equipment,” said Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute and one of the authors of the study.

Longo says his research suggests that the special five-day diet he studied can help generate new, healthy cells and reduce insulin resistance, which can lower blood sugar. . Such an approach could make a big difference for people with diabetes, obesity or overweight, he added.

Daily walking and weekly strength training

Although exercise has long been known to improve brain health, a study published in October found that even a little exercise can reduce a person’s “mental age” – how young a person is based on their cognitive abilities. home.

The study enrolled more than 200 New Yorkers, who were prompted several times a day by a smartphone app to record their physical activity over the past three and a half hours. Immediately after, they were instructed to play “brain games” that measured their cognitive function, such as matching tiles with different symbols. The participants’ speed in solving the games was used as a measure of their brain age.

Jonathan Hakun, study author and professor of neurology at Penn State University, said: “In general we get slower as we get older cognitively.” “Somewhere in the middle ages — thought to be somewhere around the sixth or seventh decade — we start to see a more rapid change in our ability to solve these problems quickly.”

The study found that people who had recently done physical exercise showed a cognitive speed associated with brain age that was four years younger than they showed after periods of no exercise. . The activity could have been as simple as walking the dog, doing chores or playing with the children.

Hakun says the findings may be due to exercise stimulating the central nervous system.

He said: “Practice that we can do in our daily life can put us in a position to be ready or prepared to respond to a game or a problem if it arises.”

Research this year has also found a relationship between a certain type of exercise and the reduction of biological age. A study published in October found that doing 90 minutes of strength training each week — exercises like using weights or resistance to strengthen muscles — was associated with a nearly four-year reduction in age. of microorganisms.

The findings were based on 4,800 responses to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults who said they regularly participated in strength training were found to have significantly longer telomeres than adults who did not, suggesting a lower natural age .

However, Hakun stressed that the benefits of exercise go far beyond that, as regular exercise is also known to reduce blood sugar and heart disease risk levels, among many other side effects. good.

He said: “People have always regarded exercise as a very important method for all aspects of health. I rarely come across a plan that says exercise has a negative effect, if so.