The cardiologist Eric Topol is one of the main medical researchers in the world. Founder of the Scripps Research Translation Institute in La Jolla, California, Dr. Topol is also the author of a new New York New York window book“Super agents: an evidence -based approach to longevity.”
Recently I sat with Topol to discuss the ideas of his book about deceleration, or turn, our clocks aged to be more as super agents, or who he calls “welcome”, people who live well in their 80 and 90 without any chronic disease or disease.
A complete answer to that question requires reading your book, written for a curious secular audience about the last (and next) scientific advances in longevity medicine. But in our one -hour conversation, Topol argued several to do and not do for anyone looking to make 80 the new 50.
1. Do: Strengthen your immune system
If there is a main thesis in Topol's book, it is that healthy aging is a function of a strong immune system, which can defend themselves against diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other chronic conditions. “I keep telling myself that old thing about the economy: 'It's the immune system, stupid,' you know?” Topol told me. “Because it really is.”
Suggests focusing on habits that support and build immune health:
- Regular resistance and resistance training builds strong immune systems and is the best way to extend useful life and, more importantly, health capacity.
- Maintain a Mediterranean style diet that maximizes integral foods, colorful vegetables, lean meats, olive oil and minimal dairy, and minimizes ultra -processed foods.
- Get a deep and restorative, crucial sleep to support the immune function of your body.
- Keep the so -called “lifestyle+” factors, such as spending time in nature, avoiding environmental pollution such as plastics transmitted by food and toxins in the air, and maintaining strong friendships and a regular social calendar.
I will deepen some of these specific strategies, such as sleep and nutrition, below. But the common denominator is to support a robust immune function, Topol said.
“We should have evidence of the immune system as we age,” he said, “because it is the reason why aging can hurt ourselves.”
2. No: limit your medical attention to only what your insurance covers
Most health insurance programs provided by the employer cover only the minimum annual tests to measure basic health risks and heart disease, cholesterol level and hormonal health. “Standard medicine is being lost, leaving too many unsolved questions about the risk of a person,” Topol said. “Simply do tests based on the risk of a person; performance is much greater.”
Recommends some specific tests of lower cost to help customize medical care and guide preventive strategies that can help mark the potential risks of diseases that most insurance covered tests do not do it:
- Polygenic risk scores (PR): They often cost less than $ 50, these tests provide validated risk estimates for common cancers (for example, prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, melanoma) and other diseases. Use this test together with other health data, such as family history and routine blood analysis, to provide a more comprehensive risk assessment.
- Dexa scanning: which generally costs less than $ 100, this is a relatively economical and useful tool to monitor changes in body composition, such as muscle mass and fat, or older adults concerned about muscle loss.
- Sequencing of its genome: for approximately $ 200, this process can help determine which cancer, if any, is more predisposed. This is a test that must be taken only once, for your knowledge for life. WARNING: Unfortunately, most data sets validated for the risk of genomic cancer are still only for people of European descent.
3. Do: Nourish your “intestine-cerebro axis”
In “Super Ajers”, Topol writes extensively about bidirectional communication between intestinal hormones and brain, and calls it critical for healthy immune function. Intestinal hormones are chemical messengers made by special cells in the digestive tract that help control digestive functions. They communicate with the brain through the bloodstream and the vagus nerve, which crosses the throat and vocal strings and connects the intestine and brain.
“I am quite well convinced now that the history of the intestinal hormone is the most extraordinary thing I've seen in medical intervention,” he told me. “Because intestinal hormones speak with the immune system, and talk to the brain, which is the control of the mission for the immune system.”
“It's not just microbiome, it is the hormonal production of the intestine,” he said. “The path to the brain of a person and healthy aging, is likely to be through their intestine.”
Here we show you how to nurture bidirectional communication along the so -called intestine axis:
- Keep a strong and diverse intestinal microbioma: consume a variety of comprehensive foods (meat, grains, legumes, dark leafy vegetables) and minimize ultra processed foods (that is, anything with a long list of ingredients that you cannot pronounce). Foods with active macrobiotic crops such as yogurt, kimchi, chucrut and kombucha are excellent for building healthy and diverse intestinal bacteria.
- Stimulate and strengthen your vagus nerve. Be careful through deep breathing exercises that involve the diaphragm. Singing, buzzing, laughter and even Garging stimulate the vagus nerve, and exposure to cold water can activate it and improve its tone.
4. No: sleep very little, or too much
We all know that sleeping enough is essential for health and specifically for healthy aging, and many doctors legitimately call the chronic lack of dreams of Americans a public health crisis. But there is another side of the history of sleep, Topol said, admitting his own surprise: as much as Clinical researchFor people over 30 years of age or older, knowledge of more than seven to eight hours of sleep was associated with greater risks of mortality, he said.
“The main finding was that about seven hours is the optimal duration of sleep,” he writes in his book. “Each hour of the night in the duration of sleep above the threshold of seven to eight hours is associated with a 12% higher risk of total cardiovascular disease.”
To improve sleep function, Topol recommends maintaining a schedule consistent to bed and wake up, and avoid eating or drinking alcohol for a few hours before sleeping.
5. Do: Use AI to answer questions about health aging, but with caution
The convergence of AI with advances in biomedical data, such as genomic, microbiomas analysis and digital health monitoring, creates a transformative force that can radically improve the prediction of the disease, prevention and personalized attention, Topol told me.
For consumers, AI is a powerful tool, he said, which can still be very wrong, sometimes. Then, with caution and surveillance for the “hallucinations” of AI that provide incorrect information, this is how you can use it to help you grow old:
- Take advantage of personal health data: consider feeding consumer AI applications such as Claude (Anthrope), Gemini (Google) and Perpleplexity your anonymized data of portable devices, mobile health applications and test kits at home for real -time comments and personalized recommendations. Keeping adequate digital privacy means scrubbing personal identification information such as your name, address and social security number of any document that loads on AI platforms. (Assume that the personal identification company that provides an AI system can be captured by the company that possesses it).
- Make your personal and drink personal analyst: the more specific you can get what foods you consume and how much, the more you can give you a precise idea how balanced your diet is compared to nutritional standards. I did this and received revealing comments. Always ask the AI system what nutrition standards you are using, and are not afraid to challenge the results that do not sound good. (Some may be good to admit when it is wrong).
- Ask for non -technical explanations of emerging longevity trends, treatments and scientific advances. For example, ask perplexity: “Why are doctors so excited about LPG-1 now?” What responds well may surprise you.
