For years, we believed that age was a slow march in one direction, with only one inevitable outcome. But what if you could rewind the clock and make yourself younger – and so, live for longer?
Well the truth is, you can. I’m a scientist who has dedicated the last ten years of my life to the science of anti-ageing. So I know there’s a difference between your actual age and the age you are on a cellular level – your biological age.
We measure this by a number of factors, primarily inflammation in the body. The more inflamed you are, the older you are biologically.
Your lifestyle choices can have a huge impact on your biological age. At 38, I have a biological age of just 20.
Here, I give my expert advice on how you can knock as many as 15 years off yours…
Your lifestyle choices can have a huge impact your biological age, writes Dr Nichola Conlon
SLEEP: 10 YEARS
Sleep is a huge factor in how we age – and the easiest to control. As well as putting you at greater risk of age-related diseases like heart disease and diabetes, getting six hours of sleep or less at night for just a week can raise your biological age by ten years.
People who sleep for seven to eight hours have the lowest mortality risk, and the healthiest biomarker profiles (which provide insights into a person’s biological condition).
So how can you ensure you’re getting top-quality sleep, and so lower your biological age? Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, and make sure you see daylight, especially in the mornings. This helps to reset the circadian rhythm that governs our sleep cycle. And avoid mentally stimulating activities, like social media, for as long as possible before bed.
FOOD: 18 MONTHS
Following a Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, vegetables and fish, lowers biological age by 18 months
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are a major culprit for raising biological age. People who consume large amounts are ten months older biologically than people who don’t.
Try to replace them with whole foods. For every 10 per cent decrease in UPF consumption, biological age is found to lower by 0.14 years.
The key is diversity; aim to eat 30 different plants per week. Following a Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, vegetables and fish, lowers biological age by 18 months.
Your gut microbiome will thank you. It controls inflammation across our entire body, which we know is one of the biggest drivers of ageing. A major study found that people who live to be over 100 had a microbiome composition that was much healthier than people decades younger than them.
EXERCISE: 7 YEARS
The body likes balance, and won’t thank you for a sudden burst of intense exercise.
The people with the lowest biological ages are those who enjoy plenty of ‘everyday exercise’ – walking instead of driving, taking the stairs. For women, strength training can be beneficial to maintain muscle mass, but you don’t need to pump iron every day. Body-weight exercises like press-ups and crunches are beneficial.
Exercising just two or three times a week has been found to lower your biological age by 7.4 years.
STRESS: 15 YEARS
The old wives’ tale that stress makes your hair grey is true.
Cortisol, the stress hormone, wreaks havoc on our health. People who have lived with extended periods of stress have a biological age on average 15 years higher than they should.
Cortisol also breaks down collagen in the skin, making you look prematurely old. It’s unrealistic to suggest you should never experience stress, so the best thing you can do is minimise its effects. Eat well, exercise calmly and try meditation and breathwork: this quiets the amygdala – the brain’s ‘fear centre’ – almost immediately.
HORMONES: 9 YEARS
Your biological age rises by as much as nine years in the six months when you first hit perimenopause due to the shift in hormones. Consider hormone replacement therapy, as it can reset your cellular age to where it should be.
Oestrogen, which depletes during menopause, works to keep inflammation in check. If you don’t want to take HRT, it’s important to double down on the methods you can control, like diet and exercise.
MINDSET: 7.5 YEARS
The power of positive thinking shouldn’t be underestimated. Studies show people with a positive outlook on ageing live, on average, 7.5 years longer.
Your thoughts transmit to your repair system; if you’re constantly glum, your body isn’t calm enough to enter a rest-and-repair state.
Simple meditation and mindfulness practices can reduce your biological age by three to five years. The message is simple: don’t fear ageing, and think young to be young.
SKIN: MAINTAINS AGE
Poor skin health has been linked to age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease
What you put on your skin can affect your biological age.
Poor skin health has been linked to age-related illnesses like Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. One study of people over 65 asked them to moisturise their skin twice a day for three years, compared with a control group. While those who hadn’t moisturised saw cognitive decline, those that had been hydrating their skin had not deteriorated.
Inflammatory conditions like dryness and redness don’t just stay localised, and usually reflect inflammation inside the body. So treating them topically is beneficial, and remember to always wear your SPF – it protects your whole body, not just your skin.
FRIENDS: AID SURVIVAL
A huge study a few years ago followed people over 85 years and found that the quality of their relationships was the biggest factor in biological ageing.
People with strong social connections are found to have a 50 per cent greater chance of survival than their more isolated peers.
Having a sense of belonging reduces stress – which we know raises your biological age prematurely – as does knowing that if you have a problem, there’s someone to turn to. ‘Blue zones’ – areas of the world where people regularly live to over 100 – are all tight-knit, sociable communities.
SUPPLEMENTS: 1 YEAR
Taking supplements is like putting a bucket under a leaky roof; if you never patch the holes (poor sleep, stress, lack of exercise) the drips keep coming.
That said, they can have benefits. I’d recommend a daily Omega-3 supplement, an easy way to reduce inflammation.
The most talked about molecule in the ageing field is NAD+, a naturally occurring compound we lose as we age. It’s responsible for various biological processes, giving greater energy and cell function.
My company Nuchido (nuchido.com) pioneered the development of a supplement that switches NAD+ production back on in the body. It has been proven in clinical studies to reduce biological age; taking it for 28 days can reduce ageing by 1.26 years.
- As told to Olivia Dean