{"id":546272,"date":"2025-11-03T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/546272\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:14:17","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-to-slowing-down-or-even-reversing-ageing-as-our-experts-reveal-the-diet-that-will-make-you-biologically-younger-and-the-3p-pill-that-could-help-you-live-to-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/546272\/","title":{"rendered":"The ultimate guide to slowing down or even REVERSING ageing… as our experts reveal the diet that will make you biologically younger and the 3p pill that could help you live to 90"},"content":{"rendered":"

When two of the most powerful people in the world enthusiastically discuss how science is on the verge of finding the secret to immortality, you know it\u2019s time to take the subject seriously.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened a few weeks ago, when Xi Jinping<\/a>, premier of China<\/a>, was overheard at a conference telling Vladimir Putin<\/a>, president of Russia<\/a>, that ongoing scientific advances meant many of us could soon be living to 150 and humans soon might \u2018even achieve immortality\u2019.<\/p>\n

Four years ago Vladimir Putin began investing millions of pounds into 43 anti-ageing research projects, according to the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta\u00a0\u2013 there were just seven such projects five years before.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, huge sums of money are being poured into anti-ageing scientific research by Silicon Valley billionaires such as the former Amazon chief Jeff Bezos<\/a>, 61; the head of artificial-intelligence platform OpenAI, Sam Altman<\/a>, 40; Google<\/a> founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both 52; and PayPal<\/a>\u00a0co-founder Peter Thiel, 58.<\/p>\n

Immortality is a very ancient quest. It is the heart of one of humanity\u2019s oldest stories, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is believed to originate from Sumeria (in modern-day Iraq<\/a>) in the 21st century BC.<\/p>\n

The story goes that King Gilgamesh dearly loved his life. When a friend died, he went searching for immortality in the form of a mythical plant that could restore lost youth. However at the end of his long journeying he contracted a fever and died.<\/p>\n

History is littered with failed bids for immortality \u2013 and while experts question whether our bodies are truly capable of living much longer (more on that later), now the \u2018tech bros\u2019 are pouring their money and effort into beating ageing.<\/p>\n

And rather than focusing on the basics of healthy diet and exercise, they see it as akin to an engineering or software problem that needs solving, shooting for the moon with the latest technology to develop anti-ageing therapies.<\/p>\n

\"Xi <\/p>\n

Xi Jinping was overheard at a conference telling Vladimir Putin that ongoing scientific advances meant humans soon might \u2018even achieve immortality\u2019<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos, for example, has invested in a California-based biotech firm, Altos Labs, to see if they can find a way to activate genes that may rejuvenate human cells.<\/p>\n

And Sam Altman has pumped \u00a3135 million in Retro Biosciences, a tech start-up that is exploring ways to engineer patients\u2019 own aged cells so that they effectively become newborn again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if the rich and successful don\u2019t already have a longevity advantage over the rest of us \u2013 the increased worth and self-confidence that people get from remarkable success is itself a life-extender, according to researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada. They reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2001 that actors who win the Oscar live 3.9 years longer than their colleagues.<\/p>\n

In the US, the nation\u2019s richest live at least a dozen years longer than its poorest, the US National Institutes of Health reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2016.<\/p>\n

That advantage is not enough for the super-rich, it seems.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the billionaires, however: the trend is even trickling down to the less well-heeled, with a boom in the number of high street \u2018longevity\u2019 clinics in the UK in recent years, offering everything from hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy (which some studies suggest can slow the cellular ageing process) to cryotherapy \u2013 where you spend a few minutes in a chamber chilled to -85c to reduce harmful inflammation in the body.<\/p>\n

Such is the demand that a UK medical-training organisation called the Apex Longevity Academy has now launched in London, declaring that: \u2018Our mission is to empower healthcare professionals to enhance patient health and quality of life through cutting-edge education in longevity medicine.\u2019<\/p>\n

In 2013, there were less than 100 longevity clinics around the globe. Now there are more than 3,000.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff <\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos, pictured with wife Lauren Sanchez-Bezos,\u00a0has invested in a biotech firm, Altos Labs, to see if they can find a way to activate genes that may rejuvenate human cells<\/p>\n

\"OpenAI <\/p>\n

OpenAI founder\u00a0Sam Altman has pumped \u00a3135 million into Retro Biosciences, a tech start-up exploring ways to engineer patients\u2019 aged cells so that they effectively become newborn again<\/p>\n

Ironically this comes at a time when improvements in life-expectancy are stalling dramatically, with the UK showing the worst performance of all.<\/p>\n

Advances in public health and medicine in the 20th century meant that life expectancy in Europe improved year after year.<\/p>\n

But now a landmark new study published in the journal Lancet Public Health has warned that since 2011, \u2018England suffered the largest decline in life-expectancy improvement, with a fall in average annual improvement of 0.18 years, from 0.25 between 1990 and 2011 to 0.07 between 2011 and 2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

The researchers added: \u2018The second biggest slowdown of life expectancy growth in Europe was in Northern Ireland [reducing by 0.16 years], followed by Wales and Scotland [both falling by 0.15 years].\u2019<\/p>\n

Deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer were the primary causes of the general European decline, particularly as a result of junk food diets; other factors include obesity, high alcohol use, and low physical activity.<\/p>\n

One of the study\u2019s co-authors, Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Good Health: \u2018Life expectancy is the best indicator of the health of the population. Ours should be telling us as a nation that we need to be doing something.\u2019<\/p>\n

More dismally still, perhaps, is evidence showing that although we aren\u2019t living significantly longer in the UK, we are spending ever more of our later years burdened by chronic illness. A report in The BMJ last year revealed that average healthy life expectancy has dropped over the past decade by 9.3 months for men in England and Wales (down to 62.4 years) and by 14 months for women (down to 62.7 years).<\/p>\n

Given that life expectancy in the UK is currently 78.8 years for males and 82.8 years for females, the consequence is that millions of us are suffering decades of ill-health before we die.<\/p>\n

To add further to this grim picture, IQ scores are also falling – and having a lower IQ is significantly associated with a greater risk of illnesses, such as dementia, diabetes and depression.<\/p>\n

So could humanity soon divide into two separate populations, with hugely different health chances\u00a0\u2013 a tiny population of super-rich and powerful immortals, and the rest of us living shorter and sicker lives\u00a0\u2013 and becoming less intelligent? Among the Silicon Valley tycoons now pursuing longevity is biohacker Bryan Johnson, who founded the payments platform Braintree and now famously leads a movement called Don\u2019t Die.<\/p>\n

Johnson, 48, reportedly spends a quarter of a million dollars a year in that pursuit of longevity.<\/p>\n

His regimen has included undergoing high-frequency stimulation of his abdomen to simulate the effect of 20,000 sit-ups. He also restricts his calories intake to 1,977 a day in the hope that this mild constant starvation might make his body last longer (it works for tiny nematode worms in lab studies, though no similar benefit has been reliably found in humans).<\/p>\n

Another leading light is Peter Diamandis, 64, who amassed his fortune as a prolific entrepreneur and investor.<\/p>\n

In 2023 he launched a \u00a360 million prize for the team who can devise a treatment by 2030 that takes 20 years off our muscles, brain and immune system.<\/p>\n

Diamandis himself is reported to rise at 5.30am and after assessing his overnight body readings, gathered by three different monitors, he consumes the first of five daily pill packs\u00a0\u2013 which include tablets for weight-management, energy boosts, stress-reduction and brain enhancement.<\/p>\n

\"Biohacker <\/p>\n

Biohacker Bryan Johnson\u00a0reportedly spends a quarter of a million dollars a year in the pursuit of longevity<\/p>\n

Meanwhile at Fountain Life, the longevity clinic he established, the well-heeled pay \u00a375,000 annually for comprehensive care aimed at banishing disease.<\/p>\n

His companies are investing in implantable sensors that will constantly send data digitally to AI programs for assessment and diagnosis, monitoring people\u2019s voices, the sound of their coughs, how they walk and even go to the loo to check for signs of incipient illness.<\/p>\n

In January this year, the leading artificial-intelligence researcher Dario Amodei declared at the World Economic Forum that accelerated advances in AI, particularly in biology, can lead to a doubling of human lifespans in as little as five to ten years \u2018if we really get this AI stuff right\u2019. He did not explain, however, in practical terms how this might happen.<\/p>\n

Indeed none of the novel longevity therapies being pioneered by the Silicon Valley tycoons is proven in any conventional sense \u2013 they\u2019ve not been trialled in large populations, with the results rigorously and independently examined before being published in a reputable scientific journal.<\/p>\n

And are they largely wasting their time and money?<\/p>\n

Some leading scientists doubt whether it\u2019s even possible to extend human life much further, that we\u2019ve already reached its outer limits.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Stuart Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, led a study published in Nature Aging which declared that, on the available evidence, \u2018radical extension to human life expectancy is implausible in this century\u2019.<\/p>\n

The researchers pointed out that although during the 20th century life expectancy rose in high-income nations by approximately 30 years, largely driven by advances in public health such as sanitation, and more effective medicine (such as vaccinations and antibiotics) \u2013 \u2018it was unclear whether this would continue into the 21st century\u2019.<\/p>\n

Their study showed that the pace of increase in average life expectancy has slowed of late, and \u2018our analysis suggests that survival to age 100 is unlikely to exceed 15 per cent for females and 5 per cent for males\u2019.<\/p>\n

Maximum human lifespan is defined the maximum length of time that a person can live.<\/p>\n

Currently the maximum is considered to be 122 years \u2013 the lifespan of the longest-lived person with a verifiable date of birth. That record is held by Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997.<\/p>\n

For men, maximum lifespan is shorter. The verified longest-lived man was Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in 2013 at age 116.<\/p>\n

As for the billionaires\u2019 efforts to leave the rest of the world behind, Professor McKee is markedly sceptical of their chances of success: \u2018People with that amount of money want to create themselves into a race apart. But I am far from convinced that the rhetoric will meet the reality. What they are doing is only an interesting social phenomenon, rather than a scientific breakthrough.\u2019<\/p>\n

In fact, while scientists race to find the next big technological solution to getting old, the best way to add years to your life at the moment is through good old-fashioned healthy lifestyle, to ward off the threat of age-related deadly illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.<\/p>\n

A 2023 study by the University of Bergen, Norway and published in the journal Nature Food, looked at data from around 500,000 people who signed up to UK Biobank \u2013 a database of health and genetic information.<\/p>\n

It found that 40-year-olds who abandoned junk-food diets, processed meat and sugary drinks in favour of more wholegrains, nuts and fruits could add 10.8 years to their life if they were a man and 10.4 for a woman.<\/p>\n

Career success also helps, according to researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada.<\/p>\n

As Nick Steel, a clinical professor in public health at the University of East Anglia, told Good Health, as individuals we can all do two crucial things to improve our longevity chances.<\/p>\n

\u2018Two of the biggest things that people who live longer and healthier lives do is to eat healthier food \u2013 and spend less time each day sitting down.\u2019<\/p>\n

HOW SCIENCE IS FIGHTING THE AGEING PROCESS <\/p>\n

\u00a0By Pat Hagan<\/p>\n

Scientists worldwide are involved in the race to halt \u2013 or even reverse \u2013 human ageing. These are some of the most promising advances.<\/p>\n

DRUGS TO CLEAN OUT \u2018OLD\u2019 CELLS<\/p>\n

As we age, our bodies accumulate \u2018senescent\u2019 cells \u2013 old cells that have stopped dividing and regenerating because they become damaged over time. These cells secrete molecules that can accelerate the ageing process.<\/p>\n

Now at least 20 clinical trials are testing various drugs that get rid of senescent cells. In tests on mice they have restored health, prevented cancer and heart problems and even regenerated their fur.<\/p>\n

3P PILL THAT COULD HELP YOU LIVE LONGER<\/p>\n

The diabetes drug metformin is taken by millions in the UK, and costs as little as 3p per pill.<\/p>\n

It helps control blood sugar levels and reduces inflammation. But now it\u2019s attracting interest of longevity scientists because studies in mice show it can improve lifespan and extend the duration of healthy life \u2013 primarily by warding of age-related diseases.<\/p>\n

A study in the Journal of Gerontology in May found that women taking metformin were 30 per cent less likely to die before 90 than those not on it.<\/p>\n

INTERMITTENT FASTING MAY BE THE ANSWER<\/p>\n

Calorie restriction has been shown to slow down the rate our cells age. It\u2019s a kind of survival mechanism \u2013 starvation prompts cells to recycle waste components, rather than wait for fresh nutrients. This leads to better cellular function and slows the ageing process.<\/p>\n

But regularly starving yourself might lead to nutritional deficiencies \u2013 so US scientists have developed a diet that mimics the effect of fasting.<\/p>\n

For five days a month, volunteers ate a low-calorie, low protein diet and after just three months were found to be \u2018biologically younger\u2019 at the start of the study, reported Nature Communications in 2024.<\/p>\n

DRUGS TO SLOW GENETIC DECLINE<\/p>\n

One possible anti-ageing treatment attracting much attention is telomere lengthening. Telomeres are strands of DNA at the tip of our chromosomes to protect them against damage \u2013 just like the plastic protective caps on a shoelace.<\/p>\n

As the body ages, telomeres gradually shorten. Slowing down the rate at which they do could help us live longer.<\/p>\n

Animal studies suggest using an enzyme called telomerase to lengthen telomeres could help us live longer and fend off age-related disease. Now human trials are under way.<\/p>\n

BOOSTING THE GUT MICROBIOME<\/p>\n

We already know the gut microbiome plays a key role in keeping the immune system and gut working properly. Now research suggests it also controls the ageing process.<\/p>\n

Studies have found those who live to a very old age have more diverse gut microbes than people who die younger \u2013 thought to be because it wards inflammation that can lead to chronic disease and premature death. Animal studies show consuming gut-friendly probiotics can increase lifespan.<\/p>\n

\u2026OR COPYING THE IMMORTAL JELLYFISH<\/p>\n

The Turritopsis dohrnii \u2013 aka the immortal jellyfish \u2013 could hold the key to humans living longer, as it has a unique ability to regenerate itself. It only dies if eaten by something bigger.<\/p>\n

The secret is its astonishing ability to reverse the ageing cycle. When damaged, or deprived of nutrients, it reverts to its pre-life stage as a tiny organism on the seabed, where it stays until it\u2019s ready to grow back to adulthood again. And it can do this repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Now scientists are studying its life cycle to look for new clues to human immortality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When two of the most powerful people in the world enthusiastically discuss how science is on the verge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[943,92,105,12767,20208,16,15,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-546272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-jeff-bezos","12":"tag-sam-altman","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115485952206125318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}