The 10 effortlessly simple tricks to stay healthier …for longer! Britain’s top experts reveal what you can do now to keep healthy — starting with your heart
Are we on the cusp of cracking the secret of living to 130? That was the speculation last week, following reports that Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and billionaire, is behind a new anti-ageing company, Altos Labs, that’s going to ‘reprogramme’ cells to extend life.
The company has a host of illustrious scientists on its board and one of the first things it’s said to be looking at is to turn adult cells into embryonic stem cells. These have the potential to be used to regenerate or repair diseased tissue.
For this isn’t just about helping us live longer, but ensuring that those extra years are healthier.
But few of us reading this have time to wait for Jeff Bezos to come up with a solution.
The good news is scientists already understand a lot about why and how we age, including the role of telomeres, the ‘caps’ at the ends of our strings of chromosomes that protect the genes when our cells replicate — these can shorten faster as a result of factors such as pollution, poor diet and lack of exercise.
And there are things we can all do now that have been shown to improve our ‘healthspan’ — the number of years of good health we enjoy.
We spoke to some of the UK’s leading anti-ageing experts as well as specialists in fields ranging from cardiology to dermatology, for the latest thinking on how to live longer, look younger and stay healthy.
From your brain to your bones, gut and sex life, this unique Good Health series, starting today and running for the next few weeks, will show you the simple steps that could transform your future years — starting with how to rejuvenate your heart to help you to live a long, healthy life.
Prioritise exercise over dieiting
To age healthily it’s better to be a little overweight and physically fit, rather than thin and unfit, says Stephen Harridge, a professor of human and applied physiology at King’s College London.
‘Exercise tends to get relegated in importance for health because of a large focus on diet. People don’t want to hear about what else they might have to do in addition to eating a healthy diet because it involves more effort and potentially more discomfort.’
However, keeping your muscles moving is crucial to maintaining not only muscle strength, but also metabolic health (protecting against metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes) as we age.
‘The hormone insulin directs the muscle to take in glucose and when the muscle is active that glucose is utilised,’ says Professor Harridge. ‘In this situation, the fatty acids in muscle do not produce by-products that can negatively interfere with the action of insulin.’
A review last year in the journal iScience concluded that people simply need to focus on exercise rather than dieting to live longer. ‘Many obesity-related conditions are more likely attributable to low physical activity and cardio-respiratory fitness than obesity per se,’ U.S. researchers said. It’s not just about your heart — exercise also gives our blood vessels a workout, which is vital to help stop age-related stiffening.
‘Exercise flexes our blood vessels and keeps them fit, and the more flexible they are the better your blood pressure is likely to be, and muscles can grow more capillaries which better deliver oxygenated blood,’ says Professor Harridge.
‘Our bodies are designed to receive blood flow at a higher rate than they do when we are at rest.’
Exercise — pumping blood at a higher rate — also helps prevent deposits (‘plaques’) on the walls of our arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis, the furring of the arteries and cardiovascular disease.
Exercise so you’re breathless
The best way of knowing whether an exercise is improving your cardiovascular fitness is whether it leaves you feeling out of breath — i.e. ‘aerobic’ exercise, meaning exercise that raises your heart rate and makes you breathe harder. This includes activities such as brisk walking, swimming, jogging and playing tennis.
‘Aerobic exercise seems to do something magical,’ says David Russell-Jones, a professor of diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Surrey. It makes people more insulin-sensitive, which means the body is better able to keep blood sugar levels under control, and reduces blood pressure.
It also increases levels of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and reduces ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, says Professor Russell-Jones — ‘all these effects protect against heart disease’.
So how much should you do? Even 15 minutes each day could increase lifespan by three years. For intensity, ‘walking is a good exercise’, says Professor Harridge. ‘But walking along the flat at a low pace, not getting out of breath, will not be as beneficial as a brisk walk up and down a hill.’
The best way of knowing whether an exercise is improving your cardiovascular fitness is whether it leaves you feeling out of breath
Take your blood pressure every three months
Millions of people in the UK have undetected high blood pressure, which, left untreated, could lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Although people aged 40 to 74 should receive a letter from their GP or local council inviting them for a free NHS Health Check every five years,
‘it’s important that people do check their blood pressure more often’, advises Chris Gale, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Leeds University. He suggests doing this every three-to-six months from your mid-50s.
Millions of people in the UK have undetected high blood pressure, which, left untreated, could lead to a heart attack or stroke
. . . And your pulse every week
An irregular pulse can be a sign of atrial fibrillation (AF), says Dr Glyn Thomas, a consultant cardiologist at the Bristol Heart Institute. This is a common condition that causes irregular heartbeats and increases the risk of stroke by up to five times.
‘It is easy to miss the signs as the changes can come and go, which is why it’s helpful to take your own pulse,’ says Dr Thomas. ‘I take my pulse, at least once a week, just to check it is ticking along nicely.’
To do this, Dr Thomas suggests putting the two fingers of your dominant hand on your Adam’s apple and sliding to the side of the strap-like muscle beneath it where you’ll find your carotid artery. The pulse here is strong because it is in an artery that is relatively large, is close to the skin’s surface and is also relatively close to the heart.
‘Remember you’re checking heart rhythm, not heart rate — that is, not the number of beats, but how they beat,’ says Dr Thomas. ‘It should tick steadily like a metronome.’ If it’s irregular, see a GP.
Have a coffee break…for coffee
People think that coffee is bad for your heart as it’s linked with marginally raised blood pressure. But this is offset by the beneficial effect on cholesterol if you drink small amounts, says Dr Thomas.
Up to three cups of coffee per day is associated with a lower risk of stroke and fatal heart disease, according to 2020 research from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. The theory is that the caffeine positively changes cardiac function, although it’s not clear exactly how.
Dr Thomas adds: ‘I have two to three cups a day — timing my drinks with a break which also helps relieve stress.’
People think that coffee is bad for your heart as it’s linked with marginally raised blood pressure
Give your partner a cuddle and a kiss
Find the time to cuddle or even hold hands with your partner every day if you have one — this simple contact can help reduce blood pressure, research shows. Experts believe this is because of oxytocin, a brain chemical which encourages bonding but which also encourages widening of the arteries.
‘Just about every positive social interaction we have studied causes the release of oxytocin,’ says Professor Paul Zak, a specialist in neuroeconomics at the University of Pennsylvania, who has studied oxytocin extensively. ‘This includes touch, kisses and massages.’
People who feel a strong connection to their partner enjoy better health in numerous ways but it’s particularly beneficial for the heart: a 2017 study from Bristol University found that men in happy marriages have lower cholesterol and a lower risk of heart disease — and a 2016 study by Michigan State University found that regular sex reduced the risk of cardiovascular events (e.g. heart attacks) in both women and men.
The benefits go further: ‘If your heart is healthy, there’s a greater chance that your sex life will remain so, too,’ says Dr Jeff Foster, a GP in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
‘Poor cardiovascular health affects blood flow to the genitals which impacts on sexual arousal in women, and erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. In fact, ED is so closely linked to heart health, we estimate that from the onset of erectile dysfunction there is an average of three years before a cardiac event occurs.
Find the time to cuddle or even hold hands with your partner every day if you have one — this simple contact can help reduce blood pressure, research shows
You don’t need to give up meat
Red meat, which is high in saturated fat, has long been linked to heart disease. But that doesn’t mean you have to give it up, not least as it is a rich source of amino acids, important for tissue repair, and nutrients such as iron.
The picture is much more nuanced, says Professor Charles Knight, a consultant cardiologist at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. ‘It’s much better to make dietary changes that are sustainable, such as following a Mediterranean-style diet: eating less meat, more fish and plant-based protein, such as lentils, nuts and seeds, and plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains.
‘I have around three meat-free days a week then fill the ‘hole’ in the plate with something that will mimic meat. So a Portobello mushroom can replace a piece of steak.
‘And we eat a lot of bean stews, which are as filling as a meat stew and contain protein and fibre.’
And think twice about products that directly mimic meat such as meat-free sausages, says dietitian Sarah Schenker. ‘These products can have all the disadvantages of processed food — such as high levels of added sugar, sodium and fat, as well as other preservatives. They are known as ultra-processed foods, which are linked to obesity and heart disease.
‘I use healthy foods with a similar texture instead. For example, lentils are an excellent swap for mince, and they’re rich in fibre, folate and potassium [helpful for managing blood pressure].’
Try using a standing desk
We tend to think of standing desks as beneficial for posture. ‘But I use one because they have cardiovascular benefits,’ says Dr Thomas. It’s thought that it makes the heart work harder ‘since it is working against gravity to push blood to the brain, which doesn’t happen when we are sitting down’.
A 2015 review in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that even if you exercise, sitting for long periods was associated with worse health outcomes including heart disease — indeed so bad is prolonged sitting for health that some have suggested its effect is akin to smoking.
We tend to think of standing desks as beneficial for posture. ‘But I use one because they have cardiovascular benefits,’ says Dr Thomas
Se your timer to move every hour
Exercise is vital for a healthy heart but many people focus on doing concentrated bouts a few times a week. ‘What’s also important is to keep moving at regular intervals throughout the day,’ says Sanjay Prasad, a professor of cardiomyopathy at Imperial College London.
Regular exercise boosts metabolism and stops the heart muscles from stiffening up — so the blood pumps efficiently around the body, he explains. Research by the University of California in 2019 found that reducing sitting by an hour a day lowered the risk of heart disease by 26 per cent. ‘I set my Fitbit with a reminder to move every hour, at which point I do 250 steps — walking around or on the spot,’ adds Professor Prasad.
High temperatures cause the blood vessels to dilate, which lowers blood pressure, explains Jerome Ment, a consultant cardiologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
‘A comfortably hot bath is an excellent way to lower stress — even if the benefit is small to the heart it can only help, so I do this.’
According to a study in the journal Heart in 2020, researchers tracked the bathing habits and health records of more than 30,000 people aged 40 to 59 in Japan for more than 20 years.
Compared with people who took baths less than twice a week, those who soaked in a tub almost every day had a 26 per cent lower risk of stroke.
An added benefit is that getting out of a hot bath will cause a drop in body temperature. This helps signal to the body that it’s time for bed and so will aid sleep.
And get settled into a cold bed. Poor sleep increases blood pressure as it affects the autonomic nervous system which regulates blood pressure, explains Dr Ment.
‘One thing which interferes with our sleep is a warm bedroom — which in turn makes the bed warm, too. So I turn down the heating at night before I go to bed. When temperatures are cool, this facilitates a decent night’s sleep.’
This is because a drop in core body temperature increases the production of the sleep hormone melatonin and helps us fall asleep.
A 2011 study in the European Heart Journal found people who sleep six hours or less were 48 per cent more likely to develop or die from coronary heart disease.
According to a study in the journal Heart in 2020, researchers tracked the bathing habits and health records of more than 30,000 people aged 40 to 59 in Japan for more than 20 years
Five foods for healthy hearts
Anti-ageing foods don’t just delay wrinkles and sagging skin. ‘They’ll make you feel, look and act younger because of their action on every part of the body, from your joints to your brain, and deep in the cells, where they reduce the inflammation that causes chronic conditions such as heart disease,’ says dietitian Jane Clarke, from nourishbyjaneclarke.com.
SNACK ON A HANDFUL OF WALNUTS
Walnuts have the most antioxidants of any nuts, and are packed with essential fatty acids, including omega-3s, which protect cells from damage and reduce inflammation in the body which can contribute to cancer, dementia and heart disease.
The longest study into the benefits of walnuts, in the Journal of American Cardiology, found that having just a fistful three to five times a week led to a significant drop in inflammation and improvement in cardiovascular health.
Ideally, eat walnuts that are as fresh as possible. Nuts can go rancid if they’re kept for too long or in a warm place, due to their high fat content. Rancid fat is bad for our heart, immune system and gut, so store them in a cool place.
… AND KALE CRISPS
FIBRE-RICH and antioxidant-packed kale is renowned for its positive impact on gut health and inflammation, and is linked to a reduced risk of diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes.
SIP WHITE TEA
Tea in all its forms — black, white and green — contains numerous anti-ageing and inflammation-fighting compounds, including catechin and theanine, which have been associated with better heart health, reduced cholesterol and lower blood pressure. But white tea (available from health food shops), which contains the highest number of these antioxidants, is gentler on the gut than green tea, so it’s easy to sip throughout the day.
MAKE A PESTO FROM WATERCRESS
Pungent, peppery watercress doesn’t just add a flavour punch to salads — there’s a lot of anti-ageing power inside those small, dark green leaves. In fact, based on its nutrient density, watercress tops the list of ‘powerhouse fruits and vegetables’ (PFVs) compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a cruciferous vegetable (like broccoli, kale and cabbage), watercress contains anti-cancer compounds called isothiocyanates, plus antioxidants that reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Due to its strong flavour, eating a lot of watercress can be hard work. My solution is to make a pesto, adding a good handful of the leaves and stems to basil, pine nuts, Parmesan and olive oil. It’s delicious drizzled over roasted vegetables.
ADD TURMERIC TO A SMOOTHIE
The active ingredient in turmeric — curcumin — is a powerful antioxidant that studies show can slow down the onset of age-associated diseases such as cancer, dementia, cardiovascular disease and metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes.
For the greatest benefit, combine the spice with black pepper, which acts as a catalyst for the curcumin, and a fat source, such as coconut milk, which helps the body absorb the active ingredient. Try adding these to a smoothie, or sprinkle the spice into scrambled eggs or a vegetable curry.
JANE CLARKE
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