#208 Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To, with Professor David Sinclair

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

My guest today is a revolutionary thinker and ground-breaking scientist who’s on a mission to make you younger. And if that sounds promising, you’ll be pleased to know this podcast contains practical advice you can start to follow today.

He’s Australian biologist and Harvard professor David Sinclair, author of Lifespan: Why We Age – And Why We Don’t Have To. David is one of the world’s leading scientific authorities on longevity, ageing and how to slow its effects. His research interest is the epigenetics of ageing and how we can reprogramme our genes to stop and even reverse it. That’s right – reverse the ageing process. And when you listen to him explain the science, it’s not as crazy as it sounds.

The key to staying young, he explains, is inducing hormesis, a state of survival in our bodies, and you don’t need a lab to do it. Simple habits like skipping meals, eating more plants and less meat, certain types of exercise, and hot/cold therapies can create just enough adversity to switch on our bodies’ longevity genes.

David’s goal is not vanity. It’s not to make us young for the sake of it. Instead, he’s shining a spotlight on ageing as the root cause of all the major chronic diseases that ultimately kill us. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, dementia – his research suggests they could all be eliminated if we looked at the common cause, instead of treating the end symptoms.

Of course, this would result in a population who spent significantly more time on earth, so we discuss the ethical questions this raises in the light of our climate and economic crises. Would ageing really be better described as a disease than a natural, inevitable process? This conversation contains so many thinking points and lots of practical tips that we can all start to apply immediately. Would you want to live to 150, if you could do so in full health?

CAUTION: If you have type-2 diabetes or are on any blood sugar lowering medications, talk to a healthcare professional before you go for prolonged periods without eating.

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Show notes available at https://drchatterjee.com/208

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