0:00

Guess what, mango? What's that? Will? All

0:02

right? You know how I love a good list, and especially

0:05

when these lists are about records. While

0:07

I was looking over the list of the world's oldest

0:09

living people, and I stumbled into

0:11

this story of Jean Louise Coleman, and

0:14

she was the oldest living person on record

0:16

until she died in at

0:18

a hundred and twenty two years and

0:21

a hundred and sixty four days

0:23

old old. That's

0:25

crazy, and it was so much fun to read about her life.

0:27

I mean, she had this really active lifestyle.

0:29

She enjoyed swimming, playing tennis,

0:32

cycling. She decided to start

0:34

fencing at the age of eighty five, and

0:36

in fact, she rode her bike until she turned

0:38

a full century old. That's

0:40

incredible. Yeah, and she didn't slow down much

0:43

after that, so she decided to let her artistic

0:45

talent shine after turning a hundred.

0:47

She was a hundred and fourteen when she made an appearance

0:50

in the movie Vincent and Me, and that made

0:52

her the oldest actress to appear in emotion

0:54

picture. Then, when she was a hundred and twenty,

0:57

one of four track CD titled

0:59

Times Mistress was released. This

1:01

was a rap album with Kelmen speaking over

1:03

it. So she obviously lived this very

1:06

active and engaging life. But

1:08

you want to know the real reason I think she made it to a

1:10

hundred and twenty two. She stopped

1:12

smoking when she was a hundred and sixteen,

1:15

after ninety six years of sucking down

1:17

cigarettes. That's so strange. And obviously

1:20

cigarettes are one of the things that are most consistently

1:22

linked in earlier death. So that's

1:24

that's doubly crazy, right right, it really

1:26

is. And you know, while it's certainly a bizarre case,

1:29

there's some really fascinating findings in the

1:31

world of science that are helping us understand

1:33

why certain people live longer. And

1:35

that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's get started.

1:56

Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius.

1:58

I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by

2:00

my good friend man guest Ticketer, and today

2:03

we're talking about the latest research around

2:05

longevity, that is, how to live

2:07

a super long time now, Mango.

2:09

In one of our earlier episodes, we talked about

2:12

cryonics, you know, this effort to freeze our

2:14

bodies after we die, all in the

2:16

hopes that science will advance enough in the coming

2:18

centuries to be able to bring us back to

2:20

life. And if I remember correctly, you

2:22

made it pretty clear this was not something

2:25

you're a fan of. You'd rather just try to

2:27

live longer while you're still alive the first

2:29

time around, right, And I totally

2:31

stand by that feeling. So first off, you know,

2:34

I hate the cold. There's no

2:36

way I want to be shoved upside down into a freezer.

2:38

And and also I

2:41

would so much rather just live longer and healthier

2:44

than than you've woken up like two years

2:46

from now. Yeah, well that's what we're gonna talk about

2:48

today, and so we'll dive into the latest research

2:50

on the obvious stuff, whether that's exercise

2:52

and diet and all of those things, and

2:54

and then some of the surprising. And we've got

2:56

a couple of great guests on today, that's right.

2:59

So one of them is a total superstar

3:01

to me, and I'm a little surprised that we managed

3:03

to get her on the program. Any listeners who heard

3:05

the original trailer for the show will also be familiar

3:07

with your ninety year old grandmother, Mama. Mama,

3:10

I know, and so Mamma is going to share some of her

3:12

tips on how she's managed to reach ninety and

3:14

be in better shape than either of us. And

3:16

we'll also be joined by Howard Friedman.

3:19

He's this professor and psychologist at the University

3:21

of California Riverside. Friedman co

3:23

authored a book called The Longevity Project a few

3:25

years back, which followed an incredible

3:28

eight decades study about the various psychological

3:30

factors that contribute to how long people

3:32

live. It's this really fascinating

3:35

book, and I'm excited to hear some of those updates

3:37

and uh, talk to Howard. So two great

3:39

guests. Yeah, I can't wait to get both of them on the line.

3:41

So all right, well let's talk about longevity.

3:44

You know, when we were young, if you mentioned someone had

3:46

lived to be a hundred, it just seemed

3:48

incredible, almost impossible. And it

3:51

is incredible, I know. So when I was younger, I used

3:53

to tell people that my great grandma lived to a hundred

3:55

and three, and no one believed me, and

3:57

I just kind of took it for granted that people live at

4:00

But when I think about it now, I don't even

4:02

understand how that's possible. What's

4:04

even more incredible than that is that some researchers

4:07

predict that half the baby is born in wealthy

4:09

countries after the year two thousand

4:11

will live to be a hundred. Half

4:13

of these people, Yeah, that's unreal. But I

4:15

did see in a research that life expectancy

4:18

has been going up by nearly three months every

4:20

year for nearly a hundred eighty years now.

4:23

And while there's certainly no guarantee that the trend

4:25

will continue, if it does, that's

4:27

where your stat really starts to click. Like

4:29

I read that if those numbers continue, more

4:31

than half the baby is born since two thousand will hit

4:34

triple digits. Well, and there have been so many studies

4:36

done to try to find some big clue or marker

4:38

that lets us say, Okay, that's it, you know, that's why

4:40

people are living this long, But so far

4:43

they really haven't been able to find one, even

4:45

for these supercentenarians. These are those

4:47

incredible cases where people live more

4:49

than a hundred and ten years. I know. So I

4:52

used to read tips from old people on living longer,

4:54

and they see things like, uh, you

4:56

know, too much standing will kill you, or too much sitting,

4:58

or eat yogur but only the really sour

5:01

yogurt, or don't eat any dairy. I

5:03

mean, everything is so conflicting, And

5:06

the clearest thing is that genetics obviously

5:08

play a role, so scientists haven't

5:10

been able to figure out that like one magic gene

5:12

that helps people live to a hundred years. But

5:15

behavioral differences are something researchers

5:17

know much more about that we're going to talk about

5:19

those, but before we get into the big ones

5:21

like diet and exercise, I'd love to

5:23

warm up a little and talk about some of the surprising

5:26

or interesting things that you were mentioning from the research

5:28

you found yesterday. All right, let's do that. Well,

5:30

So, so which which place do you want to start?

5:32

Well, what about the fact that work stress

5:34

isn't nearly as bad as uh as people

5:37

think? Okay, well, that that one actually

5:39

surprised me. So we're not talking about people

5:41

who are miserable in their jobs. But you

5:43

know, some stress, a little bit of stress,

5:45

even consistent stress over doing a good

5:47

job or just being busy at work.

5:50

That's not going to kill you, or at least it's

5:52

not likely to. So we can ask Dr

5:54

Freedman more about this later. But the

5:56

health benefits of hard work have been found,

5:58

and not only in young are workers, but even

6:01

in older people. So again, this was a little

6:03

surprising to me. And a certain level

6:05

of stress often indicates, you know, real

6:07

engagement in their work, and these individuals

6:09

are usually more connected and happier

6:12

than those co workers who are not as engaged

6:14

in what they're doing. Yeah, wh which which makes a

6:16

certain amount of sense to me, like the pride you're taking

6:18

and you know your commitment to But but

6:21

what about parenthood. I mean, people always

6:23

joke about kids taking years off their life,

6:25

and it seems like it would make sense if we found

6:27

out that being a parent made his die a little younger,

6:30

Like it's stressful to be a parent. They're all

6:32

the years of missleep and then the years of

6:34

worrying about those kids, and then they

6:36

obviously cost a ton of money. Um,

6:39

but I think you had some surprising facts

6:41

for stressed out parents. It turns out having

6:43

kids may actually help you live a little bit

6:45

longer. I was reading about this study out of Sweden,

6:48

and these researchers looked at over a million

6:50

people in this study, So these were people

6:52

born in the early nineteen hundreds, and

6:54

what the study found was that those who had at least

6:57

one child were actually more likely

6:59

to live longer. So for women, it was a benefit

7:01

of about a year and a half, and

7:03

for men it was almost two years. So

7:06

I lived with two tyrants. And if you'd

7:08

asked me when I had to toddler in the house two years

7:10

ago, I would have told you that that just

7:12

can't be true. I mean, there's no coincidence

7:15

that all my white hair came in when I had kids. Yeah,

7:17

I would have said the same thing. And there's some other

7:19

interesting elements to the study as well. They

7:21

found that there was an even stronger link between

7:23

parenthood and life expectancy

7:26

for those who weren't married. Yeah, so this

7:28

is the part where we tell all our single friends, like

7:30

Sean Turner, just go out there and have a kid.

7:32

That'll solve it all. Just just just go have a

7:34

kid. But this is where our biggest clue

7:36

comes from. So it suggests that these parents benefit

7:39

from their adult children caring for them

7:41

and providing social support in their later

7:43

years. So you told me that yesterday. But I'm

7:45

wondering, doesn't matter if these parents

7:47

have a boy or a girl. Well, there were some earlier

7:49

studies that it just had shown that it was, you

7:52

know, maybe more beneficial to have a girl because

7:54

adult daughters were more likely to be helpful

7:56

as their parents got older. But the

7:58

more recent studies have shown that it's it's

8:00

pretty much equal to whether you have a boy

8:03

or a girl, which is kind of relief. Okay,

8:06

So another one that I I guess isn't

8:08

that shocking but is interesting to see confirmed

8:11

is the benefit of learning a second language and

8:13

how that can slow your brain from aging. Yeah, this

8:15

one is actually pretty cool. So you know, it's not

8:17

a new idea that knowing a second language

8:19

might help keep a mind sharp, but it's

8:21

always been difficult in these previous studies

8:24

to try to separate out the benefits of

8:26

knowing a second language with you know, other

8:29

contributors to this. So that is until

8:31

a recent study of hundreds of Scottish people.

8:33

And this was over a several decades span.

8:36

So this study tracked over a thousand people

8:39

and at the beginning of the study, all the participants

8:41

were around eleven years old, and all

8:44

of them spoke only one language, and that

8:46

was English. Now, this was back in the nineteen forties.

8:49

So I've got to tell you, like, I love studies

8:51

like this that spans so many decades. It's just amazing

8:54

to me. Yeah, me too. And so you can fast forward

8:56

from there to over sixty years later

8:58

when all of them were in their seventies. And

9:00

so they managed to track down about eight

9:03

hundred of these original participants, and

9:05

it just so turned out that that a third of them

9:07

had learned at least one more language.

9:09

So it really made for this pretty controlled

9:12

study, huh. And so what they find,

9:14

well, they found that those who picked up a second language

9:17

scored better than they would have expected when they

9:19

looked back at their original scores, and

9:21

those that had not learned a new language performed

9:24

pretty much in line with what they had expected.

9:26

So it's, you know, it's pretty strong evidence that the additional

9:29

language actually helped them. And do you have any

9:31

sense of why? I mean, you know, they

9:33

can't be a d percent certain as to why.

9:35

But in thinking about what the brain must do

9:37

when speaking multiple languages, it

9:39

has to process words and both languages

9:42

and then produce the appropriate phrases

9:44

and the right language. So I

9:46

mean it is some kind of a mental workout,

9:49

all right. So one more before we get to the big

9:51

stuff. And this one was totally shocked

9:54

to me. And I think you said, and I'm going to paraphrase

9:56

here, that the elderly, you need to start taking

9:58

massive bond kits every mooring just

10:01

to get smarter. I'm not sure that's exactly

10:03

what I said, but they're definitely some

10:05

interesting studies around the use of th HC,

10:08

which is the active ingredient in cannabis.

10:10

So that's a little different than than

10:12

what you've suggested here. But you know, over the

10:14

years, many studies have pointed to the

10:16

fact that teenagers perform more poorly

10:19

on memory or attention tests

10:21

when under the influence. But in some

10:23

recent studies of mice, when th HC

10:25

is administered in very controlled and

10:27

very low doses to these elderly

10:30

mice, they found that these mice were able

10:32

to perform certain cognitive task at

10:34

similar levels to those of mice

10:36

that were not given the substance. So

10:38

this was not the case when they were not given the th HC,

10:41

which is just crazy, and the response

10:43

was very different in the young mice. When they were

10:45

given the THHC, they actually performed

10:48

much more poorly, which

10:50

is which is just super interesting to me. So I'm

10:52

still a little baffled by this idea of old people

10:54

picking up this daily marijuana have it, even

10:56

if it's in like low doses, But why

10:59

does it keep younger. Well, they're focusing

11:01

on the endocannabinoid system, and this

11:03

is what helps our bodies deal with stress.

11:05

So this is a system that begins declining

11:08

with age, but the THHC helps

11:10

stimulate this system and calm the mice

11:12

down a little bit. So I'm guessing they're gonna be trying

11:14

this on people next Yeah, and we do need to

11:16

be clear yet again, this does not mean that doctors

11:18

are going to start prescribing joints for the same

11:21

benefit. Again, it's a very controlled

11:23

and low dosage to be administered, and so that's

11:25

what they're testing now, you know, to figure out how

11:28

much the benefit is and and at what

11:30

age it's most beneficial. Okay, Well,

11:32

I honestly feel like this changes everything.

11:34

I know, Like somehow we learned that being

11:37

stressed at work is great, being a parent,

11:39

forcing yourself to learn Portuguese, and possibly

11:42

just possibly picking up a low dose pot habit

11:44

in your seventies or eighties, all of that's

11:46

gonna extend your life. That's right before

11:49

we get to the Big East. Like exercise

11:51

and diet and the things that will definitely boost

11:53

your chances of living longer. Why don't we get

11:56

them on the line. All right, you better buckle up.

12:01

How does it feel to be ninety just

12:04

like I did when I was young? Yeah?

12:06

Because I can do everything

12:09

I did when I was younger. Yeah,

12:12

I love that. I know you've always told

12:14

us that we had to stay active. Why don't you tell us

12:16

a little bit about you know, what you

12:18

do to exercise and how you stayed active

12:20

all these years? Well? Right

12:22

now, I work with Mary Beth

12:25

the trainer for three days a week, and

12:28

then I try to just go right on in and

12:30

swim. And you know what kind

12:32

of swimmer I am. I certified swimming

12:34

structor for years and I'm

12:36

still helping. Always try them

12:38

on boys that can't swim too

12:41

well. They can ride bicycles

12:43

and and do all these others, but they're

12:46

not very good swimmers. So I helped the

12:48

police investigator and a senior from

12:50

Sanford just lately they

12:53

wanted to swim. And how are you? I

12:55

love how many hobbies you have and and I

12:57

always say you play

13:00

got point of fourteen? Then I'm played

13:02

tennis and then uh

13:04

oh, model all my life.

13:07

I'm modeled everywhere in Birmingham. So

13:09

that's a bunch of fun. And

13:13

I decided to want flyer planes. Well

13:16

that was a lot of fun. And

13:19

my husband was in California and I

13:21

had come back, and I said, don't let him get

13:24

scared of this. Well he started

13:26

flying and he got his license

13:28

and said, that's most funds they ever had in his

13:31

life. And the guy that taught me

13:33

to fly to help the blue angels

13:35

in the thunderbird, So he was pretty good.

13:39

It was an Emery riddle, so he was very

13:42

good. Well, you've obviously stayed

13:44

really really active. I was also hoping

13:46

you tell us a little bit about, you

13:48

know, about your healthy eating and what kinds

13:51

of things you try to do to stay healthy. On that side,

13:54

you need now Like today, while

13:56

ago, I fisted some chicken and

14:00

some fruit, and

14:02

then I keep Bold eggs in the refrigerator

14:05

because they're good to go. Grab one out of the frigerator,

14:07

get your Bold eggs. And then

14:11

this is like, oh,

14:15

bait, you know, chicken out. Only eat

14:17

fried foods? You no, And I eat

14:19

a lot of fruits and vegetables

14:22

and just

14:24

be real careful what I eat. Now,

14:27

You've always told us, though that you got to save a little

14:30

bit of room every once in a while for for a

14:32

little tree. Oh yeah,

14:34

I'm famous for banana putts. My

14:36

grandson will now mind go, I

14:39

gotta make your banana. But

14:41

we all in the love those

14:43

banana please man go. Yeah. I don't know if

14:45

you knew this, but when you know Michael

14:47

Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons when

14:49

he played baseball in the league for a

14:52

couple of years, and Mama would

14:54

make Michael Jordan's bananas. Well,

14:58

Michael Jordan was just a or

15:00

a sweet guide. Michael hit

15:02

a home run when my mother was ninety

15:05

two. She went to the ball game

15:07

and she got to see if hit a home run. So

15:09

that was good. We'll tell us any any

15:12

other tips you might have about living

15:14

a long, healthy life. Oh

15:17

yeah, I forgot to tell y'all. I was

15:19

president two years for the International

15:22

Lady Polots. It's one of the biggest

15:25

organizations in the world. I

15:27

am still a member of him, and

15:30

I meet with the ladies for

15:33

lunch and uh so

15:35

we still see

15:38

each other and

15:40

I like the volunteer And

15:43

my favorite is Autism Society.

15:46

My little great grandson has autism

15:48

and he's doing very well, very

15:51

well well that's great. Well, mamma,

15:53

we uh we we thought we would let you

15:55

play a little quiz with us if you if

15:57

you don't mind, all right, all

16:00

right, so mango, we're what's our quiz

16:02

called today, It's called did it happen in

16:04

Mamma's lifetime? All right, So

16:06

we're gonna read you a thing, and

16:08

you're gonna have to tell us. We're gonna read you a statement,

16:11

and you're gonna have to tell us whether it happened

16:13

in your lifetime. Now, if it happened,

16:15

if you're in your lifetime, we want

16:18

you to say, that sounds about right. And

16:20

if it did not happen in your lifetime,

16:22

we want you to say, I don't know about

16:24

that. We kind of use some of your phrases. All

16:27

right, Okay, here we go, you ready, okay,

16:30

all right? The invention of

16:32

shopping carts. Did it happen

16:35

in mamma's lifetime? That

16:37

sounds about right? Is that true? Is she right?

16:39

Yeah, she's right. The shopping cart was invented by

16:41

the owner of the Humpty Dumpty grocery store

16:44

in Okay. So Mamma's

16:46

one for one. Question number two.

16:49

The invention of the facts machine

16:51

did it happen in your lifetime?

16:53

I don't know about it? Okay, is she right?

16:56

Man? Yeah, she's right. A fax machine

16:58

was invented way back in eighteen forty three

17:00

by a Scottish inventor. It was actually called

17:02

the electronic printing telegraph. Okay,

17:05

so she's got all

17:08

right, I got to study. Yeah,

17:11

she's two out of two. Alright, the next question,

17:13

she got two left. Juicy fruit

17:15

chewing gum? Was this invented in your

17:17

lifetime? I don't know

17:20

about that, but all

17:23

right, so so is she right?

17:26

Yeah, she's right. Juicy fruit was introduced

17:28

in eight and in case

17:31

you were wondering the juicy fruits to make up the flavor

17:33

of juicy fruit or lemon, apple, orange,

17:35

and banana. Okay, so mamma has gotten

17:37

all three, right, So for the

17:39

last one, let's see if she can get a perfect

17:41

score. Chocolate chip cookies.

17:44

Were they invented in your lifetime?

17:46

If you think so, you'll say that sounds about

17:49

right, That sounds about right.

17:51

Yeah, four for four cookie,

17:57

that's right? Since so

18:00

so so mango, mamma got four out of four.

18:03

So what she won today a whole lot

18:05

of hugs and kisses all right,

18:07

would I have made a lot of chocolate chip

18:09

cookies. They're good. I

18:12

agree. Thank you so much for doing this with

18:14

us today, and I want you boys

18:17

to be sweet and be good here. All

18:19

right, we will welcome

18:34

back to part time genius. All right, Mango. Now

18:36

that Mamma has inspired us to live healthier

18:39

and way more enthusiastically too.

18:41

But let's let's talk about the obvious reasons

18:43

that we all know can influence how long

18:45

we live and what the latest science

18:47

has to say. All right, so do you want to start

18:50

with diet? Well, I hate to

18:52

tell you this, but it doesn't appear that the Raman

18:54

restaurant downstairs is the key to are living

18:56

longer. Man. That is so good.

18:59

Honestly, if you guys are ever in Pond City

19:01

Market, you'll see us at that ram and bar wat much

19:03

too much. But I know you've done some

19:05

reading on the latest diet research and and what

19:07

did you find? So you know all the studies

19:10

that I've looked at significant calorie restriction

19:12

and its relationship to a long healthy life.

19:14

Yeah, it's It's been a little while since I've seen at some

19:16

of these, but you know, I feel like I've only seen

19:18

ones that are about mice or worms or

19:20

some other small creatures. So to be honest,

19:23

I really wasn't sure how close we were to saying that this

19:25

would apply to humans. Well, lucky for you

19:27

were one step closer, because now we're

19:29

talking primate alright, Lucky

19:31

for me, I want to restrict my calories.

19:34

I saw a really interesting story in your favorite

19:36

magazine, New Scientists about how a long

19:38

running trial and a group of monkeys or macoux

19:40

specifically found that calorie restriction

19:43

led to a longer life. Actually it was about

19:45

three years, and while that doesn't seem

19:47

that long, it's equivalent about nine

19:50

human years. That is pretty significant. I

19:52

mean, I guess we can't assume that would necessarily

19:54

be nine years in humans. Yeah, but I mean

19:56

i'd also just take three extra years,

19:58

right, But some researchers

20:00

are hopeful that as we better understand what

20:02

calorie restriction is doing, we might

20:04

be able to come up with better anti aging medicines.

20:07

And the other thing they found in some trials

20:09

calorie restriction resulted in lower rates of

20:11

cancer and heart disease. Yeah, both

20:13

both good things obviously. And you know, as you're

20:15

saying this, I decided to google calorie

20:18

restriction in humans, and I

20:20

see there's something called the calorie restriction

20:23

Society. So obviously there are people already

20:25

subscribing to this and thinking about it pretty

20:27

seriously. Yeah, the New Scientists reporter

20:29

Clara Wilson talks about this group in our story.

20:31

They're basically on a permanent diet of around

20:34

hundred two I don't know about eighteen

20:36

hundred calories per day as compared to

20:38

the usual recommendation of two thousand.

20:41

In fact, there's kind of a funny quote at

20:43

the end of Claire's story, so she says,

20:46

quote until someone's used to it, the

20:48

diet involves planning every meal

20:50

with precision, and side effects can

20:52

include feeling cold and reduced

20:55

libido. And story, that's

20:57

the last line. I kind of

20:59

wonder how many people had the whole story, got all

21:01

the way to that final quote and they were like, Okay, I'm

21:03

out. I can't do this. But it is

21:05

interesting and it does seem like science

21:07

is starting to point us in the direction of calorie

21:09

restriction being beneficial to humans,

21:11

So it will be interesting to watch where this

21:13

goes. Yeah, so there was this interesting

21:15

thing that A. J. Jacob's our friend wrote a while

21:17

back where he was talking about visiting some folks

21:20

from the calorie restriction Society, and

21:22

they basically meditate on each piece

21:24

of food. They like slowly

21:26

meditate on it to savor it. And they

21:28

show him how to eat a single blueberry,

21:31

and first they smell it, then

21:33

they think about how delicious it's going to taste

21:35

from the scent of it, and how it's going to feel

21:37

in their mouth, and then they put it in their

21:39

mouth, but tell him not to bite until he's

21:41

ready. It's like tantric eating sounds

21:43

like a Portland sketch, and

21:46

all he wants to do is bite, but they tell him

21:48

to consider the blueberry skin and the texture

21:50

and the tannins and savor every

21:52

little segment of the fruit. Is it burst full of flavor

21:55

in his mouth? And then he's supposed to chew it

21:57

way more than you're supposed to choose, something like

21:59

forty times of side or something. And they

22:01

literally spend like fifteen minutes

22:03

on the blueberry. That just seems like way too much

22:06

work. I know, I'd wolfed down two cartons

22:08

and blueberries in that time. But supposedly

22:10

when you slow yourself down and eating your

22:12

head catches up and realizes you're fuller

22:14

than you think. All right, So there are obviously lots

22:16

of other food related studies, and you know, showing

22:18

what we should and shouldn't eat. And so what else

22:20

did you find in your research? Well, beyond

22:22

the usual it's healthy to eat fruits

22:25

and vegetables mantra, which

22:27

apparently, I'm happy to report, is still healthy

22:29

to do. It is interesting to

22:31

see the studies on populations around the world

22:33

that lived the longest. So in most of

22:35

those you'll find people getting more than their

22:38

food from plants. So you think about

22:40

fruits or veggies, whole grains

22:42

and beans, and and of course you

22:44

know leafy greens, which are obviously

22:46

important, maybe the most important. So

22:49

multiple studies have shown that eating a cup of

22:51

cooked greens every single day significantly

22:53

reduced the likelihood that someone in the middle age

22:56

would die in the next four years. I don't know what

22:58

daily leafy greens. That seems a little

23:00

excessive, though, So where do where

23:02

do biscuits fit into this? All

23:04

right? Give me the rundown on the rest. I know

23:07

I've been waiting for that all biscuit diet to

23:09

come out, so but until it

23:11

does, here's what we do now. So one

23:13

study which followed nearly a hundred thousand Americans

23:15

since two thousand two, the ones who lived

23:17

the longest were those who followed a plant based

23:20

diet and had a small portion of fish a handful

23:22

of times per week. And then the

23:24

next thing is eggs. While they're good for

23:26

us, we might be overdoing it on the number of

23:28

eggs we eat at a time, so we should probably

23:30

be aiming for more like three a week. Three

23:32

a week. It's like a meal. So

23:36

we should all eat half a cup of cooked

23:38

beans each day, and a

23:40

couple of handfuls of nuts per day. And of

23:42

course, uh, we eat way too much sugar.

23:44

I feel like I could do most of those. The challenge

23:47

I think for me would be with nuts. When they say they're

23:49

healthy to eat like, I eat them by the handfuls,

23:51

So I think it'd be tough to pull that off. All

23:53

right, So what's the latest on drinking.

23:56

I'm I'm still gonna stand by the two

23:58

thousand ten study from the Journal of the American

24:00

College of Cardiology, which just sounds

24:03

so efficient, very official, whatever

24:05

they say, So that studies

24:07

showed the benefits of light daily drinking,

24:09

which means one drink for women and two for men,

24:12

with red wine being the winner. All right,

24:14

so we've got nuts, beans, greens, and red

24:16

wine, but not too much. Got it?

24:18

All right, I'm going to be healthier from here on out. So let's

24:20

let's talk about exercise now. And again, we

24:22

know that exercise is important, that's nothing

24:24

new, but let's look at what the latest research

24:27

shows and and particularly the latest on what seems

24:29

to slow down our bodies decline. Well,

24:32

you were telling you earlier this week about the studies

24:34

on HIT. That's high intensity interval

24:36

training. That's right, Yeah, there's definitely been some really

24:38

interesting research on this. So so high

24:41

intensity interval training is when you exercise

24:43

with the short burst of intense activity

24:45

is the name suggests, and then you add

24:47

in these recovery periods where you have you know, more

24:50

more low intensity movement. So

24:52

you mean like this and

24:54

uh and then like you

24:57

got it? I like how you knocked down that miniature

24:59

Snickers bar up the table. When you did that, you kind

25:01

of killed two birds with one stone there, Good job,

25:03

all right, But one study led led by sure

25:06

Kumara and Naya at the Mayo Clinic

25:08

in Minnesota had two age

25:10

ranges that they were looking at, so he was looking

25:12

at eighteen to thirty year olds

25:14

and then again at sixty five to eight

25:16

year olds. And with each of these ranges

25:18

they had them do three months of exercise.

25:21

So some only did interval training,

25:23

sub did weight training, and some did a combination

25:26

of both. So I think we already gave away

25:28

the punchline on this, but what they find, we

25:30

did. But it is still really interesting to see

25:32

what they found. So they found that the interval training

25:34

had the greatest impact on the mitochondria

25:37

and cells and their ability to generate energy.

25:39

And we're not talking about a small amount. We're

25:41

talking nearly seventy in the older

25:44

group and just shy of fifty in

25:46

the younger group. I mean that's pretty significant. Yeah,

25:48

it is. And it's extra significant because

25:51

microchondrial activity is something we

25:53

see declining as we get older, which has

25:55

an effect on our muscles. Yeah, and and that

25:57

decline was not only stopped for the older

25:59

group, but in some it was actually reversed.

26:02

Here's what Nier said about it. He said, after

26:04

three months of interval training, everything converged

26:07

towards what we saw in young people. So

26:09

in addition to those benefits, the interval trainers

26:12

also saw benefits and their lungs, their

26:14

hearts, their overall circulation. So

26:16

weight training is beneficial in building muscle

26:18

mass, but that's a different benefit from what

26:21

we're talking about with our mitochondria, right, And I'm

26:23

glad you clarified that, And I'm also glad that we're

26:25

talking about exercise in general. You know, a few

26:27

episodes back, we were talking about the fact that

26:29

exercise doesn't have that

26:31

much of an impact on our attempt to lose

26:34

weight, and I know we were both a little bit nervous

26:36

that some might take that to mean that there was no reason

26:38

to exercise, And obviously that's

26:40

not true. I mean, there's a ton of benefit to

26:43

exercising. It's incredibly important in helping

26:45

us live longer and healthier.

26:47

And you know, there's so many studies, including

26:49

this one, that backed that up. There have been multiple

26:52

studies that shown regular high intensity

26:54

interval training could add years to a person's

26:56

life. So, just to be clear for our listeners,

26:58

exercises goods, smoking not so much.

27:01

Yeah, we should have saved those gems for the fact

27:03

of thing of well, we've

27:06

covered the bigg ease. So we should also talk about

27:08

the latest anti aging treatments and what their futures

27:10

look like. But before we do that, let's talk

27:12

about longevity and the Longevity Project with

27:14

our next guest. He's no mammal,

27:16

but all right, let's get him on. Our

27:24

guest today is the distinguished Professor in the Department

27:26

of Psychology at the University of California,

27:28

Riverside, and we're talking to him today

27:30

about his book, The Longevity Project.

27:33

Howard Friedman, Welcome to Part Time Genius.

27:35

Thank it's always great to talk about promoting health

27:37

and long life. Well, it's terrific. Well, it's great

27:40

to have you on, you know, and it's really interesting

27:42

to to read about this more than

27:44

two decade long journey that you and your

27:46

co author Leslie Martin took

27:48

as you were looking at all of this interesting data,

27:51

and it's it's not often that you have access

27:53

to data spanning over

27:55

eighty years following the you know, the

27:57

health and wellness of over a thou

28:00

and different children and their their lifespan.

28:02

But for our listeners who aren't familiar

28:04

with the Longevity Project and the study that

28:06

you guys have been looking at over this

28:09

period of time. Could you give just a brief overview

28:11

of what this project was all about. Ure,

28:13

We always want to understand what

28:15

makes people happy and healthy and live long

28:18

over the long term. But it's hard

28:20

to do that. You have to follow a bunch of people

28:22

for their whole lives, and obviously we

28:24

would be long gone before we could complete

28:26

the study like that. So we were

28:29

able to access some archival data

28:31

from a study that was started back in study

28:35

of California children who were about

28:37

ten years old of the time, and they

28:39

were recruited by Professor lewis Terman and

28:41

they were followed every five to ten years ever

28:43

since then. We picked up the study now it's about twenty

28:46

five years ago, and we met some of the

28:48

people and followed some of the people and

28:50

um we also um gathered the

28:52

death certificates on those who had passed away,

28:54

and so we know throughout their whole lives,

28:56

what activities people engaged in, everything

28:59

about them and who lived

29:01

long and who who who died young stay

29:04

happy, and who thrived. Yeah, that's pretty amazing

29:06

and so looking at all these factors that contributed

29:09

to either a long life or

29:11

perhaps um you know, dying at certain

29:13

ages what what would you say in doing these

29:15

studies? Were some of the bigger surprises

29:17

coming out of the research. Well, one of the

29:19

most interesting things was that people

29:21

who were very responsible and

29:23

conscientious, Um, they actually

29:25

thrived throughout their lives and they live happy

29:27

lives. So we often think, well,

29:30

why why not just live it up? Um?

29:32

But in fact, the people who

29:35

actually got involved with things had

29:38

good marriages, had good education, had

29:40

good work, kind of the

29:42

people you would say are the responsible people in the world.

29:44

They actually became happier and happier as they

29:47

as life went on, and maybe also we stayed healthy

29:49

and lived a long time. So

29:51

the book was published a few years ago, and I

29:53

was curious to hear if there been any any

29:56

new development since you guys published. Yes,

29:59

we used following the people. Um,

30:01

there's only a few still alive. One

30:04

I went to his hundred and fourth birthday, which

30:06

was great. Uh. And he

30:09

kind of lived a lot of the kinds of things

30:11

we talked about in the Longevity project. He

30:13

had a good marriage, important for men, He

30:15

was very conscientious. He they stayed

30:18

working and more and more researchers finding

30:20

that people who stay involved keep working

30:22

take on new challenges to remain

30:24

fresh and in a moment. Those are key

30:27

part of on long term healthy patterns. So

30:30

UM, it's these patterns that come first. They lead to both

30:32

health and happiness. UM. So

30:34

so that we're finding that the determined participants,

30:37

the people we were studying, they didn't

30:39

really were very happy. UM, they didn't live

30:41

in the end of what we call m I call you know, self

30:44

esteem clinics and indulge in parents and

30:46

UM. It was the people who were out there doing things,

30:49

making the most out of their life. So I'm

30:51

talking more these days. We're finding support

30:54

for an idea which we sometimes call healthy neuroticism.

30:56

So people who were worrying, you always

30:58

here, don't worry, take it easy. Stress.

31:02

But that turns out to be bad advice. I mean, if

31:04

if you're chronically stressed for years and years

31:06

and you can't sleep, that's bad. But for most

31:08

people, if you take on challenges,

31:11

that's good. And in fact, the participants

31:13

regretted when they look back in the lives and things

31:15

they didn't do, not the things that they did do.

31:18

So people who get involved UM and

31:20

and try things, that's that's

31:22

a kind of healthy curiosity, a healthy stress

31:24

that UM we're finding more and more

31:26

can be important. So rather than

31:29

kind of fretting themselves to death, these

31:31

people were concerned enough to

31:33

to keep themselves alive. In fact, like

31:36

you said, my co authors a lunge every project,

31:39

Doctor Leslie Martin, she she lives

31:41

her life very much like that. She was just in Uganda

31:43

tracking the guerrillas and she's always off somewhere.

31:45

She ran across the Para desert. So

31:48

um, but you know, she's very healthy and happy. And that that's

31:51

typically what we found and it kind of inspired both

31:53

of us to do more of that, just to stay active,

31:56

stay involved. And so some of those new findings are

31:58

being confirmed by both ourselves and

32:00

by others as well. Yeah. That

32:02

that's That's what I'm curious to you about, was how

32:04

how have you changed your life since doing this project

32:07

and understanding the learnings. One of the

32:09

other things is, um, you know, stay stay

32:11

active. So you don't have to be going to the gym every

32:13

day for hours and hours, but just

32:15

getting up and out of your chair is is very important

32:18

and so UM, we do a lot more of that.

32:21

Um. You know, I just if there's something to

32:23

get up and do, I just get up and do it. And if I have to go down

32:25

the stairs to get something, I don't call down to somebody,

32:27

you know, I go down the stairs. But the

32:29

other thing that's very important that people can do is

32:32

be um socially involved with other

32:34

healthy people. So you know, you know

32:36

who your friends are, who are basically good

32:38

influences, who are doing healthy things, doing

32:40

productive things, doing worthwhile things,

32:42

and then you know, I

32:45

really turned down invitations to associate

32:47

with those people. So that what's

32:49

the one thing you could do to live

32:51

a happy and thriving and long life.

32:53

It would probably be to look around

32:55

and so and see who you're you're healthy

32:57

and thriving friends are and try to associate

33:00

more with those. So that's that's a kind

33:02

of conscious change you could make. You know, am

33:04

I too busy? Or should I do this? And how

33:06

much more likely these days to say I'm gonna go

33:08

do that. Oh that's good, that's good, We're

33:11

good for you. Well, it's been so fascinating reading

33:13

about this project and chatting with you

33:15

about this, So Dr Freeman, thanks so much for

33:17

joining us on Part Time Genius. Welcome

33:31

back to Part Time Genius. Now we've talked about

33:33

diet and exercise. But let's talk about

33:35

the fortunes being invested in the development

33:37

of anti aging treatments. Yeah, now that we've

33:39

managed to extend the human lifespan significantly,

33:42

researchers are focused on how to improve that

33:44

quality of longer life, and there are several

33:46

really interesting possibilities being explored. So

33:49

I want to talk about another New Scientist article

33:51

we're looking at, and this one's by Jessica hams Alu.

33:53

Yeah, that's a good call. So all right, Well, one of the first

33:55

treatments she talks about is that of the the

33:58

young blood plasma theory, and she

34:00

writes about this she says, the idea

34:02

is that there's something in the blood of people under

34:04

twenty five that keeps them youthful, although

34:07

we don't yet know what it is. Yeah, they kind

34:09

of made fun of the tech billionaire obsession

34:11

with this on Silicon Valley and tech bulonaires

34:13

having these blood boys on hand. But in

34:15

the studies they've done on older mice who were

34:17

injected with plasma from younger mice, the

34:19

results were strangely promising. Like

34:22

they even tested the injection of plasma from human

34:24

teens into these older mice and both

34:26

cases the older mice end up more active

34:28

and show fewer signs of aging. Well, and

34:30

that Silicon Valley show wasn't wrong about

34:33

this. I mean, while we're still lacking rigorous

34:35

clinical trials for what this will do for

34:37

humans, it hasn't stopped businesses

34:39

from developing around these plasma transfusions.

34:42

There's even a company in California called Ambrosia

34:45

and that you can go there and you can get this young blood

34:47

plasma transfusion. You know, if you if you've

34:49

just got eight thousand dollars to spend on this, I

34:52

mean, if you knew this would work, I could actually

34:54

see paying for that, you know, But I think

34:57

I made hold off just a little bit. But

34:59

still, according to the company's founder, Jesse

35:01

Carmazin, the people who have been treated

35:03

are already reporting benefits and cognition,

35:06

muscle strength, and energy level. But

35:08

again, I mean that's an evangelist speaking. So

35:10

we need real clinical trials to be conducted

35:13

before the verdicts out. Yeah, it'll be interesting

35:15

to see what happens, all right. So the

35:17

next treatment Hanzlou covers is related to

35:19

our telomeres. Well, I think we should pause

35:21

for a minute remind our listeners what telomeres

35:24

are and buy our listeners. I mean, can can you

35:26

remind me? So? Telomeres

35:29

are our DNA protectors. There are

35:31

the caps at the end of chromosomes, and and there's

35:33

a strong correlation between the length of telomeres

35:36

and aging. So you know, like

35:38

every every time a cell divides, these caps

35:40

shrink, and this process takes place until

35:42

there's simply too small to provide meaningful

35:45

protection. And after

35:47

that the cells either die or they're significantly

35:49

damaged, and the cells around them can become damaged

35:52

too. In fact, even before we start

35:54

aging, those born with shorter telomeres

35:56

are are way more likely developed age related

35:59

diseases at younger ages. Nicely done,

36:01

good description there, Mango, all right. So we're

36:03

starting to see more research on them and

36:05

from people like Maria Blastco. She's at

36:07

the Spanish National Cancer Research Center

36:09

in Madrid, and her team has been working

36:12

on ways to extend telomeres and

36:14

mice and and they're doing this through gene

36:16

therapy and they've been pretty successful

36:18

at what they're doing with some of these mice. They've been able to

36:20

extend their lives by as much as that's

36:22

crazy, So it's definitely fascinating,

36:25

though there's still a ton of work to be done and

36:27

it's not something that's really ready to be practiced on

36:29

people yet. So again that that that has not

36:31

stopped a few companies from introducing gene therapy

36:33

treatments to you know, targeting these telemeres.

36:36

Yeah, it definitely hasn't. Some of them are self

36:38

reporting successful growth of telomeres and

36:40

that patients feel like twenty years younger.

36:43

But again that's self reporting and

36:45

something I'd hold off on trusting. Yeah, me too,

36:47

Me too. Now we we should also talk about the services

36:49

that are being marketed that are less

36:51

about anti aging treatments and really

36:54

more about better understanding our genome

36:56

or our microbiome through scans and blood

36:59

tests and all these other evaluations. So

37:01

I guess the idea here is that if we know a bit more

37:03

about the underlying health issues we

37:05

might be developing or what we're at

37:08

risk of, then you know, we can begin working

37:10

on an early treatment or preventative

37:12

efforts. But there was a quote from one of

37:14

the company's founders that I have to admit I found

37:16

pretty amusing. So

37:18

Craig Ventor, the founder of a company called

37:20

Human Longevity, Inc. He got

37:22

the results from his company's twenty five

37:24

tho dollar package.

37:26

That's right. It provided a genome

37:29

sequencing and all this other information that

37:31

we talked about before and after seeing

37:33

his results, he said, quote, I've

37:35

lost forty three pounds since finding out things

37:37

about my metabolic condition. Honestly,

37:40

I'm not sure someone needs to spend twenty five thou dollars

37:42

to know that. If they had forty three pounds

37:44

to lose, they might want to go ahead and do that.

37:47

That said, I know we're not mean spirited here. I'm

37:50

speaking with the almost no knowledge of his

37:52

company, so I'm not saying that it's not a valuable

37:54

service. I just kind of found that quote

37:56

funny. So it's in the end,

37:58

it sounds like many of these treatments may

38:01

be promising, but most of them aren't quite ready

38:03

for the masses. And even Hamslu

38:05

writes about this, until that time, your

38:07

best options are boring old diet

38:09

and exercise. It's true, it's true. But you

38:11

know one thing that's not boring, Mango, the part

38:13

time genius bag. That's right. M

38:26

okay, so I'm gonna go first. Gat he's born

38:28

in autumn are more likely to hit a hundred

38:30

than those born in another seasons. All

38:33

right, so let's talk about TV watching. TV

38:35

watching definitely appears to take a serious

38:37

toll on our health. There was a two thousand

38:39

ten study that looked at people watching more than four

38:42

hours of TV per day, and it found

38:44

there were forty six percent more likely

38:46

to die from any cause than those who

38:48

watch less than two hours. Although

38:50

while I'm reading this, I'm wondering about the words any

38:53

cause. I mean, it seems like people watch TV all

38:55

the time are less likely to die from say like

38:57

rock climbing or something like we're elephant trampoline,

38:59

right, what ever? It maybe, but still don't watch

39:01

so much TV if you want to live longer.

39:04

So one of the other benefits of aging,

39:06

and this is pretty interesting me is fewer migraines.

39:09

Like one study showed the only ten percent

39:11

of women and five percent of men over seventy

39:14

report having migraines, or rather,

39:16

if they were having the migrants, they weren't they

39:18

weren't accompanied by headaches. Oh that's pretty good.

39:20

That's all right, all right. I was just looking at the list

39:23

of the world's oldest people again here I can't

39:25

stop looking at this list and the supercentenarians,

39:28

which for obvious reasons, this list has to

39:30

be updated somewhat regularly, but as

39:32

of this morning, five of the ten oldest

39:34

people in the world are in Japan. Actually

39:37

looking here at the top fifteen, seven of

39:39

the top fifteen or in Japan. I I

39:42

do kind of wonder if they're counting years differently there

39:44

though. Um So,

39:46

here's one for the ladies, and specifically

39:48

ladies over eighty. So. Studies looking

39:50

at sexual satisfaction by age have shown

39:53

that while the elderly may not have sex

39:55

as often as younger people, multiple

39:57

studies have shown that satisfaction increases

39:59

with a In fact, the women over eighty

40:01

and one study report being much more satisfied

40:04

during sex than those were in the late fifty five

40:06

to seventy nine range. You know what, Mango,

40:08

I don't think I can top an octogenarian sex

40:11

facts. So I'm gonna give

40:13

you the PTG fact Off Trophy this week.

40:15

That's it for Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for listening.

40:19

You kids are to stick around. Wasn't

40:21

that you would have a bunch of funk

40:34

everybody? Thanks

40:37

again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production

40:39

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40:43

we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa

40:46

McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown

40:48

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40:50

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40:53

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40:55

from the Research Army including Austin Thompson,

40:57

Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams. And he's Jeffico

41:00

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41:02

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41:08

Jason Jason who