A longevity expert's 5 tips for ageing well

About two decades ago, a California research team observed a striking phenomenon: While a majority of older adults have at least two chronic diseases, some people reach their 80s without major illness.

- Mohana Ravindranath

The researchers suspected the key to healthier ageing was genetic. But after sequencing the genomes of 1,400 of these ageing outliers — a cohort they called the “Wellderly” — they found almost no difference between their biological makeup and that of their peers. They were, however, more physically active, more social and typically better educated than the general public.

That genes don’t necessarily determine healthy ageing is “liberating,” and suggests that “we can pretty much all do better” to delay disease, said Dr Eric Topol, a cardiologist and the founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, which ran the Wellderly study.

Topol is a prominent molecular scientist who has published 1,300 research articles, has written multiple books and has several hundred thousand followers across social media and his newsletter. His newest book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, out on Tuesday, delves into the rapidly evolving science of ageing.

In the book, Topol writes that tools like biological age tests and increasingly sophisticated health risk prediction could eventually paint a clearer picture of how we're ageing.

With these tools and new scientific insight into how lifestyle drives the biological breakdown that comes with age, he writes, we can now do more than ever to delay that process. While we're all more likely to get diseases like Alzheimer's, cancer and diabetes as we get older, these illnesses can develop over the course of decades — which gives us a “long runway” to try to counter them, Topol said.

Here are five strategies he recommends for ageing healthier:

Take up strength training