You Are Never Too Old
If age as opposed to ageing concerns you, take a leaf out of the book of a Dutchman who is taking legal action to change the date on his birth certificate by 20 years.
Emile Ratelbrand, who is 69, claims he has the body of a 45-year-old and needs to be officially recognised as such to improve his luck at dating.
It’s an ambitious legal action especially since his inspiration comes from the success of the transgender movement in suggesting gender is fluid, and a matter of choice and feeling, as much as classification.
So, if you could reassign your age, what reasonable date would you pick?
Emile’s subtraction of 14 years is based on what he believes he looks like but can we too look younger and live longer?
A selection of research just reported in the past week suggests it’s not as hard as you might think.
The simple acts of walking briskly, drinking strong coffee and having a zest for life all help longevity.
So to stack up a few extra years of life, which may prove easier than Emile in taking them off, try to practise the following.
- Regular brisk walking can add four and a half years to your life according US and Swedish researchers who compared active to inactive over 40s.
- They found those who followed the recommended weekly minimums of two and a half hours brisk (the adjective speaks for itself and you shouldn’t be out of breathe) perambulation get the benefits of demonstrably longer life. But drop the walk to half the suggested time and the months of extra life shrink likewise to under 24. So get moving!
- My strong flat white never tasted so good after reading a robust and regular coffee could hold one clue as to a long life. Here the boffins looked at the island of Ikaria in Greece which has reportedly one of the highest rates of longevity in the world. They found 87% of the locals over 65 drank the earthy local coffee and those who did so daily had better cardio-vascular health than those who did not.
- And finally, for those who feel trapped by their parents’ genetic heritage, people who have more positive, dare one say honest, perceptions of their own ageing tend to live longer.
- Talk about self –fulfilling prophesies! Here 660 volunteers aged 50 and over were found to live more than seven years longer than others with less positive attitudes even adjusting for their social status, aged and health scores.
And for so-called ‘super-agers’ who are over 80 in the United States the effect is even more pronounced. The advice on what to do, keep engage and active after retirement and be sociable.
If you do all of the three there might be a few more years of healthy life as a reward but the bonus is all these things are quite fun anyway.
Having a good regular active walk maybe with friends and sharing a good steaming coffee again with pals is enough in itself. If the science suggests it make you life longer so much the better.
So good luck to Emile’s efforts to change his birth-certificate and if he finds love as a result so much the better. But he may find far more success following a simpler strategy to live longer and not just appear younger.
