A Tour of Longevity Research

Research is vital to separating opinions and myths from beliefs that have support. Rather than just talk about longevity research, we are going to take two tours. The first tour looks at centenarian research including Dr. Belle Boone Beard, Dr. Thomas Perls, the Delaney sisters, Waldo McBurney, George Dawson, Lynn Peters Adler, and Amy Gorman.

The second tour is of aging research. It starts in Copenhagen with the twins studies finding only 25% of longevity it genetic, the Copenhagen Heart Study finding graying hair, balding, and or wrinkles don’t affect longevity. In Boston we look at Dr. George Vaillant and the Harvard Study of Adult Development-longitudinal research that has been following a cadre of Harvard students since 1939. Also at Harvard is Dr. Becca Levy whose longitudinal research found that whether people had positive or negative views of aging affected their longevity decades later. On the other side of Boston is Zone Diet creator Dr. Barry Sears, who in addition to a balanced Mediterranean diet is emphasizing inflammation as the common denominator of chronic diseases and fish oil as vital to restoring healthy Omega 3: Omega 6 balances.

The tour then goes to the University of Pennsylvania (in Philadelphia) where Dr. Martin Seligman showed how people can learn to be more optimistic. He also developed the field of positive psychology and promoted in when he was president of the American Psychological Association. It’s just an hour drive to the plastic surgery practice of Vincent Giampapa in Montclair NJ. I included this stop as he is a good example of the clinical services cutting edge of anti-aging medicine. Dr. Giampapa’ practice will study your genes and health issues and prescribe supplements to (hopefully) turn on helpful genes and turn off unhelpful ones. He also will harvest stem cells and freeze them for later needs. Finally he has a new procedure of injecting fat cells (which are more likely to have stem cells) into facial skin to rejuvenate the skin without surgery.

Next we fly to the Life Extension Foundation at Ft. Lauderdale Florida to meet with Joe Faloon the editor of the Life Extension magazine. The Life Extension Foundation has been ten years ahead of physicians with heart disease (e.g., CoQ-10 with statins, fish oil, bioidentical hormones and inflammation and endothelial aspects of heart disease. The Foundation has fearless fought the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA. It is funded by vitamin and supplement sales and donations. It conducts and funds a lot of cutting edge research.

Next we go to Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland Ohio) to meet with Professor Stephen Post. He is the dean of altruism research and cites numerous research studies that find altruistic people live longer. Then we drive along the lake fronts to Chicago to meet with Dr. Ronald Klatz, founder of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (AAAAM). It board certifies physicians in anti-aging medicine and is a clearing house for anti-aging research. It also sponsors a lot of conferences. Then we to Minneapolis, MN to the School Sister of Notre Dame. This is where Professor David Snowden did longitudinal research with nuns, including autopsies of the brains when the died.

If you really want to see what is new in anti-aging medicine, the place to go is the AAAAM annual conference in Las Vegas. This is the trade show for showing off all the new technologies and products.

Then we fly to San Francisco where Stanford University professor Laura Carstensen developed socioemotional selectivity theory. The theory says that as we age we place more value on emotional experience (and on close friendships). A similar effect happens when people are facing major illness, disasters, and war. While in San Francisco, we can visit cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish. Way ahead of his time, he developed a low fat diet that dramatically improved the health of heart patients. But it wasn’t just the diet, it also was his emphasis on stress management and exercise.

The we drive down costal highway 101 to Los Angeles and take in the breathtaking views of the ocean. We visit psychiatrist Daniel Amen. His approach is to study brain scans and prescribe diet and lifestyle changes to help patients develop healthier brains. The proof is in the follow up brain scans. While in Los Angeles, we can visit Suzanne Summers in Malibu. Yes this is the same Suzanne Summers that was on Three’s Company and hawked the thing master. She is a major advocate for bioidentical hormone replacement. Her most recent books primarily consist of in-depth interviews with leading hormone experts.

Finally we want to visit professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, the dean of happiness research. She says that 50% of our happiness is a genetically determined set point. Ten percent is circumstances. The remaining 40% is in our control and she outlines how to work with that part to increase happiness.

Well, enough travel, I’m headed back to the Ageless Lifestyles® Institute where we focus on the mind game of living longer, healthier, and happier or what I call the Anti-Aging ABCs® (Attitudes, Beliefs, and Coping Skills). Here we also provide personal coaching and keynote and seminar services.

Dr. Brickey’s other websites are www.DrBrickey.com and www.Anti-Aging-Speaker.com.