Host: Anti-Aging Psychologist Dr. Michael Brickey
Guest: Dr. Michael Fossel
Broadcast and podcast on webtalkradio.net. The podcast is also on the links below
Many factors have contributed to Americans’ rising life expectancy, currently at 78 years. For almost fifty years, however, scientists have know about the Hayflick limit that most human cells are programmed to only divide about fifty times, setting a biological lifespan limit of about 120 years. Researchers believe this is due to the telomeres at the ends of our chromosomes often becoming shorter when cells divide.
In his just published book, The Immortality Edge, Dr. Michael Fossel shares his decades of telomere research and shares his knowledge on how to enhance your health and life expectancy by helping your telomeres thrive.
Telomeres appear to be a key to health and longevity. Telomere research has been slowly but surely advancing and closing in on practical, affordable interventions to extend telomere length—which in turn appears to enhance health and longevity. Stay tuned. In the meantime, The Immortality Edge both helps us understand telomeres and explains what we can do now to help our telomeres.
As was evident in the interview, Dr. Fossel sticks close to the data and is careful not to infer too much. He is also very concerned about the psychological aspects of living, including balance, purpose, and enjoying life. He wrote the section of the book on telomeres and efforts to develop pills or other interventions that will help.
His co-authors addressed diet, exercise, and supplements. Their recommendations for supplements try to tie each supplement in how the supplement affects telomeres. Their recommendations for exercise and nutrition are a little more speculative. For nutrition, they recommend a Paleolithic diet, i.e., mimicking the eating habits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They recommend eschewing grains and dairy. While this is a carnivorous diet (they recommend free-range organic meat–which not everyone can afford) it can be modified for vegetarians.
In sum, it time to start paying attention to taking care of our telomeres. Dr. Fossel’s website/blog is www.MichaelFossel.com. Dr. Brickey’s other websites are www.DrBrickey.com and www.Anti-Aging-Speaker.com.
