Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? What's that? Will? All right? You know
Speaker 1: how I love a good list, and especially when these
Speaker 1: lists are about records. While I was looking over the
Speaker 1: list of the world's oldest living people, and I stumbled
Speaker 1: into this story of Jean Louise Coleman, and she was
Speaker 1: the oldest living person on record until she died in
Speaker 1: at a hundred and twenty two years and a hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty four days old old. That's crazy, and it
Speaker 1: was so much fun to read about her life. I mean,
Speaker 1: she had this really active lifestyle. She enjoyed swimming, playing tennis, cycling.
Speaker 1: She decided to start fencing at the age of eighty five,
Speaker 1: and in fact, she rode her bike until she turned
Speaker 1: a full century old. That's incredible. Yeah, and she didn't
Speaker 1: slow down much after that, so she decided to let
Speaker 1: her artistic talent shine after turning a hundred. She was
Speaker 1: a hundred and fourteen when she made an appearance in
Speaker 1: the movie Vincent and Me, and that made her the
Speaker 1: oldest actress to appear in emotion picture. Then, when she
Speaker 1: was a hundred and twenty, one of four track CD
Speaker 1: titled Times Mistress was released. This was a rap album
Speaker 1: with Kelmen speaking over it. So she obviously lived this
Speaker 1: very active and engaging life. But you want to know
Speaker 1: the real reason I think she made it to a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two. She stopped smoking when she was
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixteen, after ninety six years of sucking
Speaker 1: down cigarettes. That's so strange. And obviously cigarettes are one
Speaker 1: of the things that are most consistently linked in earlier death.
Speaker 1: So that's that's doubly crazy, right right, it really is.
Speaker 1: And you know, while it's certainly a bizarre case, there's
Speaker 1: some really fascinating findings in the world of science that
Speaker 1: are helping us understand why certain people live longer. And
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's
Speaker 1: get started. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend man guest Ticketer, and today we're talking about
Speaker 1: the latest research around longevity, that is, how to live
Speaker 1: a super long time now, Mango. In one of our
Speaker 1: earlier episodes, we talked about cryonics, you know, this effort
Speaker 1: to freeze our bodies after we die, all in the
Speaker 1: hopes that science will advance enough in the coming centuries
Speaker 1: to be able to bring us back to life. And
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, you made it pretty clear this
Speaker 1: was not something you're a fan of. You'd rather just
Speaker 1: try to live longer while you're still alive the first
Speaker 1: time around, right, And I totally stand by that feeling.
Speaker 1: So first off, you know, I hate the cold. There's
Speaker 1: no way I want to be shoved upside down into
Speaker 1: a freezer. And and also I would so much rather
Speaker 1: just live longer and healthier than than you've woken up
Speaker 1: like two years from now. Yeah, well that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about today, and so we'll dive into the
Speaker 1: latest research on the obvious stuff, whether that's exercise and
Speaker 1: diet and all of those things, and and then some
Speaker 1: of the surprising. And we've got a couple of great
Speaker 1: guests on today, that's right. So one of them is
Speaker 1: a total superstar to me, and I'm a little surprised
Speaker 1: that we managed to get her on the program. Any
Speaker 1: listeners who heard the original trailer for the show will
Speaker 1: also be familiar with your ninety year old grandmother, Mama. Mama,
Speaker 1: I know, and so Mamma is going to share some
Speaker 1: of her tips on how she's managed to reach ninety
Speaker 1: and be in better shape than either of us. And
Speaker 1: we'll also be joined by Howard Friedman. He's this professor
Speaker 1: and psychologist at the University of California Riverside. Friedman co
Speaker 1: authored a book called The Longevity Project a few years back,
Speaker 1: which followed an incredible eight decades study about the various
Speaker 1: psychological factors that contribute to how long people live. It's
Speaker 1: this really fascinating book, and I'm excited to hear some
Speaker 1: of those updates and uh, talk to Howard. So two
Speaker 1: great guests. Yeah, I can't wait to get both of
Speaker 1: them on the line. So all right, well let's talk
Speaker 1: about longevity. You know, when we were young, if you
Speaker 1: mentioned someone had lived to be a hundred, it just
Speaker 1: seemed incredible, almost impossible. And it is incredible, I know.
Speaker 1: So when I was younger, I used to tell people
Speaker 1: that my great grandma lived to a hundred and three,
Speaker 1: and no one believed me, and I just kind of
Speaker 1: took it for granted that people live at But when
Speaker 1: I think about it now, I don't even understand how
Speaker 1: that's possible. What's even more incredible than that is that
Speaker 1: some researchers predict that half the baby is born in
Speaker 1: wealthy countries after the year two thousand will live to
Speaker 1: be a hundred. Half of these people, Yeah, that's unreal.
Speaker 1: But I did see in a research that life expectancy
Speaker 1: has been going up by nearly three months every year
Speaker 1: for nearly a hundred eighty years now. And while there's
Speaker 1: certainly no guarantee that the trend will continue, if it does,
Speaker 1: that's where your stat really starts to click. Like I
Speaker 1: read that if those numbers continue, more than half the
Speaker 1: baby is born since two thousand will hit triple digits. Well,
Speaker 1: and there have been so many studies done to try
Speaker 1: to find some big clue or marker that lets us say, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's it, you know, that's why people are living this long,
Speaker 1: But so far they really haven't been able to find one,
Speaker 1: even for these supercentenarians. These are those incredible cases where
Speaker 1: people live more than a hundred and ten years. I know.
Speaker 1: So I used to read tips from old people on
Speaker 1: living longer, and they see things like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: too much standing will kill you, or too much sitting,
Speaker 1: or eat yogur but only the really sour yogurt, or
Speaker 1: don't eat any dairy. I mean, everything is so conflicting,
Speaker 1: And the clearest thing is that genetics obviously play a role,
Speaker 1: so scientists haven't been able to figure out that like
Speaker 1: one magic gene that helps people live to a hundred years.
Speaker 1: But behavioral differences are something researchers know much more about
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about those, but before we
Speaker 1: get into the big ones like diet and exercise, I'd
Speaker 1: love to warm up a little and talk about some
Speaker 1: of the surprising or interesting things that you were mentioning
Speaker 1: from the research you found yesterday. All right, let's do that. Well, So,
Speaker 1: so which which place do you want to start? Well,
Speaker 1: what about the fact that work stress isn't nearly as
Speaker 1: bad as uh as people think? Okay, well, that that
Speaker 1: one actually surprised me. So we're not talking about people
Speaker 1: who are miserable in their jobs. But you know, some stress,
Speaker 1: a little bit of stress, even consistent stress over doing
Speaker 1: a good job or just being busy at work. That's
Speaker 1: not going to kill you, or at least it's not
Speaker 1: likely to. So we can ask Dr Freedman more about
Speaker 1: this later. But the health benefits of hard work have
Speaker 1: been found, and not only in young are workers, but
Speaker 1: even in older people. So again, this was a little
Speaker 1: surprising to me. And a certain level of stress often indicates,
Speaker 1: you know, real engagement in their work, and these individuals
Speaker 1: are usually more connected and happier than those co workers
Speaker 1: who are not as engaged in what they're doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: wh which which makes a certain amount of sense to me,
Speaker 1: like the pride you're taking and you know your commitment
Speaker 1: to But but what about parenthood. I mean, people always
Speaker 1: joke about kids taking years off their life, and it
Speaker 1: seems like it would make sense if we found out
Speaker 1: that being a parent made his die a little younger,
Speaker 1: Like it's stressful to be a parent. They're all the
Speaker 1: years of missleep and then the years of worrying about
Speaker 1: those kids, and then they obviously cost a ton of money. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think you had some surprising facts for stressed
Speaker 1: out parents. It turns out having kids may actually help
Speaker 1: you live a little bit longer. I was reading about
Speaker 1: this study out of Sweden, and these researchers looked at
Speaker 1: over a million people in this study, So these were
Speaker 1: people born in the early nineteen hundreds, and what the
Speaker 1: study found was that those who had at least one
Speaker 1: child were actually more likely to live longer. So for women,
Speaker 1: it was a benefit of about a year and a half,
Speaker 1: and for men it was almost two years. So I
Speaker 1: lived with two tyrants. And if you'd asked me when
Speaker 1: I had to toddler in the house two years ago,
Speaker 1: I would have told you that that just can't be true.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no coincidence that all my white hair
Speaker 1: came in when I had kids. Yeah, I would have
Speaker 1: said the same thing. And there's some other interesting elements
Speaker 1: to the study as well. They found that there was
Speaker 1: an even stronger link between parenthood and life expectancy for
Speaker 1: those who weren't married. Yeah, so this is the part
Speaker 1: where we tell all our single friends, like Sean Turner,
Speaker 1: just go out there and have a kid. That'll solve
Speaker 1: it all. Just just just go have a kid. But
Speaker 1: this is where our biggest clue comes from. So it
Speaker 1: suggests that these parents benefit from their adult children caring
Speaker 1: for them and providing social support in their later years.
Speaker 1: So you told me that yesterday. But I'm wondering, doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if these parents have a boy or a girl. Well,
Speaker 1: there were some earlier studies that it just had shown
Speaker 1: that it was, you know, maybe more beneficial to have
Speaker 1: a girl because adult daughters were more likely to be
Speaker 1: helpful as their parents got older. But the more recent
Speaker 1: studies have shown that it's it's pretty much equal to
Speaker 1: whether you have a boy or a girl, which is
Speaker 1: kind of relief. Okay, So another one that I I
Speaker 1: guess isn't that shocking but is interesting to see confirmed
Speaker 1: is the benefit of learning a second language and how
Speaker 1: that can slow your brain from aging. Yeah, this one
Speaker 1: is actually pretty cool. So you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: new idea that knowing a second language might help keep
Speaker 1: a mind sharp, but it's always been difficult in these
Speaker 1: previous studies to try to separate out the benefits of
Speaker 1: knowing a second language with you know, other contributors to this.
Speaker 1: So that is until a recent study of hundreds of
Speaker 1: Scottish people. And this was over a several decades span.
Speaker 1: So this study tracked over a thousand people and at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the study, all the participants were around
Speaker 1: eleven years old, and all of them spoke only one language,
Speaker 1: and that was English. Now, this was back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen forties. So I've got to tell you, like, I
Speaker 1: love studies like this that spans so many decades. It's
Speaker 1: just amazing to me. Yeah, me too. And so you
Speaker 1: can fast forward from there to over sixty years later
Speaker 1: when all of them were in their seventies. And so
Speaker 1: they managed to track down about eight hundred of these
Speaker 1: original participants, and it just so turned out that that
Speaker 1: a third of them had learned at least one more language.
Speaker 1: So it really made for this pretty controlled study, huh.
Speaker 1: And so what they find, well, they found that those
Speaker 1: who picked up a second language scored better than they
Speaker 1: would have expected when they looked back at their original scores,
Speaker 1: and those that had not learned a new language performed
Speaker 1: pretty much in line with what they had expected. So it's,
Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty strong evidence that the additional language
Speaker 1: actually helped them. And do you have any sense of why?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they can't be a d percent
Speaker 1: certain as to why. But in thinking about what the
Speaker 1: brain must do when speaking multiple languages, it has to
Speaker 1: process words and both languages and then produce the appropriate
Speaker 1: phrases and the right language. So I mean it is
Speaker 1: some kind of a mental workout, all right. So one
Speaker 1: more before we get to the big stuff. And this
Speaker 1: one was totally shocked to me. And I think you said,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to paraphrase here, that the elderly, you
Speaker 1: need to start taking massive bond kits every mooring just
Speaker 1: to get smarter. I'm not sure that's exactly what I said,
Speaker 1: but they're definitely some interesting studies around the use of
Speaker 1: th HC, which is the active ingredient in cannabis. So
Speaker 1: that's a little different than than what you've suggested here.
Speaker 1: But you know, over the years, many studies have pointed
Speaker 1: to the fact that teenagers perform more poorly on memory
Speaker 1: or attention tests when under the influence. But in some
Speaker 1: recent studies of mice, when th HC is administered in
Speaker 1: very controlled and very low doses to these elderly mice,
Speaker 1: they found that these mice were able to perform certain
Speaker 1: cognitive task at similar levels to those of mice that
Speaker 1: were not given the substance. So this was not the
Speaker 1: case when they were not given the th HC, which
Speaker 1: is just crazy, and the response was very different in
Speaker 1: the young mice. When they were given the THHC, they
Speaker 1: actually performed much more poorly, which is which is just
Speaker 1: super interesting to me. So I'm still a little baffled
Speaker 1: by this idea of old people picking up this daily
Speaker 1: marijuana have it, even if it's in like low doses,
Speaker 1: But why does it keep younger. Well, they're focusing on
Speaker 1: the endocannabinoid system, and this is what helps our bodies
Speaker 1: deal with stress. So this is a system that begins
Speaker 1: declining with age, but the THHC helps stimulate this system
Speaker 1: and calm the mice down a little bit. So I'm
Speaker 1: guessing they're gonna be trying this on people next Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we do need to be clear yet again, this
Speaker 1: does not mean that doctors are going to start prescribing
Speaker 1: joints for the same benefit. Again, it's a very controlled
Speaker 1: and low dosage to be administered, and so that's what
Speaker 1: they're testing now, you know, to figure out how much
Speaker 1: the benefit is and and at what age it's most beneficial. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I honestly feel like this changes everything. I know, Like
Speaker 1: somehow we learned that being stressed at work is great,
Speaker 1: being a parent, forcing yourself to learn Portuguese, and possibly
Speaker 1: just possibly picking up a low dose pot habit in
Speaker 1: your seventies or eighties, all of that's gonna extend your life.
Speaker 1: That's right before we get to the Big East. Like
Speaker 1: exercise and diet and the things that will definitely boost
Speaker 1: your chances of living longer. Why don't we get them
Speaker 1: on the line. All right, you better buckle up. How
Speaker 1: does it feel to be ninety just like I did
Speaker 1: when I was young? Yeah? Because I can do everything
Speaker 1: I did when I was younger. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: I know you've always told us that we had to
Speaker 1: stay active. Why don't you tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about you know, what you do to exercise and how
Speaker 1: you stayed active all these years? Well? Right now, I
Speaker 1: work with Mary Beth the trainer for three days a week,
Speaker 1: and then I try to just go right on in
Speaker 1: and swim. And you know what kind of swimmer I am.
Speaker 1: I certified swimming structor for years and I'm still helping.
Speaker 1: Always try them on boys that can't swim too well.
Speaker 1: They can ride bicycles and and do all these others,
Speaker 1: but they're not very good swimmers. So I helped the
Speaker 1: police investigator and a senior from Sanford just lately they
Speaker 1: wanted to swim. And how are you? I love how
Speaker 1: many hobbies you have and and I always say you
Speaker 1: play got point of fourteen? Then I'm played tennis and
Speaker 1: then uh oh, model all my life. I'm modeled everywhere
Speaker 1: in Birmingham. So that's a bunch of fun. And I
Speaker 1: decided to want flyer planes. Well that was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. And my husband was in California and I
Speaker 1: had come back, and I said, don't let him get
Speaker 1: scared of this. Well he started flying and he got
Speaker 1: his license and said, that's most funds they ever had
Speaker 1: in his life. And the guy that taught me to
Speaker 1: fly to help the blue angels in the thunderbird, So
Speaker 1: he was pretty good. It was an Emery riddle, so
Speaker 1: he was very good. Well, you've obviously stayed really really active.
Speaker 1: I was also hoping you tell us a little bit about,
Speaker 1: you know, about your healthy eating and what kinds of
Speaker 1: things you try to do to stay healthy. On that side,
Speaker 1: you need now Like today, while ago, I fisted some
Speaker 1: chicken and some fruit, and then I keep Bold eggs
Speaker 1: in the refrigerator because they're good to go. Grab one
Speaker 1: out of the frigerator, get your Bold eggs. And then
Speaker 1: this is like, oh, bait, you know, chicken out. Only
Speaker 1: eat fried foods? You no, And I eat a lot
Speaker 1: of fruits and vegetables and just be real careful what
Speaker 1: I eat. Now, You've always told us, though that you
Speaker 1: got to save a little bit of room every once
Speaker 1: in a while for for a little tree. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm famous for banana putts. My grandson will now mind go,
Speaker 1: I gotta make your banana. But we all in the
Speaker 1: love those banana please man go. Yeah. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you knew this, but when you know Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: played for the Birmingham Barons when he played baseball in
Speaker 1: the league for a couple of years, and Mama would
Speaker 1: make Michael Jordan's bananas. Well, Michael Jordan was just a
Speaker 1: or a sweet guide. Michael hit a home run when
Speaker 1: my mother was ninety two. She went to the ball
Speaker 1: game and she got to see if hit a home run.
Speaker 1: So that was good. We'll tell us any any other
Speaker 1: tips you might have about living a long, healthy life.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I forgot to tell y'all. I was president
Speaker 1: two years for the International Lady Polots. It's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest organizations in the world. I am still a
Speaker 1: member of him, and I meet with the ladies for
Speaker 1: lunch and uh so we still see each other and
Speaker 1: I like the volunteer And my favorite is Autism Society.
Speaker 1: My little great grandson has autism and he's doing very well,
Speaker 1: very well well that's great. Well, mamma, we uh we
Speaker 1: we thought we would let you play a little quiz
Speaker 1: with us if you if you don't mind, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, so mango, we're what's our quiz called today,
Speaker 1: It's called did it happen in Mamma's lifetime? All right,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna read you a thing, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to tell us. We're gonna read you a statement,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have to tell us whether it happened
Speaker 1: in your lifetime. Now, if it happened, if you're in
Speaker 1: your lifetime, we want you to say, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1: And if it did not happen in your lifetime, we
Speaker 1: want you to say, I don't know about that. We
Speaker 1: kind of use some of your phrases. All right, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go, you ready, okay, all right? The invention
Speaker 1: of shopping carts. Did it happen in mamma's lifetime? That
Speaker 1: sounds about right? Is that true? Is she right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's right. The shopping cart was invented by the owner
Speaker 1: of the Humpty Dumpty grocery store in Okay. So Mamma's
Speaker 1: one for one. Question number two. The invention of the
Speaker 1: facts machine did it happen in your lifetime? I don't
Speaker 1: know about it? Okay, is she right? Man? Yeah, she's right.
Speaker 1: A fax machine was invented way back in eighteen forty
Speaker 1: three by a Scottish inventor. It was actually called the
Speaker 1: electronic printing telegraph. Okay, so she's got all right, I
Speaker 1: got to study. Yeah, she's two out of two. Alright,
Speaker 1: the next question, she got two left. Juicy fruit chewing gum?
Speaker 1: Was this invented in your lifetime? I don't know about that,
Speaker 1: but all right, so so is she right? Yeah, she's right.
Speaker 1: Juicy fruit was introduced in eight and in case you
Speaker 1: were wondering the juicy fruits to make up the flavor
Speaker 1: of juicy fruit or lemon, apple, orange, and banana. Okay,
Speaker 1: so mamma has gotten all three, right, So for the
Speaker 1: last one, let's see if she can get a perfect score.
Speaker 1: Chocolate chip cookies. Were they invented in your lifetime? If
Speaker 1: you think so, you'll say that sounds about right, That
Speaker 1: sounds about right. Yeah, four for four cookie, that's right?
Speaker 1: Since so so so mango, mamma got four out of four.
Speaker 1: So what she won today a whole lot of hugs
Speaker 1: and kisses all right, would I have made a lot
Speaker 1: of chocolate chip cookies. They're good. I agree. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for doing this with us today, and I
Speaker 1: want you boys to be sweet and be good here.
Speaker 1: All right, we will welcome back to part time genius.
Speaker 1: All right, Mango. Now that Mamma has inspired us to
Speaker 1: live healthier and way more enthusiastically too. But let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about the obvious reasons that we all know can
Speaker 1: influence how long we live and what the latest science
Speaker 1: has to say. All right, so do you want to
Speaker 1: start with diet? Well, I hate to tell you this,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't appear that the Raman restaurant downstairs is
Speaker 1: the key to are living longer. Man. That is so good. Honestly,
Speaker 1: if you guys are ever in Pond City Market, you'll
Speaker 1: see us at that ram and bar wat much too much.
Speaker 1: But I know you've done some reading on the latest
Speaker 1: diet research and and what did you find? So you
Speaker 1: know all the studies that I've looked at significant calorie
Speaker 1: restriction and its relationship to a long healthy life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's It's been a little while since I've seen at
Speaker 1: some of these, but you know, I feel like I've
Speaker 1: only seen ones that are about mice or worms or
Speaker 1: some other small creatures. So to be honest, I really
Speaker 1: wasn't sure how close we were to saying that this
Speaker 1: would apply to humans. Well, lucky for you were one
Speaker 1: step closer, because now we're talking primate alright, Lucky for me,
Speaker 1: I want to restrict my calories. I saw a really
Speaker 1: interesting story in your favorite magazine, New Scientists about how
Speaker 1: a long running trial and a group of monkeys or
Speaker 1: macoux specifically found that calorie restriction led to a longer life.
Speaker 1: Actually it was about three years, and while that doesn't
Speaker 1: seem that long, it's equivalent about nine human years. That
Speaker 1: is pretty significant. I mean, I guess we can't assume
Speaker 1: that would necessarily be nine years in humans. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I mean i'd also just take three extra years, right,
Speaker 1: But some researchers are hopeful that as we better understand
Speaker 1: what calorie restriction is doing, we might be able to
Speaker 1: come up with better anti aging medicines. And the other
Speaker 1: thing they found in some trials calorie restriction resulted in
Speaker 1: lower rates of cancer and heart disease. Yeah, both both
Speaker 1: good things obviously. And you know, as you're saying this,
Speaker 1: I decided to google calorie restriction in humans, and I
Speaker 1: see there's something called the calorie restriction Society. So obviously
Speaker 1: there are people already subscribing to this and thinking about
Speaker 1: it pretty seriously. Yeah, the New Scientists reporter Clara Wilson
Speaker 1: talks about this group in our story. They're basically on
Speaker 1: a permanent diet of around hundred two I don't know
Speaker 1: about eighteen hundred calories per day as compared to the
Speaker 1: usual recommendation of two thousand. In fact, there's kind of
Speaker 1: a funny quote at the end of Claire's story, so
Speaker 1: she says, quote until someone's used to it, the diet
Speaker 1: involves planning every meal with precision, and side effects can
Speaker 1: include feeling cold and reduced libido. And story, that's the
Speaker 1: last line. I kind of wonder how many people had
Speaker 1: the whole story, got all the way to that final
Speaker 1: quote and they were like, Okay, I'm out. I can't
Speaker 1: do this. But it is interesting and it does seem
Speaker 1: like science is starting to point us in the direction
Speaker 1: of calorie restriction being beneficial to humans, So it will
Speaker 1: be interesting to watch where this goes. Yeah, so there
Speaker 1: was this interesting thing that A. J. Jacob's our friend
Speaker 1: wrote a while back where he was talking about visiting
Speaker 1: some folks from the calorie restriction Society, and they basically
Speaker 1: meditate on each piece of food. They like slowly meditate
Speaker 1: on it to savor it. And they show him how
Speaker 1: to eat a single blueberry, and first they smell it,
Speaker 1: then they think about how delicious it's going to taste
Speaker 1: from the scent of it, and how it's going to
Speaker 1: feel in their mouth, and then they put it in
Speaker 1: their mouth, but tell him not to bite until he's ready.
Speaker 1: It's like tantric eating sounds like a Portland sketch, and
Speaker 1: all he wants to do is bite, but they tell
Speaker 1: him to consider the blueberry skin and the texture and
Speaker 1: the tannins and savor every little segment of the fruit.
Speaker 1: Is it burst full of flavor in his mouth? And
Speaker 1: then he's supposed to chew it way more than you're
Speaker 1: supposed to choose, something like forty times of side or something.
Speaker 1: And they literally spend like fifteen minutes on the blueberry.
Speaker 1: That just seems like way too much work. I know,
Speaker 1: I'd wolfed down two cartons and blueberries in that time.
Speaker 1: But supposedly when you slow yourself down and eating your
Speaker 1: head catches up and realizes you're fuller than you think.
Speaker 1: All right, So there are obviously lots of other food
Speaker 1: related studies, and you know, showing what we should and
Speaker 1: shouldn't eat. And so what else did you find in
Speaker 1: your research? Well, beyond the usual it's healthy to eat
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables mantra, which apparently, I'm happy to report,
Speaker 1: is still healthy to do. It is interesting to see
Speaker 1: the studies on populations around the world that lived the longest.
Speaker 1: So in most of those you'll find people getting more
Speaker 1: than their food from plants. So you think about fruits
Speaker 1: or veggies, whole grains and beans, and and of course
Speaker 1: you know leafy greens, which are obviously important, maybe the
Speaker 1: most important. So multiple studies have shown that eating a
Speaker 1: cup of cooked greens every single day significantly reduced the
Speaker 1: likelihood that someone in the middle age would die in
Speaker 1: the next four years. I don't know what daily leafy greens.
Speaker 1: That seems a little excessive, though, So where do where
Speaker 1: do biscuits fit into this? All right? Give me the
Speaker 1: rundown on the rest. I know I've been waiting for
Speaker 1: that all biscuit diet to come out, so but until
Speaker 1: it does, here's what we do now. So one study
Speaker 1: which followed nearly a hundred thousand Americans since two thousand two,
Speaker 1: the ones who lived the longest were those who followed
Speaker 1: a plant based diet and had a small portion of
Speaker 1: fish a handful of times per week. And then the
Speaker 1: next thing is eggs. While they're good for us, we
Speaker 1: might be overdoing it on the number of eggs we
Speaker 1: eat at a time, so we should probably be aiming
Speaker 1: for more like three a week. Three a week. It's
Speaker 1: like a meal. So we should all eat half a
Speaker 1: cup of cooked beans each day, and a couple of
Speaker 1: handfuls of nuts per day. And of course, uh, we
Speaker 1: eat way too much sugar. I feel like I could
Speaker 1: do most of those. The challenge I think for me
Speaker 1: would be with nuts. When they say they're healthy to
Speaker 1: eat like, I eat them by the handfuls, So I
Speaker 1: think it'd be tough to pull that off. All right,
Speaker 1: So what's the latest on drinking. I'm I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: stand by the two thousand ten study from the Journal
Speaker 1: of the American College of Cardiology, which just sounds so efficient,
Speaker 1: very official, whatever they say, So that studies showed the
Speaker 1: benefits of light daily drinking, which means one drink for
Speaker 1: women and two for men, with red wine being the winner.
Speaker 1: All right, so we've got nuts, beans, greens, and red wine,
Speaker 1: but not too much. Got it? All right, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be healthier from here on out. So let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about exercise now. And again, we know that exercise
Speaker 1: is important, that's nothing new, but let's look at what
Speaker 1: the latest research shows and and particularly the latest on
Speaker 1: what seems to slow down our bodies decline. Well, you
Speaker 1: were telling you earlier this week about the studies on HIT.
Speaker 1: That's high intensity interval training. That's right, Yeah, there's definitely
Speaker 1: been some really interesting research on this. So so high
Speaker 1: intensity interval training is when you exercise with the short
Speaker 1: burst of intense activity is the name suggests, and then
Speaker 1: you add in these recovery periods where you have you know,
Speaker 1: more more low intensity movement. So you mean like this
Speaker 1: and uh and then like you got it? I like
Speaker 1: how you knocked down that miniature Snickers bar up the table.
Speaker 1: When you did that, you kind of killed two birds
Speaker 1: with one stone there, Good job, all right, But one
Speaker 1: study led led by sure Kumara and Naya at the
Speaker 1: Mayo Clinic in Minnesota had two age ranges that they
Speaker 1: were looking at, so he was looking at eighteen to
Speaker 1: thirty year olds and then again at sixty five to
Speaker 1: eight year olds. And with each of these ranges they
Speaker 1: had them do three months of exercise. So some only
Speaker 1: did interval training, sub did weight training, and some did
Speaker 1: a combination of both. So I think we already gave
Speaker 1: away the punchline on this, but what they find, we did.
Speaker 1: But it is still really interesting to see what they found.
Speaker 1: So they found that the interval training had the greatest
Speaker 1: impact on the mitochondria and cells and their ability to
Speaker 1: generate energy. And we're not talking about a small amount.
Speaker 1: We're talking nearly seventy in the older group and just
Speaker 1: shy of fifty in the younger group. I mean that's
Speaker 1: pretty significant. Yeah, it is. And it's extra significant because
Speaker 1: microchondrial activity is something we see declining as we get older,
Speaker 1: which has an effect on our muscles. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: that decline was not only stopped for the older group,
Speaker 1: but in some it was actually reversed. Here's what Nier
Speaker 1: said about it. He said, after three months of interval training,
Speaker 1: everything converged towards what we saw in young people. So
Speaker 1: in addition to those benefits, the interval trainers also saw
Speaker 1: benefits and their lungs, their hearts, their overall circulation. So
Speaker 1: weight training is beneficial in building muscle mass, but that's
Speaker 1: a different benefit from what we're talking about with our mitochondria, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you clarified that, And I'm also glad
Speaker 1: that we're talking about exercise in general. You know, a
Speaker 1: few episodes back, we were talking about the fact that
Speaker 1: exercise doesn't have that much of an impact on our
Speaker 1: attempt to lose weight, and I know we were both
Speaker 1: a little bit nervous that some might take that to
Speaker 1: mean that there was no reason to exercise, And obviously
Speaker 1: that's not true. I mean, there's a ton of benefit
Speaker 1: to exercising. It's incredibly important in helping us live longer
Speaker 1: and healthier. And you know, there's so many studies, including
Speaker 1: this one, that backed that up. There have been multiple
Speaker 1: studies that shown regular high intensity interval training could add
Speaker 1: years to a person's life. So, just to be clear
Speaker 1: for our listeners, exercises goods, smoking not so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we should have saved those gems for the fact of
Speaker 1: thing of well, we've covered the bigg ease. So we
Speaker 1: should also talk about the latest anti aging treatments and
Speaker 1: what their futures look like. But before we do that,
Speaker 1: let's talk about longevity and the Longevity Project with our
Speaker 1: next guest. He's no mammal, but all right, let's get
Speaker 1: him on. Our guest today is the distinguished Professor in
Speaker 1: the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside,
Speaker 1: and we're talking to him today about his book, The
Speaker 1: Longevity Project. Howard Friedman, Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thank
Speaker 1: it's always great to talk about promoting health and long life. Well,
Speaker 1: it's terrific. Well, it's great to have you on, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's really interesting to to read about this more
Speaker 1: than two decade long journey that you and your co
Speaker 1: author Leslie Martin took as you were looking at all
Speaker 1: of this interesting data, and it's it's not often that
Speaker 1: you have access to data spanning over eighty years following
Speaker 1: the you know, the health and wellness of over a
Speaker 1: thou and different children and their their lifespan. But for
Speaker 1: our listeners who aren't familiar with the Longevity Project and
Speaker 1: the study that you guys have been looking at over
Speaker 1: this period of time. Could you give just a brief
Speaker 1: overview of what this project was all about. Ure, We
Speaker 1: always want to understand what makes people happy and healthy
Speaker 1: and live long over the long term. But it's hard
Speaker 1: to do that. You have to follow a bunch of
Speaker 1: people for their whole lives, and obviously we would be
Speaker 1: long gone before we could complete the study like that.
Speaker 1: So we were able to access some archival data from
Speaker 1: a study that was started back in study of California
Speaker 1: children who were about ten years old of the time,
Speaker 1: and they were recruited by Professor lewis Terman and they
Speaker 1: were followed every five to ten years ever since then.
Speaker 1: We picked up the study now it's about twenty five
Speaker 1: years ago, and we met some of the people and
Speaker 1: followed some of the people and um we also um
Speaker 1: gathered the death certificates on those who had passed away,
Speaker 1: and so we know throughout their whole lives, what activities
Speaker 1: people engaged in, everything about them and who lived long
Speaker 1: and who who who died young stay happy, and who thrived. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing and so looking at all these factors
Speaker 1: that contributed to either a long life or perhaps um
Speaker 1: you know, dying at certain ages what what would you
Speaker 1: say in doing these studies? Were some of the bigger
Speaker 1: surprises coming out of the research. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting things was that people who were very responsible
Speaker 1: and conscientious, Um, they actually thrived throughout their lives and
Speaker 1: they live happy lives. So we often think, well, why
Speaker 1: why not just live it up? Um? But in fact,
Speaker 1: the people who actually got involved with things had good marriages,
Speaker 1: had good education, had good work, kind of the people
Speaker 1: you would say are the responsible people in the world.
Speaker 1: They actually became happier and happier as they as life
Speaker 1: went on, and maybe also we stayed healthy and lived
Speaker 1: a long time. So the book was published a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and I was curious to hear if there
Speaker 1: been any any new development since you guys published. Yes,
Speaker 1: we used following the people. Um, there's only a few
Speaker 1: still alive. One I went to his hundred and fourth birthday,
Speaker 1: which was great. Uh. And he kind of lived a
Speaker 1: lot of the kinds of things we talked about in
Speaker 1: the Longevity project. He had a good marriage, important for men,
Speaker 1: He was very conscientious. He they stayed working and more
Speaker 1: and more researchers finding that people who stay involved keep
Speaker 1: working take on new challenges to remain fresh and in
Speaker 1: a moment. Those are key part of on long term
Speaker 1: healthy patterns. So UM, it's these patterns that come first.
Speaker 1: They lead to both health and happiness. UM. So so
Speaker 1: that we're finding that the determined participants, the people we
Speaker 1: were studying, they didn't really were very happy. UM, they
Speaker 1: didn't live in the end of what we call m
Speaker 1: I call you know, self esteem clinics and indulge in
Speaker 1: parents and UM. It was the people who were out
Speaker 1: there doing things, making the most out of their life.
Speaker 1: So I'm talking more these days. We're finding support for
Speaker 1: an idea which we sometimes call healthy neuroticism. So people
Speaker 1: who were worrying, you always here, don't worry, take it easy. Stress.
Speaker 1: But that turns out to be bad advice. I mean,
Speaker 1: if if you're chronically stressed for years and years and
Speaker 1: you can't sleep, that's bad. But for most people, if
Speaker 1: you take on challenges, that's good. And in fact, the
Speaker 1: participants regretted when they look back in the lives and
Speaker 1: things they didn't do, not the things that they did do.
Speaker 1: So people who get involved UM and and try things,
Speaker 1: that's that's a kind of healthy curiosity, a healthy stress
Speaker 1: that UM we're finding more and more can be important.
Speaker 1: So rather than kind of fretting themselves to death, these
Speaker 1: people were concerned enough to to keep themselves alive. In fact,
Speaker 1: like you said, my co authors a lunge every project,
Speaker 1: Doctor Leslie Martin, she she lives her life very much
Speaker 1: like that. She was just in Uganda tracking the guerrillas
Speaker 1: and she's always off somewhere. She ran across the Para desert.
Speaker 1: So um, but you know, she's very healthy and happy.
Speaker 1: And that that's typically what we found and it kind
Speaker 1: of inspired both of us to do more of that,
Speaker 1: just to stay active, stay involved. And so some of
Speaker 1: those new findings are being confirmed by both ourselves and
Speaker 1: by others as well. Yeah. That that's That's what I'm
Speaker 1: curious to you about, was how how have you changed
Speaker 1: your life since doing this project and understanding the learnings.
Speaker 1: One of the other things is, um, you know, stay
Speaker 1: stay active. So you don't have to be going to
Speaker 1: the gym every day for hours and hours, but just
Speaker 1: getting up and out of your chair is is very
Speaker 1: important and so UM, we do a lot more of that. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I just if there's something to get up
Speaker 1: and do, I just get up and do it. And
Speaker 1: if I have to go down the stairs to get something,
Speaker 1: I don't call down to somebody, you know, I go
Speaker 1: down the stairs. But the other thing that's very important
Speaker 1: that people can do is be um socially involved with
Speaker 1: other healthy people. So you know, you know who your
Speaker 1: friends are, who are basically good influences, who are doing
Speaker 1: healthy things, doing productive things, doing worthwhile things, and then
Speaker 1: you know, I really turned down invitations to associate with
Speaker 1: those people. So that what's the one thing you could
Speaker 1: do to live a happy and thriving and long life.
Speaker 1: It would probably be to look around and so and
Speaker 1: see who you're you're healthy and thriving friends are and
Speaker 1: try to associate more with those. So that's that's a
Speaker 1: kind of conscious change you could make. You know, am
Speaker 1: I too busy? Or should I do this? And how
Speaker 1: much more likely these days to say I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: do that. Oh that's good, that's good, We're good for you. Well,
Speaker 1: it's been so fascinating reading about this project and chatting
Speaker 1: with you about this, So Dr Freeman, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us on Part Time Genius. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. Now we've talked about diet and exercise.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about the fortunes being invested in the
Speaker 1: development of anti aging treatments. Yeah, now that we've managed
Speaker 1: to extend the human lifespan significantly, researchers are focused on
Speaker 1: how to improve that quality of longer life, and there
Speaker 1: are several really interesting possibilities being explored. So I want
Speaker 1: to talk about another New Scientist article we're looking at,
Speaker 1: and this one's by Jessica hams Alu. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good call. So all right, Well, one of the first
Speaker 1: treatments she talks about is that of the the young
Speaker 1: blood plasma theory, and she writes about this she says,
Speaker 1: the idea is that there's something in the blood of
Speaker 1: people under twenty five that keeps them youthful, although we
Speaker 1: don't yet know what it is. Yeah, they kind of
Speaker 1: made fun of the tech billionaire obsession with this on
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley and tech bulonaires having these blood boys on hand.
Speaker 1: But in the studies they've done on older mice who
Speaker 1: were injected with plasma from younger mice, the results were
Speaker 1: strangely promising. Like they even tested the injection of plasma
Speaker 1: from human teens into these older mice and both cases
Speaker 1: the older mice end up more active and show fewer
Speaker 1: signs of aging. Well, and that Silicon Valley show wasn't
Speaker 1: wrong about this. I mean, while we're still lacking rigorous
Speaker 1: clinical trials for what this will do for humans, it
Speaker 1: hasn't stopped businesses from developing around these plasma transfusions. There's
Speaker 1: even a company in California called Ambrosia and that you
Speaker 1: can go there and you can get this young blood
Speaker 1: plasma transfusion. You know, if you if you've just got
Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars to spend on this, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you knew this would work, I could actually see paying
Speaker 1: for that, you know, But I think I made hold
Speaker 1: off just a little bit. But still, according to the
Speaker 1: company's founder, Jesse Carmazin, the people who have been treated
Speaker 1: are already reporting benefits and cognition, muscle strength, and energy level.
Speaker 1: But again, I mean that's an evangelist speaking. So we
Speaker 1: need real clinical trials to be conducted before the verdicts out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see what happens, all right. So
Speaker 1: the next treatment Hanzlou covers is related to our telomeres. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we should pause for a minute remind our
Speaker 1: listeners what telomeres are and buy our listeners. I mean,
Speaker 1: can can you remind me? So? Telomeres are our DNA protectors.
Speaker 1: There are the caps at the end of chromosomes, and
Speaker 1: and there's a strong correlation between the length of telomeres
Speaker 1: and aging. So you know, like every every time a
Speaker 1: cell divides, these caps shrink, and this process takes place
Speaker 1: until there's simply too small to provide meaningful protection. And
Speaker 1: after that the cells either die or they're significantly damaged,
Speaker 1: and the cells around them can become damaged too. In fact,
Speaker 1: even before we start aging, those born with shorter telomeres
Speaker 1: are are way more likely developed age related diseases at
Speaker 1: younger ages. Nicely done, good description there, Mango, all right.
Speaker 1: So we're starting to see more research on them and
Speaker 1: from people like Maria Blastco. She's at the Spanish National
Speaker 1: Cancer Research Center in Madrid, and her team has been
Speaker 1: working on ways to extend telomeres and mice and and
Speaker 1: they're doing this through gene therapy and they've been pretty
Speaker 1: successful at what they're doing with some of these mice.
Speaker 1: They've been able to extend their lives by as much
Speaker 1: as that's crazy, So it's definitely fascinating, though there's still
Speaker 1: a ton of work to be done and it's not
Speaker 1: something that's really ready to be practiced on people yet.
Speaker 1: So again that that that has not stopped a few
Speaker 1: companies from introducing gene therapy treatments to you know, targeting
Speaker 1: these telemeres. Yeah, it definitely hasn't. Some of them are
Speaker 1: self reporting successful growth of telomeres and that patients feel
Speaker 1: like twenty years younger. But again that's self reporting and
Speaker 1: something I'd hold off on trusting. Yeah, me too, Me too.
Speaker 1: Now we we should also talk about the services that
Speaker 1: are being marketed that are less about anti aging treatments
Speaker 1: and really more about better understanding our genome or our
Speaker 1: microbiome through scans and blood tests and all these other evaluations.
Speaker 1: So I guess the idea here is that if we
Speaker 1: know a bit more about the underlying health issues we
Speaker 1: might be developing or what we're at risk of, then
Speaker 1: you know, we can begin working on an early treatment
Speaker 1: or preventative efforts. But there was a quote from one
Speaker 1: of the company's founders that I have to admit I
Speaker 1: found pretty amusing. So Craig Ventor, the founder of a
Speaker 1: company called Human Longevity, Inc. He got the results from
Speaker 1: his company's twenty five tho dollar package. That's right. It
Speaker 1: provided a genome sequencing and all this other information that
Speaker 1: we talked about before and after seeing his results, he said, quote,
Speaker 1: I've lost forty three pounds since finding out things about
Speaker 1: my metabolic condition. Honestly, I'm not sure someone needs to
Speaker 1: spend twenty five thou dollars to know that. If they
Speaker 1: had forty three pounds to lose, they might want to
Speaker 1: go ahead and do that. That said, I know we're
Speaker 1: not mean spirited here. I'm speaking with the almost no
Speaker 1: knowledge of his company, so I'm not saying that it's
Speaker 1: not a valuable service. I just kind of found that
Speaker 1: quote funny. So it's in the end, it sounds like
Speaker 1: many of these treatments may be promising, but most of
Speaker 1: them aren't quite ready for the masses. And even Hamslu
Speaker 1: writes about this, until that time, your best options are
Speaker 1: boring old diet and exercise. It's true, it's true. But
Speaker 1: you know one thing that's not boring, Mango, the part
Speaker 1: time genius bag. That's right. M okay, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go first. Gat he's born in autumn are more likely
Speaker 1: to hit a hundred than those born in another seasons.
Speaker 1: All right, so let's talk about TV watching. TV watching
Speaker 1: definitely appears to take a serious toll on our health.
Speaker 1: There was a two thousand ten study that looked at
Speaker 1: people watching more than four hours of TV per day,
Speaker 1: and it found there were forty six percent more likely
Speaker 1: to die from any cause than those who watch less
Speaker 1: than two hours. Although while I'm reading this, I'm wondering
Speaker 1: about the words any cause. I mean, it seems like
Speaker 1: people watch TV all the time are less likely to
Speaker 1: die from say like rock climbing or something like we're
Speaker 1: elephant trampoline, right, what ever? It maybe, but still don't
Speaker 1: watch so much TV if you want to live longer.
Speaker 1: So one of the other benefits of aging, and this
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting me is fewer migraines. Like one study
Speaker 1: showed the only ten percent of women and five percent
Speaker 1: of men over seventy report having migraines, or rather, if
Speaker 1: they were having the migrants, they weren't they weren't accompanied
Speaker 1: by headaches. Oh that's pretty good. That's all right, all right.
Speaker 1: I was just looking at the list of the world's
Speaker 1: oldest people again here I can't stop looking at this
Speaker 1: list and the supercentenarians, which for obvious reasons, this list
Speaker 1: has to be updated somewhat regularly, but as of this morning,
Speaker 1: five of the ten oldest people in the world are
Speaker 1: in Japan. Actually looking here at the top fifteen, seven
Speaker 1: of the top fifteen or in Japan. I I do
Speaker 1: kind of wonder if they're counting years differently there though.
Speaker 1: Um So, here's one for the ladies, and specifically ladies
Speaker 1: over eighty. So. Studies looking at sexual satisfaction by age
Speaker 1: have shown that while the elderly may not have sex
Speaker 1: as often as younger people, multiple studies have shown that
Speaker 1: satisfaction increases with a In fact, the women over eighty
Speaker 1: and one study report being much more satisfied during sex
Speaker 1: than those were in the late fifty five to seventy
Speaker 1: nine range. You know what, Mango, I don't think I
Speaker 1: can top an octogenarian sex facts. So I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you the PTG fact Off Trophy this week. That's it
Speaker 1: for Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for listening. You
Speaker 1: kids are to stick around. Wasn't that you would have
Speaker 1: a bunch of funk everybody? Thanks again for listening. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
Speaker 1: important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil
Speaker 1: does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
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Speaker 1: for us. Do we do? We forget Jason Jason who