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Lifespan_ Why We Age–and Why We Don't Hav - David A. Sinclair
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All of this means we’re on the way to a fundamental shift in the way we search for, diagnose, and treat disease. Our flawed, symptom-first approach to medicine is about to change. We’re going to get ahead of symptoms. Way ahead. We’re even going to get ahead of “feeling bad.” Many diseases, after all, are genetically detectable long before they are symptomatic. In the very near future, proactive personal DNA scanning is going to be as routine as brushing our teeth. Doctors will find themselves saying the words “I just wish we’d caught this earlier” less and less—and eventually not at all.
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WHAT I DO
Save for “Eat fewer calories,” “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” and “Exercise,” I don’t give medical advice. I’m a researcher, not a medical doctor; it’s not my place to tell anyone what to do, and I don’t endorse supplements or other products.
I don’t mind sharing what I do, though, albeit with some caveats:
• This isn’t necessarily, or even likely, what you should do.
• I have no idea if this is even the right thing for me to be doing.
• While human trials are under way, there are no treatments or therapies for aging that have been through the sort of rigorous long-term clinical testing that would be needed to have a more complete understanding of the wide range of potential outcomes.
People often wonder, when I tell them things like this, why on earth I would subject myself to the potential for unexpected and adverse side effects or even the possibility—low though it seems to be—that I could expedite my own demise.
The answer is simple: I know exactly what is going to happen to me if I don’t do anything at all—and it’s not pretty. So what do I have to lose?
And so, with all that on the table, what do I do?
• I take 1 gram (1,000 mg) of NMN every morning, along with 1 gram of resveratrol (shaken into my homemade yogurt) and 1 gram of metformin.7
• I take a daily dose of vitamin D, vitamin K2, and 83 mg of aspirin.
• I strive to keep my sugar, bread, and pasta intake as low as possible. I gave up desserts at age 40, though I do steal tastes.
• I try to skip one meal a day or at least make it really small. My busy schedule almost always means that I miss lunch most days of the week.
• Every few months, a phlebotomist comes to my home to draw my blood, which I have analyzed for dozens of biomarkers. When my levels of various markers are not optimal, I moderate them with food or exercise.
• I try to take a lot of steps each day and walk upstairs, and I go to the gym most weekends with my son, Ben; we lift weights, jog a bit, and hang out in the sauna before dunking in an ice-cold pool.
• I eat a lot of plants and try to avoid eating other mammals, even though they do taste good. If I work out, I will eat meat.
• I don’t smoke. I try to avoid microwaved plastic, excessive UV exposure, X-rays, and CT scans.
• I try to stay on the cool side during the day and when I sleep at night.
• I aim to keep my body weight or BMI in the optimal range for healthspan, which for me is 23 to 25.