Super Age with Me

Happy Mother’s Day week! I love Mother’s Day because it gives me a moment to reflect on the empowerment, confidence and joy that motherhood has brought into my life. Today I’m sharing a free link to an article I wrote about the empowerment of motherhood. I don’t think we talk about it enough! If you know a new mom, please share it with her: The upside of motherhood you don’t hear about.

This week I’m writing about:

• What it takes to be a Super Ager

• The man who used his body for venomous snake research

• Do you have “GPS brain?”

• More joy scrolling!

What it takes to be a Super Ager!

This week I’m excited about a new book: Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity by one of my favorite health experts, cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol. Spoiler alert: This book is “brimming with optimism” about healthy aging, Dr. Topol told me. Count me in!

It’s been a big week for Dr. Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. First his new book was released, and then he was named to the list of the TIME100 most influential people in health. A lot of you may have heard from Dr. Topol online during the pandemic, when his often-viral social media posts brought a voice of reason to a scary time. His schtick is evidence-based advice! What a concept!

Let’s be real. There’s a lot of extreme stuff happening in the world of longevity these days, a space inhabited by billionaires and optimizers focusing not just on living longer, but reversing aging. This includes intensive data tracking, daily biomarker testing, hyper-restrictive diets, aggressive supplement protocols and off-label pharmaceutical use — such as metformin or rapamycin — to slow aging at the cellular level. Others experiment with controversial therapies like stem cell treatments, cryotherapy and even plasma transfusions from younger donors. Some adopt “blueprint” living — scripting every hour of the day for optimal brain, body and emotional performance.

But here’s some exciting news: Most of the actual evidence around healthy aging supports lifestyle changes that are already available to all of us. (You don’t have to be a billionaire to live a healthy life!) I met with Dr. Topol this week to talk about his new book, his own exercise regimen and his mission to get all of us excited about the science of longevity.

TPP: You’ve coined a terrific word — “wellderly.” Tell me about it.

DR. TOPOL: I wanted to call my book “Wellderly.” As we age, there are the ill-derly and the wellderly. Most people are in the ill-derly group with at least one chronic disease, if not more than one. Back in 2006, we started a huge project at Scripps of about 1,400 people, with an average age of 87, who had never been sick. I called them “wellderly.” As far as I know, it's the only healthy aging cohort with whole-genome sequencing. And guess what? We found very little in the genome. And that was in contrast to studies on longevity that look at 100-year-old super-agers and find strong genetic markers. We found almost nothing. So that told me that this healthy aging story is largely not genetic.

TPP: That sounds like great news!

DR. TOPOL: That was good news for me because I have the worst genes. My mother died of cancer at 52 and my father died at 60. I don’t have any relatives who hit 70. I’m 70. So many of us think we inherit our fates based on our parents’ lives. This work suggests otherwise.

TPP: You have a chapter called “Lifestyle+” in the book. What does the plus mean?

DR. TOPOL: I’ve broadened the definition of lifestyle. We know that 80 to 90 percent of cardiovascular disease -- and about 40 to 50 percent of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases -- can be prevented through lifestyle and modifiable risk factors.We have a good basis for prevention, but we don’t have people adopting lifestyle changes. The biggest chapter in my book is on lifestyle factors. I go through everything: macronutrients, the right amount of protein, fats, salt, caffeine, alcohol and sugar. I talk about ultra-processed foods. Everything you eat or drink is in the book.

I go through sleep, which is a really big deal. Now we know sleep is so powerful, and getting deep sleep is so big. It has a huge impact because you get rid of all the toxic waste from your brain each night with deep sleep.

The biggest thing we can change is exercise. For people who are sedentary, it doesn’t take much exercise to reduce risk. But Lifestyle+ also gets into things people don’t think about — social isolation, spending time in nature and environmental toxins.

TPP: What do you think about supplements for aging?

DR. TOPOL: My patients come in with a long list of supplements — sometimes 20 or 30. There are all these nut cases marketing them, and most are totally unnecessary — and some are harmful. I tell them they have expensive urine. If they have a healthy diet, they don’t need to take anything. There is so much pseudo science and people hawking supplements without data. Anybody doing research in healthspan or longevity — if they’re selling things, that to me means they lose their credibility as an author or researcher. Most of them are selling things. I’m not into concierge medicine. I want to find an approach that is useful for everyone.

TPP: How do you take care of yourself? Has it changed?

DR. TOPOL: I thought I had a good lifestyle, but I never paid enough attention to sleep. Now I track sleep with an Oura Ring and smart watch. I have tripled my deep sleep.

As a cardiologist, I have always done aerobic exercise — and I still do — but I never used to do balance and posture and resistance and strength training. Now I do all of those. I workout at home using bands, a weighted ball and hand weights. I do lunges and planks, and I stand on a foam pad for balance and posture.

I also changed my diet. I didn’t realize how ultra-processed foods had infiltrated my life. My advice: If you’re having to read a label, it’s not a good sign. It means it’s packaged and has junk in it.

TPP: What do you want readers to take away from your book?

DR. TOPOL: It’s brimming with optimism! How exciting it is that with this revolution in aging science, we now have a path to find out what you’re at risk for. We have insights into the gut microbiome and soon into your immune system. We have a path, We have a blueprint for preventing the big three killers -- cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases -- that also take away our healthspan. Let’s get on this folks!”

Check out Super Agers, and subscribe to Dr. Topol’s very popular substack: Ground Truths

The man who outsmarted the snakes

This week, I’m obsessed with the story of a Wisconsin man named Tim Friede, a former construction and factory worker, whose strange hobby involves handling deadly venomous snakes. Friede has voluntarily endured over 200 venomous snake bites and numerous venom injections over 18 years. As a result, his blood now contains antibodies that, in mouse studies, have fully or partially neutralized venom from 19 of the world’s deadliest snakes. We’re talking black mambas, kings cobras and taipans. These snakes kill and maim tens of thousands of people each year, but Friede has essentially trained his immune system against snake venom, and now boasts broad immunity — even against snakes he has never come into contact with. This is a very big deal because it puts researchers on a path to a universal antivenom, a massive breakthrough for a neglected global health crisis that kills nearly 140,000 people annually, according to the World Health Organization. It’s a fascinating story generating lots of commentary. Some commenters are grateful, granting Friede hero status — others think he’s nuts. Whatever your conclusion, his reckless hobby is definitely going to save some lives, starting with Australian dogs suffering snakebites, who are the next test subjects for the antivenom developed from Friede’s antibodies. Read more.

Is your GPS depriving your brain?

There's been plenty of research suggesting that using a GPS deprives your brain of the mental workout it gets from real-time navigation. Now, an intriguing new study suggests that navigation might provide even more support for brain health. The study — which analyzed death data from nearly nine million people — found that taxi and ambulance drivers, whose jobs require constant spatial problem-solving, had significantly lower rates of death from Alzheimer’s disease compared to people in other professions. This could be due to structural changes in the hippocampus, the brain region associated with spatial memory. While the study has limitations, it raises intriguing questions about how mentally engaging, navigation-heavy tasks might help maintain brain health. It remains to be seen if games, puzzles or activities like orienteering could have similar protective effects, but maintaining brain stimulation may be another tool for reducing brain risk alongside good sleep, exercise and nutrition. The takeaway? Keep your GPS, but try turning it off sometimes to give your brain a workout. Read more.

Joy scroll with me!

Here’s my weekly roundup of good news and fun links to counteract the gloom.

Happy Mother’s Day! There are so many gift guides for moms — when all we really want is a phone call and maybe some homemade pancakes. That said, the gift guides are fun to read — so consider sitting with your mom and doing a little online window shopping with her. Here are links to guides from T Magazine, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. My favorite was Wirecutter’s 36-item gift list. I don’t need any of it! But it’s an enjoyable list that includes expensive cozy sweats, a cute bird hat, a practical pouring bowl, better bird feeder and more.

White smoke watch. If you’re into life imitating art, read more about what the movie “Conclave” gets right and wrong about papal politics. I’m going to put “Conclave” on my watch list. Read more.

Happy news about the adorable, weird axolotl. In Mexico, 18 axolotls born in captivity were released and tracked in the wild. The good news is that they all survived, learned to hunt and even made friends with other recently-released axolotl pals. These tiny salamanders are famous for their perpetual grin and ability to grow back lost body parts. Read more here from the BBC.

The 25 essential gardens you must see. Full disclosure, I browsed this one for the pictures. You’ll be transported to lovely gardens around the world including England, Italy, Belgium, Japan and more. Enjoy the garden tour.

6 remote places for a volunteer vacation. A fascinating look at ways you can give back while taking an active (and potentially grueling) vacation. My body wouldn’t hold up under the strain, but maybe you’re in better shape than me. Read more.

A side salad that’s good for your brain. This is basically a spinach salad with pecorino, but props to the writer for getting me to click. Get the recipe.

Penguin cam. Watch African penguin chicks discover water at the Mystic Aquarium. More from ABC News.

Full-size race cars made of Legos. I think that’s all the information you need about this one. Read more.

How to get rid of dark circles under your eyes. My favorite doctor columnist Trisha Pasricha has the scoop — teabags, cold spoons and topical retinoids. Read more.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week. Let’s keep the conversation going! Send me your comments and ideas. Drop a note in our subscriber chat or message me directly on Substack!

Every week, the One Day Better newsletter celebrates the power of small steps. If you enjoyed reading, please share it with a friend. This newsletter is free and reader-supported. If you’d like to support my work, you can make a contribution here.

Tara Parker-Pope is an Emmy Award–winning journalist who shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more at taraparkerpope.com