Longevity

#36 Ageing Disgracefully? – Part Three, DIY for Ageing Backwards

The disgraceful fabulosity of ageing backwards; eat for longevity – all hail to cake!; Dave Asprey’s plan to maybe live forever; Dr Kara Fitzgerald; take this ageing backwards quiz!; epigenetic tests to measure ageing; eating for longevity; would you eat a politician?; time-restricted eating; destressing for longevity; grounding, walking in nature

Feature photo, above: My crazily energetic Les Mills Pump class friends at Craigie Leisure Centre

You know the slightly lame jokes some of us start making about birthdays after a certain age: “I’m not having birthdays anymore” (a bad idea), or “I’ve started counting backwards”.

While it would be a dreadful shame to renounce the champagne, cake, prezzies and general hurrah-ness that go with celebrating the anniversary of ones birth, actually ageing backwards would be a fabulously disgraceful approach to getting older.

Eat for longevity
Eat for longevity – let them eat cake!

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#35 Ageing Disgracefully? – Part Two, Massage Benefits and Oxytocin Boosters

Gimme some skin – huggers and huggees; hugs, kisses and oxytocin; more massage benefits; boosting oxytocin; tend and befriend; happy babies; DIY rejuvenation; lavender lies and self-care multi-tasking; paying for it

I’m a touchy-feely sort of person who starts to wither without physical contact. We’re not all like this, I know. My dad was physically affectionate; my mother not so much. He was the hugger, she the huggee. That’s what it’s like with me and Roy, too. I’m the hugger, he’s the huggee.

boosting oxytocin
Hugger on the left, huggee on the right

Gimme Some Skin

Since hearing somewhere that human beings require at least 15 hugs a day, I’ve started to demand that many from Roy. (Why it’s 15 is anyone’s guess… and probably was.) He’s sensibly acquiescing, no doubt seeing the wisdom of me filling my quota at home, rather than at the beach, the gym, the mall or the train station.

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#34 Ageing Disgracefully? Part One

Ageing disgracefully; how old are you really, and does age matter?; vanity vs honesty; 3 ways to measure age; biological age markers; perceived age; psychological age; skin deep; Pitu will make you pretty!; reversing ageing: exercise, meditation and more; Human Growth Hormone promise; massage, the tender trap?

“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”

The Beatles

How old are you, really? And does it matter? That’s three questions already, with more to follow.

As this new year dawned – where did the last one go? – and a landmark birthday* (musically speaking) approached,  I found myself thinking again about age. How significant is the number, if at all? We all know people who are old at 35, and others who still present as physically, mentally and emotionally young into what’s generally regarded as middle to old age.

Reversing ageing
At my birthday lunch last month, taken in fairly good lighting

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#27 Uric Acid Part 2: Drop Acid!

Uric acid (UA) is the new bad boy on the block… so move over, salt, sugar and cholesterol! High UA threatens the heart, the liver, the kidneys and the brain – not to mention my most favourite organ of all. So, what drives high uric acid, and what can we do to Drop Acid? 

As mentioned in my blogpost #26 Uric Acid Part 1: Gouty Tales (see here), my recent uric acid (UA) blood test came back an optimal 4.7 mg/dL. That bodes well for me living long and strong, but what about my darling husband?

Fortunately, I found out that  coffee lowers UA, and I told him so. It was the best news he’d had all year. Imagine, though, how miserably gouty he’d be if he wasn’t such a coffee-head.

Uric Acid is lowered by coffee
All sweetness and light, as long as he can have his coffee

My new UA Sure II uric acid monitor was delivered a couple of weeks ago, but at the time I started writing this blog I had not yet used it to test Roy. I was wondering how I would manage to pin him down and extract the necessary drop of blood from his craven finger.

Then came an unexpected stroke of luck! – he woke up a few mornings ago with a twinge of gout in one ankle, and immediately demanded that I test his uric acid levels. Right now! I hastened to comply: you don’t argue with a gouty husband.

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# 26 Uric Acid Part 1: Gouty Tales

Optimal uric acid levels are important, as I’ve recently discovered. Roy says, somewhat sourly*, that I love buying gadgets and machines – and I do! But the gadgets I invest in are relatively small and inexpensive, especially considering their health benefits. 

My latest acquisition is a UA Sure uric acid monitor.

All this – monitor, finger-pricking device, lancets, test strips, log book and more – for well under A$160. A modest investment in our health, right?

And here is Roy’s latest project: the house we’re building in Iluka, WA:

I rest my case.

*The sourness could be explained by the fact that I have been going on a bit about the possible dangers of too much fructose (some fruits, honey, but especially the high fructose corn syrup in ultra-processed junk food); alcohol; and purines (found in all sorts of otherwise healthy foods). So it could just be that poor Roy is afraid of being denied everything that has, so far, made life worth living.

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#24 Hey, Honey – local is lekker!

As you can’t have helped noticing, says VERNE MAREE, Big, Bad Sugar is the new villain on the block, having taken the place of fat. Now fat is good, as long as it is good fat. That generally holds true wherever you’ve planted your flag in the diet wars. (Except for low-fat vegans, who are unlikely to make old bones… or be reading this blog.)

But there may be a special place reserved for honey. There’s most definitely a place for it in my Low Carb, No Crap™ diet and lifestyle plan.

Postcode honey – as local as it gets! Photo credit: Carrie Titchmarsh

That’s because I don’t believe carbs are the enemy, either… unless they’re carbage, like anything white and refined. Eating the Low Carb, No Crap™ way doesn’t mean villifying carbs. (It’s more about choosing your carbs selectively, and according to your unique needs and tolerance levels.)

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#23 Top Dental Health Hacks

When it comes to top dental health hacks, a great smile is the least of it, says VERNE MAREE. Poor dental and oral health might be undermining your vitality and shortening your life in ways you may never have imagined. Read on for more – and all you never wanted to know about Vitamin K2!

Good health is about nutrition, exercise, good sleep and proper oral hygiene. Dr Judson Wall

Before introducing Dr Judson Wall properly, I’ll cut to the chase with his four simple steps to oral hygiene.

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#21 How is Your Light Diet? Part One: Vit D, Sunshine and More

Our light diet may be as important as sleep, nutrition and exercise, VERNE MAREE discovers.

I rejoice when I see Roy outside with his shirt off. Not only because he – like most of us – looks heaps better with a tan, but because I know it’s boosting his immune system and helping him to live long and strong.

In fact, he’s just had a load of blood tests – and his Vitamin D is way up where it belongs.

Light Diet
Roy on Yallingup Beach, WA, a couple of weeks ago.

(The above pic of Roy on Yallingup Beach was taken a couple of weeks ago; click here for that travel blog post, and if you like it, please sign up to Travels with Verne and Roy!)

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#17 Snoring

Snoring – are you a perpetrator or a victim? VERNE MAREE confesses to having been both, and offers some solutions.

Snoring is no joke… it’s a serious hazard to your health, and possibly to your relationship, too.

Snoring couple
Photo credit: Kampus by Pexels

True Snoring Story, UK Summer 2005

Snorers often don’t like to admit they snore, and Roy was one of them. But his cover was irrevocably blown one summer, when he rented a lovely converted barn in Warwickshire – close to his mother’s home – to accommodate the whole family.

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