Longevity research for healthier and longer lifespans

I started my PhD after doing an interdisciplinary 3-year BSc in Molecular Genetics at King's College London. For the past 8 years, I have been following the scientific literature on aging and rejuvenation research and the biotech landscape, including lifestyles and interventions that may extend our healthy lifespans.

To contribute as much as possible to human longevity, I plan to develop technology-based therapeutics in a rejuvenation company as soon as I get sufficient funding from grants and philanthropic support, to develop rejuvenation therapeutics.

I am particularly interested in the development of strategies that can clear away large amounts of age-related damage, because single drugs, supplements, or lifestyle changes will only deal with a subset of the thousands of age-related molecular changes. Therefore a glass ceiling of a few years of lifespan extension will be reached unless companis and labs create more bold and extensive rejuvenation technologies and therapeutics.

Some promising therapeutics and interventions include epigenome editing, organ replacement, partial epigenetic reprogramming using Yamanaka factors or other compounds, understanding and mimicking the natural rejuvenation event that happens in embryos to ensure offspring are young and healthy, and removing age-related molecules that accumulate in cells.

My LinkedIn profile has more information about my company plan and PhD research.

There is a big need for more people to contribute to the field of aging and rejuvenation, and I am more than happy to guide you. You do not need a science background to contribute.

Here are som great publications to start learning about aging and rejuvenation research: An invaluable perspective on aging (2016) and a broad overview of aging research (2023). Rejuvenation: A 2022 review and a 2024 review. Going to aging conferences is a great way to find opportunities, like-minded friends, and identify the problem in the longevity field you want to help solve. Here is a [list of conferences]: (https://agingbiotech.info/conferences/)

agingbiotech.info/ has the most extensive overview of companies working on aging. The following webpages also have lists and info about longevity companies: Longevitylist.com and [spannr.com].(https://spannr.com/companies)

Visit this list to see good counterarguments against typical skepticism towards extending our lifespan and healthspan.

https://aging.fyi/ has information on how you can contribute to and learn about the longevity field.

I work with the rejuvenation company Altos Labs and Prof Sir Shankar Balasubramanian (co-inventor of the ground-breaking used Solexa-Illumina Next Generation DNA Sequencing Technology) at the University of Cambridge. The epigenome is the collection of DNA-associated molecules and processes that control the activity of genes and thereby cell function and identity. I am developing an epigenetic profiling method to enable scientists to obtain deeper insights into how to counteract the drastic epigenetic changes that contribute to diseases, aging, and other biological processes. Inventing a technology teaches me many skills that are useful when developing the rejuvenation technology in the planned company. I also work to uncover novel mechanisms that drive ageing and ways to improve cellular rejuvenation strategies that may enable us to reverse aging and extend our healthy lifespan.

Previously, I worked in the Sinclair Lab (Harvard Medical School), Evandro Fang Lab (University of Oslo), and the Oakey Lab (King's College London).

Aging is arguably the main cause of human suffering. Here is a useful definition of the aging process: The progressive decline in function at the molecular, cellular, and organ level, leading to an increased risk of diseases and death. Aging is the main risk factor for a range of common, debilitating, and deadly diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, reversing the aging process (rejuvenation) can help us to broadly prevent and reverse age-related diseases and decline in health. This would increase our healthspan (the period of life during which we have good health and do not suffer from age-related diseases and disabilities). Indeed, developing therapeutics that may slow or reverse aging is clearly the most promising approach to extend healthy lifespan and reduce the risk of most chronic diseases.

My main motivation is to extend the period during which people can do what they love without suffering from diseases and disabilities of aging. Additionally, aging research has great potential to mitigate the substantial healthcare costs and other major challenges associated with the increasing proportion of older individuals in our societies, and the increasing proportion of our lives spent in poor health. Slowing ageing by just one year is worth $38 trillion, which could be spent on other global problems. Personally, I would spend my extra healthy years travelling, getting lots of new experiences, connect with and exhange knowledge with many new people, and contributing to solving other global challenges.

Sleep: 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep per day (>2 hours of REM and deep sleep), with a regular wind-down and bedtime, and minimal awakenings. We cannot reliably feel how high the quality of our sleep is, so you should measure it with well-studied sleep monitors such as Oura or Whoop (I use both and cross-validate).

Exercise: You get much bigger health benefits by exercising more vigorously and for longer than what health authorities recommend. Do both strength and endurance training: Weightlifting reduces all-cause mortality by 9%, following the MVPA guidelines (150 min moderate-intensity or 75 min vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week) reduces the risk by 34%, but the combination (including 1-2 gym sessions per week) reduces the risk by 41%. Intensive (you cannot have a normal conversation without stopping to catch your breath) and continuous exercise (no or very short breaks) reduce your all-cause mortality risk the most. Aim for many hours of movement per day, but the intensity of walking is more beneficial for all-cause mortality than the duration.. Move when you can, do not just aim for 10000 steps a day.

Healthy diet: with plenty of plant-based food (including a large variety of the most healthy vegetables from different vegetable classes) and minimal processed and sugar-rich food and drinks.

Maintain close connections with family and friends. Aim to interact with them weekly.

Minimise stress: Yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, mindfulness, walking, music etc. can help.

Sauna: 1-7 sauna bathing sessions reduces all-cause mortality by 30.8%-49.1%, and having sessions that last more than 19 minutes further reduces the risk of sudden cardiac death.

Read publications (for example on PubMed or Google Scholar) or trusted webpages (not where supplements are sold) describing doses, effects, and side effects observed, preferably in human clinical trials.

Look for supplements that have been tested for purity, heavy metals, or other harmful compounds. Cosumerlab.com and Labdoor.com can be a good start. Not all products contain as much of the compounds as they advertise.

Take regular blood tests (preferably at least every 3-6 months) to make sure your levels are not too low or too high.

Try to take supplements alongside food, especially fat-rich alternatives (olive oil, avocado, or yoghurt for example). It helps with absorption of some supplements.

Incorporate one supplement at a time and assess if they give you side effects.

Speak with your medical doctor to make sure that you can take the supplements at certain doses, given your health status and medications.

Do not take supplements instead of living a healthy lifestyle. Although many supplements reduce mortality and disease risk and extend lifespan and healthspan in model organisms, their effects on healthspan and lifespan in humans are yet to be determined with large studies.

No supplement list works for everyone, although some supplements are recommended for everyone. Read about risks and side effects (be aware that supplements can be harmful and interact, similar to medications). Decide doses based on studies and your blood levels. Keep taking blood tests to check if you are taking too much or too little of specific supplements.

Improving or optimising health and performance should be fun. Try to gamify and enjoy the learning and adaptation processes, without stressing or worrying.

You can find information about relevant research articles and studies that tested supplements in ARDD conference talks on Youtube.

Aim for 1-1.5 hours of vigorous exercise per day (minimum 40 minutes). Intensity level: you cannot maintain a normal conversation without having to catch your breath.

Try to alternate between strength training and running: I do strength training 3-4 times per week in the gym (with very short breaks) and run ~4 days/week followed by push-ups (outside, cross-country when I can, and often to and from work and the gym). Interval run once per week (intervals can also be done while biking, crossfit, and rowing etc.).

I usually do Norwegian intervals (one of the most efficient ways to increase VO2 max): 10 min warm-up, '4 x 4 min of interval running (4 min of running at 90-95% HR max followed by 3 min of active resting at 70% HR max', and 5 min cool down.

I walk (10-20 minutes when waking up and before going to sleep to maintain the circadian rhytm), bike for 15 minutes to/from work (if I do not run), and swim, row, dance, and do team sports when I have time.

Stand up and move every hour and use a standing desk every other hour.

I drink water, and eat an apple, citrus fruit, dried mango, or apricot when I run for more than 1 hour.

Aerobic exercise reduces your muscle mass (e.g. 30 min jogging 5x per week at 60%–75% of V̇O2 peak), but you could weigh yourself every morning if you want to find a suitable aerobic exercise amount per week.

>150g beans and/or chickpeas. Make sure that the bean cans are BPA-free. The beans are pre-cooked, so I just rinse them with water in a sieve. There are many bean types you can try for variation, for example white or black beans. I sometimes eat lentils (for example black) instead of beains. (Boil water, add lentils, and cook without a lid for around 20 min at low heat, before rinsing them under cold water).

60-130g frozen/fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, with no added sugar)

>30g nuts/day is recommended. I aim for 14-28g of walnuts (the most important nut. You can get away with eating only walnuts), almonds, cashew, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds (linseeds), macadamia nuts. Prioritise walnuts and flax seeds.

>100g broccoli and cauliflower

>30g spinach and/or green kale

1 bell pepper, 1 avocado, 1 lemon or lime, 1-2 carrots

30 mL extra virgin olive oil (26g)

>100g sweet potato (healthier than plain potato, but choose purple or blue over white potatoes). I roast them in the oven (45 min, 200℃)

I eat boiled, whole oats to top up the carbohydrate intake to around 200-250 grams per day, depending on how much I exercise and how my weight changes.

Spices I usually eat every day include cinnamon, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and herbs.

5-15 grams of chocolate (dark and minimal sugar) and 6 grams of cocoa powder. I recommend buying chocolate and cocoa powder from Mast, Taza, Ghirardelli, or Valrhona, which have safer levels of heavy metals. Many cocoa powders and chocolates contain high heavy metal levels.

It is not enough to just cut down on meat. Eat a wide range of vegetables and classes of vegetables, because they affect different organs and differentially reduce the risk of different diseases.. If the health benefits are not motivating enough, maybe it can be helpful to remember that increasing vegetable intake improves skin appearance and is associated with less wrinkles.

I prioritise cruciferous and allium vegetables. Examples of very healthy cruciferous vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage etc. Allium vegetables: Onion (especially green onion), garlic, leek. I usually buy these vegetables frozen to save time and maintain the nutrient content.

You can find inspiration to choose healthier food and delicious recipes by reading How Not to Die or searching for the following diets: Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB), DASH diet, and MIND diet.

Other vegetables I prioritise: Green beans, peas, tomatoes (whole), beets, raddichio, cucumber, (and curly cabbage), lime, asparagus, hummus, mushrooms (for example 50g of shiitake or maitake per day. Make sure to boil >20 min). Potato, carrot, and tomatos, but these are far from the healthiest vegetables.

I minimise seafood due to the high levels of heavy metals, but I eat shrimps, mackerel, cod, or salmon <1/month.

Fruits: I prioritise vegetables and berries and do not eat fruit regularly. Choose the ones with a lower glycaemic index (or preferably test effects with a continuous glucose monitor). When I sometimes eat fruits, I prioritise apple, kiwi, citrus fruits (mainly tangerines and oranges), mango, and grapefruit, due to the beneficial effects reported in studies and the relatively lower sugar contents.

I eat coconut yoghurt once per week to benefit from the healthy bacteria (no sugar, soy, or dairy).

Outside of celebrations and social events, I aim to minimise dairy products or red meat, and to not eat more than 120-200 grams of white meat (usually chicken).

For extra protein due to lots of vigorous exercise: 1-3 eggs per day, <120g chicken per day.

Sometimes I eat peanut butter (1-2 tablespoons/per day) or a teaspoon of tahini.

Pan fry with coconut oil or olive oil, and if you boil or steam the food, try to eat/drink the boiling water to get all the nutrients.

Firstly, a range of studies in humans and model organisms suggest that ingesting too much protein increases disease and mortality risks, and shortens lifespan, so you should take care to not eat too much protein, especially from animal sources and whey protein powder.

Here are some resources that can motivate and guide how much protein you should consume: 1, 2, and 3.

Keeping in mind the health risks associated with eating a lot of animal-based protein and getting a big percentage of the calorie intake from protein, there are lots of good advice on building muscle strength and mass while promoting longevity in the following videos and the references mentioned in them: The Science of Protein and Its Role in Longevity, Cancer, Aging, and Building Muscle & Dr. Luc van Loon: Optimizing Protein Intake & Distribution for Muscle Growth.

Some takeaways: You can gain muscle when ingesting 0.8 grams protein per kilogram of fat-free mass, and the gain might increase at 1.2. 1.4 or 1.6g/kg may help increase muscle mass and strength for more people, but more protein than that is not necessary (most people ingest protein amounts in this range anyway).

There is a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more protein you eat, the more protein you will need, so the body will adapt to your protein intake. 20g of high-quality protein in a meal maximises muscle protein synthesis for 4-6 hours in young people, so 20-25g in three meals per day was recommended (extra meals can be added by athletes) to optimise muscle conditioning (for example increased protein in muscle filaments if doing strength training or to mitochondria if doing endurance training), not only muscle building.

In older people, the response to protein ingestion gets worse, but exercise prior to protein ingestion can almost reset it. A human trial found that muscle protein synthesis was not lowered in people who restrict eating to an eight-hour window (like I do). Moderate protein intake in a meal can stimulate 24 hours of muscle protein synthesis.

8 hours or less (intermittent fasting), except when there are celebrations or social events). Most intermittent fasting studies look at 8-hour windows, but 12 hours often has some benefical effects on health, wellbeing and productivity too. Intermittent fasting even improves Quality of Life (QoL) and fatigue.

Aim for more frequent, smaller meals rather than big ones. I currently try to eat between 7 am-3 pm when I do not have social events. This seems to be better for my sleep quality compared to my previous window of 12-8 pm.

Note: Children, very old people, and people who have certain chronic diseases or are pregnant should not do intermittent fasting.

Consider buying a continuous glucose monitor to test which eating times and order of food eaten within a meal are better to reduce blood sugar spikes (eating protein and fats before carbohydrates for example).

Oura ring, Whoop watch, Garmin watch, Whoop Blue Light Glasses (I try to wear them for around 1 hour hours before switching off the light to sleep).

I measure my weight and body composition every morning with a Withings Body Cardio scale, and a few mornings per week I measure my blood pressure with Withings BPM Connect (I can then see the trends in my health apps).

Sometimes I use continuous glucose monitors (e.g. Dexcom or Freestyle Libre). It is a good idea to check if your diet leads to glucose spikes for you (it varies much between people and depends on many factors, including exercise, sleep, diet, genetics). Main takeaway: Eat fat and protein-rich food before (preferred) or together with carbs.

Some findings from my self-experimentation: 100 grams of whole, boiled oats spiked my blood sugar too much, but it was fine if I added 26g olive oil and 10g of chocolate, or ate only 50g oats alone. The following also spiked my blood sugar: more than 2 sweet or white potatoes (for example, 683g white or 265 sweet potatos led to big spikes), 1 big jacket potato alone, 150g couscous alone, drinking oat milk alone, 250g pasta. The following did not lead to too high blood sugar spikes: 100g whole, 150g quiona, 100g spelt pasta & 120g chicken. 150g of berries and 224 grams of the 4 nut and 4 seed types mentioned in the food list above.

Ultra-processed food, sugar-rich food and drinks, red meat, fried food, carb-rich food (rice, noodles, pasta, white potatoes, bread, non-whole oats etc.), raw meat, internal organs, salt, canned food (there is BPA in many metal containers), tuna (relatively high accumulation of heavy metals), alcohol, and dairy products.

If you need a good reason to eat less processed red meat: People who ate only ≥22.5 - 25g processed red meat (measured raw) per day had a worse cognition and a 13% higher risk of dementia than people eating 9-10g per day..

Aim to replace butter with plant-based oils (olive, canola, and soybean).

Remember to not be fanatic about what you cannot eat. It is healthy to sometimes ignore what is healthy, especially when socialising or celebrating.

A motivation to improve and monitor your sleep is that bad sleep quality and insufficient hours of sleep appear to accelerate aging, and is one of the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.

Aim for 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep. It is very hard to know whether your quality is good unless you use good sleep monitors such as Oura and Whoop. They can be very good at motivating changes in sleep habits.

Try to go to sleep at the same time +/- 10 minutes every night. Calm down 1 hour before bedtime: meditate/yoga/breathing exercises, read a book or listen to an audiobook, no phone/laptop, listen to calm music, use verified blue-blocking glasses, go for a walk outside, maybe take a warm shower, write down a plan for the next day, prepare what you can for the next day, and try to ignore thoughts about work and tomorrow.

Switch off lights except red light bulbs. Keep the temperature in the bedroom around 18.3 °C and you could try a weighted blanket. Mark Huberman made a great sleep toolkit and Matthew Walker had an inspiring talk about improving sleep.

Try to avoid waking up during the night because it can disrupts sleep quality a lot.

After waking up: Drink water, walk outside (5-10 minutes if sunny and 15-20 min if overcast), use a 10,000 lux lamp, meditate, exercise. This helps to align your the circadian rythm.

Sauna, desk treadmill, continuous glucose monitor, heart monitor, Eight Sleep Pod, genetic testing, cold showers/baths (rigorous studies yet to come), more extensive tests for body composition (DEXA or MRI) hormones, organ age, cancer (whole-body screens) etc. Measure biological age and the rate of aging using clocks (when they are improved).