With over 2 million people over 85 years old, Italy together with France holds the record for the number of over one hundred year olds; they are the longest-lived countries in Europe. Italy also holds the record for the number of over one hundred year olds: as of January 1, 2019, the centenarians residing in Italy are 14,456, 84% of whom are women. This is what emerges from the report “A hundred years and not hearing them” published by Istat.
In ten years, between 2009 and 2019, the centenarians went from 11 thousand to over 14 thousand, those aged 105 and over more than doubled, from 472 to 1,112, with an increase of 136%. There were 21 super-centenarians alive as of 1 January 2019, doubled compared to 2009 when there were 10. From the genetic code of Italian centenarians, a new possible therapy against cardiovascular diseases has emerged. The so-called ‘longevity gene’, very common in people over 100 years old, has in fact been inserted in animal models, blocking atherosclerosis. The study, conducted by the Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli (Isernia), by the Irccs MultiMedica of Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) and by the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry of the University of Salerno, with the support of the Cariplo Foundation and the ministry della Salute, was published in the ‘European Heart Journal’ and focuses on the gene that encodes the Bpifb4 protein.
Leaving aside for a moment the promising but sophisticated gene therapies, looking for an easier and open answer to all, it has been shown that by intervening on epigenetics, or behavior, it is possible to obtain protective effects similar to those that favorable or induced genetics from possible future treatments, can offer us. The Mediterranean diet, argues Coldiretti, is undoubtedly a winning recipe that could have contributed to the all-Italian record of over 100 years old. To bread, pasta, fruit, vegetables, meat, extra virgin olive oil and the traditional glass of wine consumed at the table in regular meals, the association of Italian farmers reminds us, we owe in large part the elixir of life that helps us to lengthen our survival expectations.
The Covid19 pandemic has hit hard the most vulnerable population groups from a health point of view. Among the considerations that this picture leads to an analysis of the importance of cellular aging and the decline of the immune system play a fundamental role in the greater sensitivity to attacks of external pathogenic agents of the elderly. “Guaranteeing people’s health must mean, today more than ever, not so much treating diseases, but fighting them and avoiding them in the course of life” according to Antonluca Matarazzo, general director of the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation, who is working to convey the importance healthy aging through school education programs and support for vulnerable and troubled people. Losing weight (in body and mind) but also helping the body to live longer. The undertaking is certainly ambitious but not impossible if we rely on the suggestions of the two undisputed gurus in terms of nutrition and proper lifestyle: Valter Longo, professor of Biogerontology at the University of Southern California and director of the Oncology and longevity program of the ‘Ifom (the Institute of Molecular Oncology of Milan), and Franco Berrino, director of the Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine of the National Cancer Institute of Milan. Both are convinced that self-care must necessarily start from the table and so here are their guidelines to purify the body and live longer.
Only one serving of fruit a day to avoid storing too much sugar. No more than 300 minutes of intense exercise per week and half an hour of walking every day. Fish, lots of vegetables, lots of legumes, lots of extra virgin olive oil. In short, a Mediterranean diet lightened by bread and pasta and shifted towards vegetables and fish. Here is the recipe for living up to 110 years according to Valter Longo.
And then there is the chapter on fasting, which is fundamental for this approach. The longevity diet, in fact, is combined with a particular approach to fasting. Not because you should eat little – indeed, the foods that Longo recommends should be consumed without excessive quantity problems – but because for 5 days in a row, once every one / six months (based on the advice of your nutritionist), you must follow a particular calorie restriction, the Dmd (fasting-mimicking diet, in fact)
To consume fish, try to pay attention to fish with a high content of heavy metals (salmon, tuna, large blue fish). Better to choose crustaceans and molluscs with a high content of omega-3/6 and / or vitamin B12 (anchovies, sardines, cod, sea bream, trout, clams, shrimps). It is also recommended to consume beans, chickpeas, peas and other legumes as the main source of proteins.
Find a sporting activity that you can practice continuously. The ideal would be at least half an hour of walking a day, or biking, running, swimming for 30-40 minutes every two days and for 2 hours on weekends.
Even according to the doctor Franco Berrino in his latest book The Way of Lightness written together with the writer Daniel Lumera, an international reference in meditation, the best way to release vital energy and reach an existential condition of lightness necessarily passes through nutrition.
«Lightness is not just a question of body weight and fat mass, it is rather an existential condition that involves mind, heart and spirit. Leave room for enthusiasm, passion, joy and love to manifest freely “. The volume explains how to restore energy to the body, abandoning incorrect habits and meeting new ones, first of all those that involve the relationship with food. Nutrition and mental education, physical activity but not excessive. Everything but not only. For example, it seems that ginger acts on the metabolic system, helping the body to keep fit. “More studies suggest that ginger reduces the absorption of fats in the intestine and that it inhibits both lipogenesis (the synthesis of fats) and the deposition of fats in adipose tissue. It would also reduce the digestion of carbohydrates, therefore their glycemic impact », writes Berrino. And let’s not forget the importance of fiber, “Compared to those who consume only 15 g of fiber a day, a typical amount in the Western world, those who consume twice as much (that is, those who eat whole-grain) have a mortality of 20 percent lower” he says Longo. Their role? Reduce inflammation, increase the sense of satiety, increase fecal mass by speeding up intestinal transit and lowering cholesterol.
So, to aspire to extinguish the hundredth candle, no to: chips, potatoes, excessively processed or canned meats, sugary drinks, butter, fatty dairy products, sweets, products with refined flours, industrial fruit juices, in favor of vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish more than meat, although controlled and possibly not farmed.
Then we must not forget the economic aspects of a possible longevity!
The longevity economy is the title of the bestseller written by Joe Coughlin. From the AgeLab of the Massachusetts institute of technology in Boston. The key to making it an economy is a willingness to redefine aging as an opportunity rather than a problem, “Coughlin told We Wealth. The goal is to add quality to longevity. To get there, extensive collaboration between public and private is required, to understand and disseminate a new concept of old age and to redefine what we call “retirement”. Now that life expectancy is on average 87 years and soon it will be 100 years. This will increasingly concern social policies and the interpretation of a new socio-cultural reality of the countries that will be more able to grasp this bet: “the Longevity economy can only arise from a new narrative of old age”.
