How The Longevity Experts Live Longer

If you’re interested in living a little bit longer, you might be interested in what longevity experts are doing to try to boost their own life expectancy. WhenU.S. News interviewed five medical researchers, they got five different answers about how these folks are trying to keep the Grim Reaper away.

1. Give blood every two months. Thomas Perls, of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center, believes that when you give blood and reduce the iron in your body (especially for men), the iron deficit may help delay certain aging processes.

2. Eat about 2,000 calories a day. Mark Mattson, with the Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, thinks that restricting calories and continually feeling hungry keeps the body healthier.

3. Eat a low glycemic diet. Cynthia Kenyon, a geneticist with the department of biochemistry and biophysics, University of California–San Francisco, tries to keep her blood sugar from spiking by not eating starchy foods like pasta, bread, potatoes and rice.

4. Take resveratrol. David Sinclair, professor of pathology at the Harvard Medical School, believes this supplement activates enzymes that protect against aging.

5. Laugh at people who are trying to delay aging. Felipe Sierra, biologist, with the Division of Aging Biology, National Institute on Aging, thinks that the only thing research on aging can do so far is make you laugh.

All of these scientists emphasize that they don’t think there’s enough research to recommend to others the measures they are taking.