Try Googling "live longer" and you will get so many hits that you'd need a very long life just to view them all. Clearly there is a lot of interest in health and longevity and all sorts of people, from the well-meaning to quacks and charlatans, are lining up to take advantage of it. Diet, lifestyle, exercise, faith, alternative medicine - all are staking a claim to help us live a better and longer life. But do any of these things stack up? What if I were leading a pharmaceutical industry research team, and we examined the evidence for each claim as if it were a drug candidate? Would I recommend any of these approaches to the CEO for further investment?
For another project, I am doing some research into nutrition and alternative medicines. I'll check out the claims for anything that one can swallow and digest, basically. I'll be looking to see what, if any, scientific basis these claims may have, based on scientific literature evidence. I'm leaving out psychological, exercise and faith-based life extension, to keep the project manageable.
I won't be doing any amateur clinical trials on human guinea pigs because (a) it is generally frowned upon by most of the worlds regulatory and judicial systems and (b) lifespan research takes a long time (the clue is in the name) and you and I have short attention spans.
Personally, I am a fan of walnuts after meeting an academic who raved about their positive nutritional benefits. I have them every day on my breakfast cereal. I will either live forever or die choking with an ironic expression on my face and milk on my trousers. If you have any personal favourites (with or without evidence of efficacy) please pass them on and I'll take a look.
Picture: steffenz
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