I’ve been passionate about anti-ageing for many years. Since I’ve recently had my 50th Birthday, I decided to have my biological age tested (again). When I had it done four years ago, I was many years younger on the inside compared to my chronological age. So what can you do to embrace anti-ageing?
Lifestyle – Not Genes – Impact Anti-Ageing
Your genes are not your destiny: you don’t have to become your parents or grandparents. With the groundbreaking research from Dr Bruce Lipton, we now know that your lifestyle is way more important than your genetic code. It’s great to look at your family history to give you an idea of things you need to watch out for so your lifestyle choices don’t allow that gene to turn on.
Wisdom is not fear, but you must plan your wellness journey well.
Use The Seven Pillars Of Wellness As A Guide
You can encourage anti-ageing by embracing daily habits supporting your seven wellness pillars.
- Good nutrition by eating more plants and less animals
- Movement
- Deep restorative sleep
- Mindfulness & Community
- Whole food supplementation
- Body Balance and posture
- Reducing exposure to environmental toxins
Build your own Wellness Profile. Take our 5-minute quiz to determine the top 3 wellness pillars you need to focus on to boost your wellness journey.
I am convinced you can extend your life span by balancing your seven wellness pillars. Around 80% of your health and longevity depend on your thoughts and how you live. My grandmother turns 96 today, and I can testify that these 7 Wellness Pillars work for active anti-ageing.
7 Keys to Biological Longevity & Anti-Ageing
The top 5 areas of biomarkers I always look at with my clients are:
- Blood sugar levels
- Inflammation
- Liver & detox capacity function
- Gut health
- Brain function & mental health
Sirtuins – The Longevity Genes
Researchers have discovered a group of longevity genes called Sirtuins, a family of proteins that act as metabolic sensors to regulate cellular balance and health.
Sirtuins can only function with sufficient Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). You can naturally boost your NAD by regularly eating small wild fish, green veggies and mushrooms. Eating foods high in resveratrol and oleic acid found in things like olive oil, avocado and nuts – critical ingredients in the famous longevity Blue Zones.
I also love the new research about Glycans to determine your biological age – read more about that in this blog before I share my Biological Age Test Results.
How to Support Longevity & Anti-Ageing
1. Calm Your Mind
Stress is linked to all diseases, and how we react to life events will significantly affect the level of stress hormones we live with each day. Learn to breathe if something triggers you, calm your inner critic and talk to yourself like you would your best friend.
You will be surprised at how you start to enjoy life more when you make rends with yourself. Loved ones, family, friends and pets also reduce stress and encourage anti-ageing.
Chronic stress can rapidly shorten the ends of your chromosomes, called Telomeres, and due to the surge in stress hormones, inflammation rises in both the brain and the body, linked to accelerated ageing.
Choose to be kind, express your feelings safely (shouting is not a form of communication but abuse), be open to new experiences, let go of things that no longer serve you, smile, be friendly and volunteer or give a helping hand to someone in need.
2. Intermittent Fasting
According to research, fasting can turn these longevity pathways on, so try to fast for 14-16 hours a day. For example, I usually finish dinner by 7 pm and only have tea afterwards. In the mornings, I drink my wellness water & WelleCo green juice and tea till noon the next day.
It’s ok to be hungry; fasting has been around for thousands of years, so instead of always eating at set times per day, why not try intuitive eating and eat when you are hungry and see how this makes you feel?
It is also key to do at least one seasonal cleanse per year to reset all of your 11 systems enabling your body to take stock and reduce disease & wrinkles.
3. Use Food As Medicine
Focus on nutrients to feed your cells and remove junk. So more plants and less animals and as colourful as possible. Keep your blood sugar levels balanced but eat low and moderate GI foods and ensure you also eat enough essential fats from fish, olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseeds, olives, nuts, seeds and avocado.
Due to over-farming and living in a toxic world, we need to eat at least ten portions of fruits & veggies daily, not the five a day like years ago. I try to eat five different greens per day:
- Lettuce, cucumber, celery, broccoli, zucchini, kale, green beans and spinach
- 1-2 colourful fruits
- 3-4 colourful veggies such as carrots, tomato, berries, pumpkin, beetroot or apples.
I also choose good quality protein for each meal in the form of mainly organic eggs, fish, nuts, seeds or Welleco Nourishing protein, so I maximise animal protein to once a day maximum but still boost my glutathione.
Don’t forget that hydration is vital, and I drink 2-3L of my wellness water daily.
4. Whole Food Supplementation & Anti-Ageing
Since eating ten portions of fruits and veggies daily is tricky, I always supplement. I also eat seasonally, so many vital nutrients are low at certain times of the year, which means my wellness is protected all year round.
Here are the foundational supplements that are non-negotiable for me:
- Super greens by Rejuv or Welleco to keep my inflammation in check. I’ve been drinking super greens for over 20 years, and it was a game changer, especially walking out my healing from eating & blood sugar disorders.
- Essential Fatty Acids. I love clean Antarctic Krill oil, great for my brain and cell health, allowing homeostasis of goodness in and junk out of our cells, protecting your mitochondria, which directly affects ageing.
- Reservatrol. Over the last five years, I have increased my antioxidants, knowing full well that we can produce more free radicals when we age. I take our Rejuv Antioxidant Complex, which has Acai and moringa to reduce inflammation, boost healing and support a healthy metabolism.
- Vitamin D & Immune support. I ensure I get good doses of sunshine to boost my vitamin D naturally, which is far more effective than a pill. I still supplement, but I don’t do mega doses since it is a fat-soluble vitamin you need to take care of Vitamin D toxicity. I prefer to support my D & immune system with a complex like our Immune support, for I included all the major pathways to support your immune system; pre and probiotics, plant-based vitamin C, medicinal mushrooms, vitamin d, Magnesium, Zinc, B Vitamins, Quercetin, berberine and various other anti vera and anti-bacterial herbs.
- Brain & Body. For cognition, memory and mental clarity, I take our Bran support; for my skin and muscles, I take marine collagen in our Anti-Ageing capsules, for they also have astaxanthin which is excellent for my brain, heart and fine lines/ wrinkles; if I get an niggles or pain usually from exercise I take our Bone, Joint & Skin Complex as needed for it are high in turmeric, MSM, ginseng & glucosamine In fact in summer I tend to take them daily for as an accidental discovery I realised they also fade age spots and why ‘Skin’ has recently been added to the title to this formula.
5. Move Your Body
Choose an exercise you love, so you’re more likely to stick with it. Not only will this oxygenate your body, but studies also show that you will help slow down telomere shortening & therefore encourage anti-ageing.
On weekends I have an exercise schedule as per below, I move my body with my family, and we might do a hike, beach walk, swim or bike ride, so I move my body each day.
I split my work week into these two types of exercise for active anti-ageing and long-term wellbeing.
Type 1 Exercise
Exercising using interval training is particularly good with bursts & I do this Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Here is the system I use;
- Step 1) Warm up for 5-10 minutes
- Step 2) Run, Bike, or Swim at 90 percent of your capacity for 60 seconds
- Step 3) Rest for 4 minutes and go back to your gentle warm-up pace
- Step 4) Repeat.
I like this system for it means I’m exercising with 5-minute intervals – 1-minute sprint & 4 mins recovery. I repeat this six times to make up 30 minutes. I then do some yoga, pilates or core and finish stretching. I do Interval Burst Training every other day, so my anti ageing and fat-burning hormones balance me the other days.
I then have a green juice after my exercise and wait 1 hour till I eat to increase human growth hormone (HGH) levels naturally, which significantly affects anti-ageing.
Type 2 Exercise
I mix this up and do type 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Walk on the beach, cycle, dance, ride horses, hike, or do weights in the gym. I train my upper and lower body once a week with weights or often just using my body weight.
6. Maximise Sleep Before Midnight & Detoxify
Sleep affects all of your 11 systems and was designed to detoxify you from the day you just had. Aim to get 8 hours of sleep per night, and don’t forget that 1 hour before midnight is worth 2 hours after midnight, so get to sleep by 10 pm when possible.
As we start to age, we often need sleep support and why I invented our Rejuv Bedtime Blend formula to help with deep restorative healing sleep.
7. Reduce Your Toxic Load
Get into nature, get grounded, put your bare feet on the earth, take up gardening, sing, dance, breathe, embrace the habit of FIR Sauna and cold showers and reduce alcohol, junk foods, coffee and toxic relationships.
I love Therasage FIR Sauna, as it is the most effective technique I have found to allow you to sweat out all the toxins you have been exposed to from birth until now. I also love KORA organics, and it is the only skincare I use because I know I can trust their pure plant-based organic ingredients to be very effective yet gentle, kind and loving to my skin.
I have an extensive list of longevity tips, but they are too long to mention here, so stay tuned for my Longevity Guide coming out next week. Life is about balance, and especially as I’m getting older, I love finding ways to enjoy my life but also have fun and not feel restricted.
Rejuv Wellness is one of the world’s first Naturopathic telehealth clinics; we’ve been treating clients with great success via webcam, telephone and online for over 20 years. If you want more support, contact us for individual consultations with Dr Simoné.
Build your Wellness Profile. Take our 5-minute quiz to determine the top 3 wellness pillars you need to focus on to boost your wellness journey.
