AM Buffalo

Actions

Life Longevity and the pursuit of harmony

Posted at 3:50 PM, Nov 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-17 15:50:07-05

Longevity expert Dr. Brian Kennedy explains the signs behind increasing your life span and happiness. Dr. Kennedy says the United States ranks 39th in life expectancy. Sleep is key to longevity and also human connection. He says he believes the pandemic is leading to poorer lifestyle choices that are increasing our aging at the same time. Stress is affecting our sleep and it’s keeping us from being with our friends and family. He says we’ve known in the elderly these two factors are predictors for mortality. Older people often live alone and they have these problems naturally but the pandemic is really exasperating those problems for the elderly and it is extending to everyone now so we need strategies to deal with that. Dr. Kennedy says the first thing he would say sounds obvious but try to stay positive. This pandemic will come to an end. One thing that is important is mindfulness; finding ways to be self-aware to figure out what’s going on in your own brain. To realize when you are stressed is a big step toward dealing with it and that can be through meditation or yoga. There isn’t one right answer. Dr. Kennedy says he does a lot of runs and that clears his head. He says one thing that may be worth reading is “Be Your Own Harmonist” by Lola Till. He says the reason he brings it up is that it is a personal journey for a healthy lifestyle. She is not a doctor. She wanted to find a way to adopt a healthier approach to her life.

Dr. Kennedy says we are losing exercise right now if you are not going to work or out with your friends. He says probably missing four or five thousand steps a day that you normally get so it is important to find safe ways to get that exercise whether it is running or biking or exercising at home. Then with diet he says in the United States the problem is people are overeating. He said life expectancy is not going up in part because of obesity. The research shows that fasting can be very beneficial. This is going periods of time without eating. One way people do it is by time restricted eating where you eat all of your food in an 8 or 12 hour window. There are a lot of different ways to do fasting but all of them show really good benefits. They are good for metabolism, they help you lose weight, they are good for inflammation and in the long term they help rejuvenate your skin cells and deal with cellular damage. One way to do that is with a fasting mimicking diet. ProLon has this diet that has five days of food and it gives you healthy nutrition and good things to eat but keeps those pathways that drive aging and inflammation down and it gives you the benefits of fasting without actually having to go through the fast. He says he thinks a really good way to kickstart a healthy diet if you want to go down that path.

For more information click here.

For information on the book Be Your Own Harmonist by Lola Till click here.