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Restore optimal health with six sustainable principles that will maximize your body’s biological processes, slow aging, and improve energy levels.
Since the beginning of time, people have searched far and wide for the mythical fountain of youth. And while various surgical and injectable treatments can certainly help confuse the hands of time, they are only temporary cosmetic fixes that don’t address the underlying issue. But what if you truly had control over preserving youthfulness?
Richard Purvis — a health and wellness practitioner with more than 30 years of dedicated experience in nutrition, exercise, antiaging and overall wellness, and author of Recalibrate: Six Secrets to Resetting Your Age (Amazon Digital Services, LLC, 2018) — argues that you do: “It’s become clear to me that our Western lifestyles can have a direct impact on our health and how we age. Aging makes us susceptible to certain diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and the dreaded Alzheimer’s.”
Through extensive research, Purvis deduced that there are six lifestyle modifications we can make right now to change that fate, and dramatically improve the quality of our lives and how well we age.
The most important element involved with the process of reversing aging is what you put in your mouth. “Changes in diet can erase years from your physical appearance and improve overall health dramatically,” says Purvis. “A good diet increases energy, improves sleep and digestion, enhances skin tone and elasticity, clears foggy brains, supports weight loss, and decreases inflammation — which is public enemy No. 1 when it comes to age-related diseases.”
What to do: Purvis advocates a hunter/gatherer approach to eating that includes nutrient-dense foods like organic fruits and veggies, wild fish, free-range chicken, pasture eggs, and grass-fed meats and dairy. This means the elimination of bread, cereals/grains, pasta, rice, carbonated drinks, sugar-laden foods, and the hydrogenated oils (trans fats) found in processed foods, fast foods, and margarine.
Because we evolved from nomadic ancestors who spent all day moving around searching for food and shelter, our bodies are designed for movement. When physical activity diminishes, the body sends signals telling the muscles to degenerate and organs to atrophy. “Without exercise, you miss out on the body’s precise internal ability to signal cells to act younger,” says Purvis. “Basically, the more you move, the less you decay.” Exercise keeps your brain sharp by sparing age-related loss of brain tissue and enhancing cognition, which could prevent Alzheimer’s. Next, it helps prevent cardio-vascular disease and other chronic illness, such as colon and breast cancer and osteoporosis. Also, exercise can alter your genes, encouraging your DNA to repair itself.
What to do: You don’t have to join a gym or buy pricey equipment if that’s not your style — simply incorporate a minimum of 15–20 minutes of natural body movements into your day, such as walking, sprinting, push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, and squats. Establishing a set time for exercise will ensure it doesn’t fall to the bottom of your to-do list, as consistency and commitment are key.
Purvis names two nutrients as the most beneficial to take in supplement form: vitamin D and Omega 3s. Vitamin D, a fat-soluble vitamin, is naturally produced in the skin as a direct result of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Adequate doses of vitamin D are essential for the development of bones and teeth — failure to get sufficient amounts raises the potential for developing osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency is also linked to an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The second, omega-3 fatty acids, are essential fatty acids, meaning the human body cannot naturally produce them. Research shows that omega-3 can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease as well as reduce the onset of dementia. Plus, it helps prevent wrinkles and premature aging.
What to do: Purvis recommends taking a vitamin D3 supplement, which is better absorbed, of 2,000–5,000 IU per day in a soft gel. He suggests trying to find one that uses extra virgin olive oil for the base liquid (instead of sunflower or soy oil). For omega-3s, Purvis recommends 2,000–5,000 mg of triglyceride (vs. Ethyl Ester) fish oil per day, either in liquid or soft gel form.
Waiting longer between meals has been shown to stimulate the body’s natural cellular repair process by signaling the body to rejuvenate itself. Purvis says it may also enhance the body’s resistance to oxidative stress (which promotes cancer-causing free radicals), as well as help fight inflammation.
What to do: There is a variety of ways to add intermittent fasting into your lifestyle, so you may need to experiment to find the one that works best for you. Many people favor the 16:8 diet, where you fast for 16 hours (say, 7 p.m. to 11 a.m.) and eat all your meals within an eight-hour window. Another option is the 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for five days a week and then restrict calories two days a week.
Research studies show evidence linking our guts to many health issues, including brain disorders. Your gut’s microbiome — 100 trillion organisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses — is fundamental to the breakdown and absorption of nutrients. Imbalances in the microbial community can also adversely affect your immune system.
What to do: Processed foods, sugar, and artificial sweeteners are all factors that damage your microbiome, so eliminate these from your diet. Next, eat gut-enhancing cultured and fermented probiotic-rich foods, such as kimchi, kombucha, pickled vegetables, yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut. Purvis also suggests doing gardening and spending time in nature, to connect your immune system to the trillions of microbes in soil.
While you’re dreaming, your body is busy renewing cells, rejuvenating muscles and organs, and regulating your hormones. During sleep, explains Purvis, your brain forms new pathways used in memory, and your immune system gets stronger. Medications, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and blue light from your electronic devices negatively impact your sleep pattern, resulting in less ZZZs.
What to do: If you aren’t getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night, redesign your bedroom with minimal stimulation (no TV or laptops), set it to a comfortable temperature (65–70 degrees), maintain a consistent sleep schedule even on the weekends, develop a pre-sleep routine that signals relaxation time (such as taking a bath or meditating), eliminate caffeinated beverages after midday, and avoid using your smartphone and tablet close to bedtime.
“These six secrets are synergistic steps that, when applied simultaneously, give you the most impactful results,” says Purvis. “The results that can be expected include better overall health, weight loss, a reduction in bodily inflammation, better and more consistent energy levels, better mental aptitude and clarity, reduction in skin wrinkles and puffiness, better skin color, better skin tone, an overall healthier look, better sleep, and better gut health.”
In addition to Vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids mentioned above, here are four more supplements you should consider incorporating into your antiaging routine.
