Exercise, diet and humour provide perfect tonic for a healthy lifespan

NEXT YEAR the proportion of the population over 65 will outstrip those under five years old for the first time, a seminar on ageing was told yesterday.

Rose Anne Kenny, professor of clinical gerontolgy at TCD and St James’s Hospital, also said laughter, good diet, exercise and sexual activity would all contribute to an extended and healthy lifespan.

She was speaking at a seminar in Dublin to mark the first annual “flagship day” of the older people’s organisation, Third Age, which aims to promote and celebrate the contribution of older people throughout Ireland.

Prof Kenny, who also founded and leads Tilda, Ireland’s longitudinal study on ageing, told the audience that a new study on gene treatment in mice had reversed the ageing of their organs.

Though a similar result in humans was a long way off, it was where scientists and drug companies were heading. The ethical issues around that had to be considered, she said.

Even today, when half of the baby girls born could expect to live to be 100 or more, there were ethical issues.

“Next year the proportion of the population over 65 will outstrip the proportion under five years old for the first time,” she said.

“How are we going to manage as a population?”

She also outlined some aids to a healthy life including the importance of foods containing antioxidants which help control the repair of cells.

And she said recently published research, which looked at the brains of 70-year-olds who took aerobic exercise for 30 minutes five times a week and those who did not, showed the hippocampus, which controls memory, had increased in size in those who exercised.

“For the first time, we have actual structural evidence that physical exercise is good for your brain,” she said.

She also said laughter was very important because it was found to suppress the body’s inflammatory processes and sexual activity was also very important to happiness. Loneliness had a negative impact on health, she said.

Former fashion model Grace O’Shaughnessy was among others who spoke at the seminar and was announced as an ambassador for the organisation.

She said she was delighted with the role.

She highlighted the importance of a support system for older people and the need for goals and “a project to get excited about”.

“Despite all the doom and gloom of the last number of years, I still feel we do live in a great little country,” she said.

Dr Garret FitzGerald, the former taoiseach, who was also due to speak at the seminar, could not attend as his flight was fogbound in Brussels.