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You may have heard of Bryan Johnson – the entrepreneur and internet sensation who’s achieved worldwide fame for his attempts to roll back time and live to the age of 180.
Johnson is the US longevity guru who spends £1.5 million a year developing cutting-edge methods to slow the biological ageing process to an almost imperceptible crawl, including being infused with his teenage son’s blood plasma and employing more than 30 doctors to monitor the health of each of his 78 organs.
But you probably haven’t heard of Amy Hardison, the 64-year-old grandmother of 11 who, in an ongoing online competition, updated daily, called the Rejuvenation Olympics, recently beat Johnson at his very own game. For most of the last year, she has ranked fifth in the competition, while Johnson ranked sixth (first on the list was Dan Sullivan, an entrepreneur who aims to live to 156). Last June, Amy even placed as high as fourth (while Johnson took the top spot).
Amy Hardison is a 64-year-old grandmother of 11
Scoring in this bizarre-sounding game depends on a whole host of biometric measurements – but comes down in the end to biological versus chronological ageing.
Blood tests showed that Amy was ageing at a rate of just 0.74 of a year for every chronological year. In other words, she was ageing just nine months out of every 12. If she’d aged at this rate all her life, her 64-year-old body would now be ‘aged’ 48.
Unlike most of the competitors, however, Amy is not a rich, male, longevity-obsessive. She entered the competition by chance when, two years ago, she joined a trial for anti-ageing supplements run by the company Novos, at her son-in-law Eric’s suggestion.
During the trial, she took four home blood tests over the course of a year and sent them to the Novos lab. The tests focused on Amy’s ‘epigenome’ – the chemical compounds that modify one’s DNA and which can be influenced by factors such as diet and medications.
As we age, the epigenome’s integrity can decline, affecting cell function – yet the scientists at Novos were so impressed by Amy’s results, they asked her if they could submit them to the Rejuvenation Olympics.
‘Novos were looking for people over 50,’ explains Amy. ‘I don’t think they were even looking for super-healthy people. Ranking as high as I did came as a complete surprise.’
It goes without saying that her methods for staying so young are considerably less high-tech than Johnson’s. A writer and mother of four who lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her husband Steve, she has never wanted to ‘go to extremes’ with her health – but is clearly doing something right anyway. So what is Amy’s secret?
Here, she outlines her six tips for stopping the ageing process in its tracks . . .
Exercise for an hour… then add a little more
Ever since I was 15, exercise has been a part of my life. I was always pretty average weight-wise
Ever since I was 15, exercise has been a part of my life. I was always pretty average weight-wise, but when I was little my sister teased me about being fat, so I started exercising as a way to manage it.
I don’t like going to the gym, so we’ve always had equipment in our home, either a NordicTrack treadmill or an elliptical bike. I exercise for an hour each day.
We also have a pool at home, so from May to September I love to swim daily for about an hour to 75 minutes to music. When I work out on the elliptical, I do interval training – going hard for one minute, then go at an average speed for one minute, then 30 seconds hard and then 30 seconds normally – repeating these cycles for an hour.
A medical professional told me that kind of interval training was good for my brain health, and I’ve felt the difference. I’ve even incorporated it into my swimming routine and will swim as fast as I can for two songs and follow that with some more average-paced laps.
I was a stay-at-home mum and when my children were little, I’d do 20 minutes of aerobics and then 20 minutes of floor exercises with my kids crawling all over me, being my resistance! I’ve exercised for 50 years and it’s just become a habit. I exercise six days a week and if I have to miss my workout for any reason, I feel terrible.
I’m 5 ft 7 in and weigh 127 lb (9 st) and people do say to me: ‘You’re so thin – you must never worry about your weight.’ Well, I’ve worried about it my whole life!
Give your brain a workout, too
‘I was barely 18 when I got married and from the beginning, family was the most important thing to me. My mantra for this year has been do less, love more,’ says Amy
While I’m exercising, I’ll always listen to an audiobook – not only does it make the time go quickly, but if the book is good, it’ll encourage me to exercise that bit longer to get to the end of a chapter.
I love a good novel, but I also love books on the Second World War, and memoirs, and have recently been listening to John Strausbaugh’s The Wrong Stuff, about the Soviet space programme.
Seven years ago my mum and dad passed away, aged 90 and 94 respectively – my mum after a long, slow decline with dementia and my dad after also suffering cognitive decline due to a series of strokes.
Added to that, my brother, who’s 74 and always led an active life, windsurfing, skiing and playing tennis, also started getting dementia about six years ago. So, I’m very keen to keep my brain active, study, learn and engage my mind.
Splash out on supplements
Amy joined a trial for anti-ageing supplements run by the company Novos, at her son-in-law Eric’s suggestion
Growing up, I’d never taken supplements as my mum thought that giving us vitamins while eating a healthy diet was superfluous.
But my son-in-law Eric, an innovation consultant for businesses, suggested I start taking so-called longevity supplements, which contain ingredients such as magnesium, ginger, L-theanine and fisetin, and I now spend about £100 per month on them.
As I understand it, magnesium supports a healthy metabolism and regulates blood pressure and blood sugar levels; ginger can protect against cell damage and improve blood sugar regulation; L-theanine can help reduce stress and anxiety and fisetin is a natural antioxidant, found in things like strawberries.
It apparently reduces the amount of senescent cells, which damage healthy nearby cells and which accelerate the ageing process. I still get my supplements from Novos.
Do less, love more
More than being healthy both physically and mentally, I think one of the keys to feeling good is having a purpose.
If you live a life of contribution, filled with people you love, you’ll feel better. We have four adult children – Steffany, 45, Lil, 43, Clint, 40, and Blake, 37 – and we’ve been able to be best friends with our own children, which makes life so sweet.
Also, a few years ago I started taking out my grandchildren separately for some one-on-one time, which is enriching. I was barely 18 when I got married and from the beginning, family was the most important thing to me. My mantra for this year has been do less, love more.
I’ve found myself just sitting with my husband more, holding hands, just being with him. We’ve been married for 46 years and while sometimes life gets less exciting as you get older, it can also get a lot richer.
Chocolate three times a day!
I don’t believe in cutting out all treats and I like to have one after lunch and dinner – usually a piece of chocolate. It’s controlled and I feel good, not bloated and heavy
People are usually surprised when I say I start the day with chocolate milk and a slice of bread, but I do believe that eating is one of the joys of life, so I don’t want to cut out everything that’s fun.
I make my own bread with a lot of wholewheat grains – I even grind the wheat myself – so it’s pretty healthy.
For lunch I’ll have a big salad with spinach, greens, nuts and chicken breast, and for dinner I’ll usually have a smaller meal. I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but I do enjoy a piece of chicken breast or salmon. Because I have the beginnings of macular degeneration, I’ve increased my salmon intake – eating fish is supposed to be good for eye health.
I weigh my food because I think portion sizes can get too big and we tend to eat more than we need (for meat, I’ll weigh out a 3oz portion).
My parents would share a tuna sandwich for lunch and that was enough for them.
I don’t believe in cutting out all treats and I like to have one after lunch and dinner – usually a piece of chocolate. It’s controlled and I feel good, not bloated and heavy.
I tend to keep my desserts to less than 100 calories, but sometimes I’ll make chocolate chip cookies, which are 150 calories each, or homemade ice cream (200 calories a serving).
I sound like I’m a walking calorie-counter, but I feel that paying attention to the calories stops my weight from creeping up. I eat dairy and I’ll have a glass of milk a day, or sometimes two as I have osteopenia [a loss of bone density], so I deal with it by drinking milk and taking calcium supplements.
I hardly eat cheese, but if I do, I’ll have a half to a full ounce only, as it’s calorie-rich.
I tend not to snack but if I do, carrots are my in-between food of choice. Sometimes after a hard workout, I’ll have fruit or a spoonful of peanut butter for protein.
I drink a lot of water – at least eight glasses a day – and because we’re Mormons, we don’t drink alcohol, so that also cuts out a lot of calories.
We don’t eat out very often either because I feel the portions are too big and the food is too rich.
I usually finish eating by around 7pm, but I’m not hardcore about it and sometimes I’ll grab a few pretzels at night if I haven’t eaten much during the day.
… and don’t try to stay young
When I was placed fourth in the Rejuvenation Olympics, no one was more surprised than me.
I’m not the typical anti-ageing person who wants to live for ever and I’m not in competition with anyone. My daughter Lil, who is always following the cutting-edge of nutrition and exercise, told me: ‘This is kind of a big deal because Bryan Johnson spends £1.5 million a year to get these results.’ I have to be honest, I didn’t know who he was at the time.
As I understand it, he’s a biohacker – someone who is doing everything they can to extend their life beyond the average and defy the ageing process by optimising their health.
I believe he hasn’t ruled out living to the age of 120 or even 180. But to me, that sounds horrible. If I live to 84 or 85, that would be plenty; I don’t need any more than that.
I feel that if you worry about the future, you’re sacrificing your enjoyment of the present.
Perhaps my attitude has been coloured by my parents. When my mum was 89 and dealing with dementia, I took her to a neurology appointment and she got some of the questions wrong.
She couldn’t name the city she was living in and when she was asked what season it was, she said: ‘The hot one.’
When the doctor left the office, I saw she had tears in her eyes. She said: ‘I didn’t do very well,
did I?’ Yet when the doctor asked her to write down a sentence that explained how she felt, she wrote: ‘I have such a wonderful life.’
Even though her mind had started to go, her default setting was happiness.
And that’s my attitude, too. I feel you’re going to age eventually and genetics and accidents will play their part, so you have to roll with it and be happy.
