Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
For decades now, It is well proven that once you reach the age of 40, you should start taking care of your body. That’s when women are supposed to start getting mammograms and men are supposed to start paying more attention to the prostate. Over the next decade, you’ll start having colonoscopies, and from then on, it feels like a gradual march of doctor’s appointments and tests until your body breaks down sometime in your 70s or 80s.
But what if modern medicine got the timeline wrong? What if we unnecessarily test some middle-aged people for diseases they likely won’t get, but blindly ignore people in their 20s who may be at risk for colon cancer? Is there a way that, even as we get older, we can maintain our health in a meaningful way that doesn’t depend on eating 12 horse-sized pills every morning?
Eric Topol certainly thinks so. Cardiologist, vice president of Scripps Research, and author Super Eggers We are convinced that new innovations in medicine aided by artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and anti-inflammatory sensitization could have the potential to revolutionize the way people age.
During WIRED’s Big Interview event in San Francisco on Thursday, Topol told features editor Sandra Upson that while he was working on Super Eggers He learned that there is a difference between longevity and length of health, and that neither has much to do with genetics. A “elderly” person, or someone over 65 who is generally healthy, has roughly the same genetic makeup as someone who is older and faces major health challenges, such as heart disease, cancer, or a neurodegenerative disorder.
Instead, Topol said, there appears to be a relationship between having a healthy immune system and healthy aging. Lifestyle can affect how healthy you are, too, with Topol advocating a diet low in ultra-processed foods, an emphasis on sleep quality over sleep quantity, and getting out in nature. He also recommended exercise, focusing on aerobic, resistance and balance exercises, which can help the body become more flexible as one ages.
Photo: Annie Noelker
Photo: Annie Noelker
If possible, people should forever avoid environmental stressors, such as air pollution, micro- and nanoplastics, and chemicals, all of which Topol said are pro-inflammatory, Topol said. Topol noted that all of these are not addressed by President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., even though they are there Make America Healthy Again Agenda.
For the average American, Topol said, the age of health is between 63 and 65 years. On the other hand, the lifespan is around 80 years. This means that most Americans will spend the last 15 years or so of their lives in relatively poor health, with one World Health Organization statistic saying that most older people will only have one “healthy Christmas” after age 65.
“The period of health needs to be extended as close to lifespan as possible, and I think we can do that,” Topol told Upson. “This is a unique moment in medicine. Part of it is because we have multimodal artificial intelligence, but part of it is because we have new layers of data. We’ve never had organ clocks, which track the pace of aging for every organ in your body, including your immune system. We’ve never had biomarkers like p-tau217, which tell us our risk of developing Alzheimer’s 10, 15, or even 20 years in advance. The biggest leap in modern biomedicine is the ability to define measures of aging.”