How To Reverse Your Biological Age…

I have some bad news…. your chronological age will keep going up.

But there’s good news too: Science informs us that your biological or physiological age isn’t just determined by genetics. A huge chunk of health span is down to lifestyle and we can control a significant portion of this.

Here are some things you can do:

1.    Maintain muscle:

Resistance exercise can help preserve both bone density and muscle mass.

Muscle even helps to regulate your blood sugar levels after meals, which our bodies often get worse at as we age.

We end up losing 5 per cent of our muscle and 10 per cent of our strength every decade after the age of 30.

Resistance training can delay or even reverse this insidious loss.

2.    Bin the fad diets:

Science doesn’t have the answer yet to the question of what is the best diet… but the big picture is fairly straightforward:

Most of us would benefit from less meat and more vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and whole grains.

3.    Look after your teeth:

There is an unquestionable link in ageing biology between good oral hygiene and living longer.

There are numerous studies which note that people with less tooth decay and gum disease seemed to have fewer heart attacks than those with worse oral health.

There is also growing evidence that maintaining oral hygiene reduces the risk of dementia too.

4.    Get enough sleep: 

Speaking of dementia… longevity science is pretty clear that a good slumber can lengthen your lifespan and protect the brain.

For example, while we sleep, our brains do a “brain wash”, literally flushing out toxins, like the amyloid deposits associated with Alzheimer’s disease, via the glymphatic system. This spring cleaning could slow down brain ageing.

5. Wear Sun screen:

Truth be told, you don’t need a whole range of creams, serums and potions the cosmetic aisle promises to feel and look younger.

By far the most effective anti-ageing cream is sunscreen. Ultraviolet (UV) light accelerates the ageing of skin through a few different mechanisms.

It damages the collagen, elastin and other structural proteins that make our skin strong and elastic thus causing wrinkles and lines.  Also, the damage to our DNA caused by UV light means an increased risk of skin cancer.

Whacking on some sunscreen helps you maintain a more youthful skin both from a lower volume of mutations in skin cells but also appearance wise. Use something with factor 15 or more.

Also don’t worry…you’ll still get vitamin D from the sun despite using sunscreen – there are no studies which suggest wearing sunscreen causes a vitamin D deficiency.

If you want to learn more about simple habits that are science based and that can improve your health, check out my best-selling book This Book May Save Your Life…you can grab it here:

If you bought my book, I’d love a review on Amazon as this helps it get more eyes and more reach! If you’ve enjoyed any of my videos, newsletter or content over the years… I guarantee you will also love my book, so if you haven’t gotten it yet grab a copy.. you won’t regret it!

How To Be More Productive Using Music…

Wait.. this sound counter-intuitive.. surely this would be more distracting?!

Certain distractions can be helpful for productivity. Background music helps because of how our attention works.

You have two attention systems: the conscious one, which you control, and the unconscious one, which alerts you to anything significant that your senses pick up and then diverts your focus to it.

When you’re trying to focus on a task, your conscious attention is busy, but can still be distracted by the unconscious system.

If you’re in complete silence, any slight movements in your room… like floorboards creaking, a loud ticking noise of the clock etc. stand out more, meaning our unconscious attention gets distracted more easily thus hindering your productivity.

But using background music, masks these random unplanned distracting noises and keeps your unconscious attention busy – kind of like giving a bored dog a chew toy to play with.

The type of music is key – ones with lyrics aren’t ideal choices because your brain can get stimulated by language!

My Big Event…

This is certainly something I didn’t think I’d be doing but here we are!

When I announced that I was doing a stage event in May, within the first 24 hours, hundreds of you had gotten tickets! I got messages from people saying there were travelling from abroad to come and see me (one in Cyprus and one in France!). I even got messages from people saying they’d set their alarms for 8am so they could be the first in line for tickets!!

This is so surreal but so amazing to see and read. I’ve been preparing a great segment for you on Friday 10^th May… think medical education with comedy stand up! Learning and (hopefully) laughter!

I’ll be doing that on Friday 10^th May in London at Union Chapel (where apparently Ed Sheeran has gigged before!).

I’d love to see you, so why don’t you bring yourself, a friend, partner or family to come and see me!

You can grab tickets here:

Don’t Be Limited By Labels

Do only athletes work out?

Do only illustrators draw?

Do only chefs cook?

I do all the above and I’m not a professional at any of those things.

When I was 16, I always held myself back in certain aspects of my life because I felt I couldn’t do something unless I had “earned it”. I was self limited by labels of my mind’s construction.

You can either impose walls in your own mind and be focused on being something..

Or you can break down the walls and leap over them by focusing on the doing.

The latter may come with occasional failure, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

Sharing Microbes….

Your gut health is impacted by more than just what you eat.

Your family and friends also influence it! You don’t just share memories but microbes too!

Both your oral and gut microbiome is shared with the people you live with and interact with on a daily basis (even pets).

One study suggested up to 30% of the various strains of bacteria living in your gut and mouth can be shared with those in your interaction circle.

What does all this mean? Embrace the diversity of exposure and don’t worry! :)

What To Watch…

“You Don’t Know Me” – Netflix

This is an old one but is a mind bender. It takes place in the form of flashbacks and a first person narrative mixed in with some “real time” moments of a man in the middle of a court room hearing.

It’s a limited series, so it’s all fully wrapped up within a few episodes.

There aren’t any huge names or celebrities on the credits but the acting, storyline and pacing is superb. I wished it was longer!

If you like crime, drama, thrillers and twists and turns.. this one is for you!