Life Extension is an important part of Potentialism and should be an important part of everyone’s life.  Every fitness program, nutritional program, or supplementation program should get evaluated on two factors it’s ability to extend your life and how it improves the quality of your life.  There are many facets to life extension, such as, diet, exercise, cell engineering, supplementation, maybe even cryogenics, etc.  The areas of life extension that are and are not important to the Potentialist movement are dependent upon what does and does not ultimately work to extend and improve our lives.

Why is life extension important?  Not to minimize the human element, but much like machinery in a factory, we want to get the maximum output from our human machine.  Every human schooled and trained in our society represents an investment made by society in that person.  So, it seems only logical that if you could extend the individual’s productive years, the return to society would increase by that much.  Extending the average productive age to 100 and perhaps later to 150 easily doubles the return on society’s investment.  Additionally, this fails to consider the positive impact of added human experience and enjoyment you get from living longer.

Life extension would allow for more personal development as we live longer, are productive longer, and have the time to acquire more skills and knowledge.  There are many possibilities how this could positively affect society, for example, a larger segment of the population could become college educated with graduate and doctoral degrees.  From a purely physical development point of view perhaps one would be able to focus more time towards the development of their physical abilities.

Although other methods for life extension may arise, there are really three main areas that we have available to us for life extension; diet, exercise, and supplementation.  These 3 areas of life extension most likely will not extend maximum human life span which is thought to be about 122 years old, which is how long Jeanne Calment lived (the oldest human being ever to live).  Although you most likely will not live past 122 with diet, exercise, or supplementation, this does not mean you couldn’t feasibly extend you own life by 20 years. Perhaps without the implementation of these 3 things you may have only lived to 75, but instead you live to 95.  (Note that some people believe that the practice of Calorie Restriction may actually extend the maximum human life span.  Although despite very positive study results it is far too early to tell whether this will be the case or not as it may take decades before we start seeing the results of Calorie Restriction practioners)

Obviously, the ultimate goal of life extension would be to be able to repair damage at the cellular level, effectively ending aging and disease.  Some researchers like Aubrey De Grey, Chief science officer at the Sens Foundation, believes that the reality of ending aging altogether could happen in as little as 25 years.  Until that day comes, though, we have to use the tools that are at our disposal for extending life span.

This article is not meant to go into depth on any one of these 3 areas of life extension right now, but each of these facets should essentially be approached from a life extensionist and quality of life point of view.  For example when evaluating a supplement, you could look at Vitamin D3 and an ephedrine weight loss supplement.  One might argue that Vitamin D3 decreases all causes of mortality by assisting in the prevention of cancer, whereas an ephedrine weight loss pill can help you lose weight and improve your health, but at what cost?  What damage is the ephedrine doing to your internal organs?  The ephedrine pill may be reducing your body weight, but in the long term it is potentially having a negative impact on your health.

When evaluating any exercise regime or diet program you have to look at the pros and cons.  For example take a bodybuilder who tips the scales at 250 lbs.  This may not be optimal for their longevity.  Yes, they are improving their strength, central nervous system, and general fitness, but the additional weight taxes their joints, heart, and the rest of the organs.  Numerous studies have shown that lighter weight people live longer healthier lives.  These healthier people usually fall within a 18.5 to 24.9 bmi range.  So one must ask themselves, do I want to be a 250 lb. bodybuilder potentially shaving 10 years off of my life and risking joint injury and increasing organ wear and tear?.

Looking at studies and other more accessible resources you can start to formulate a life extension plan that fits the quality of life you want.  There are optimal ways of extending life span.  One such example is calorie restriction.  This is usually considered to be a reduction of 25% of calorie intake.  If you find such a routine too restrictive, then that might not be optimal for you.  Although you might not be able to follow exactly what’s optimal, don’t use that as an excuse to avoid keeping yourself healthy and fit.

Quality of Life should not be used as an excuse to fail to optimize your health and extend your life.  Many people use as an excuse that they don’t want to give up their pizza, beer, etc., and what difference does it make because we are all going to die anyway.  That defeatist line of thinking only creates severely obese individuals who die before the average person and are plagued in their later years with joint pain and other health issues related to obesity (not fun!)  We are all eventually going to die barring major advancements in gene therapy and the reinforcement of our fragile bodies, but that does not mean we shouldn’t attempt to live to 100 (essentially extending our life span by 20 years).  And who knows, if Aubrey De Grey is right, by extending your life you might actually live to and be able to experience a point in our human evolution where your longevity could be extended far beyond 100.  Some life extension practices through diet, exercise, and nutrition are exponentially better than none at all.

Here are some resources you can use for finding out more about life extension and devising your own plan:

1. Immortality Institute -  Excellent website/organization devoted to ending aging.  The most valuable part of the site in my opinion is the forums where a lot of discussion and debate takes place on life extension practices and philosophy.
2. Methuselah Foundation – Non-profit organization devoted to ending aging.
3. SENS Foundation – Organization devoted to rejuvenation biotechnologies to end aging.
4. Fight Aging – Life extension blog.
5. CR Society International – Organization devoted to the practice of calorie restriction.
6. Life Extension Foundation – Supplement company that produces a monthly magazine, onsite articles, and has a forum.  Some very interesting information and high quality supplements although much of their articles seem very promotional to selling their own supplements.

When discussing a healthy weight for an individual it is important to understand what is meant by “healthy”.  For the purposes of this article we are discussing the healthy body weight that will bring you the greatest probability of living your longest life possible.

It’s is almost impossible to deny that in general weighing less can add years onto your life span as opposed to being moderately or extremely obese.  There was probably one of the most comprehensive studies to date reported on at Oxford University in 2009 (http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090317.html).  The findings of the study of following almost 900,000 people for 10 to 15 years and 100,000 deaths later was that mortality in the study was least for people with a BMI (Body Mass Index = (mass(lb)*703)/(height(in))²) of 23 to 24, life span was reduced on average by 3 years for people of moderate obesity in the BMI 30 to 35 range, and life span was decreased by roughly 10 years for severely obese people in the BMI 40 to 50 range.  The study also noted that there was a higher death rate for people with a BMI far below 23 to 24, but a conclusion as to why this might be the case could not be drawn.

As an example here is a chart which demonstrates the weights given the 3 BMI categories in the study for an individual with a fixed height of 5’6”:

A BMI according to this study of less than 23 did show a higher death rate.  The study was unable to explain this cause.  But, the following book “Hu, Frank (2008). “Interpreting Epidemiologic Evidence and Causal Inference in Obesity Research”, may help to explain the lower bmi death rate. In Frank B. Hu. Obesity Epidemiology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 38–52. ISBN 0195312910” it is explained for instance that in elderly populations a very low bmi individual might be suffering from cancer, depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, cachexia, sarcopenia, and etc.  In addition the study probably did not take into account some of the smoking population which also might have low bmi and suffer from a higher death rate. It should be noted that a typical individual simply following a low calorie diet that brings their bmi less than, for example, 23, which was the lower limit in the study I presented may not be watching and taking care of their nutritional intake, but are simply eating fewer calories.  Thus a low calorie diet should not be confused with for instance the life extension practice of Calorie Restriction (CR), which can produce a lower bmi, but which focuses on less calories with more nutrition/life extending foods.  Note that studies about weight are not studies about calorie intake and there are many reasons that can account for low body weight other than calories.

Another interesting study that was found in “Obesity In Adulthood And It’s Consequences For Life Expectancy, The Annals Of Internal Medicine, January 2003”.  This study looked at the implications of obesity on 3457 individuals, which were then subdivided into 3 groups.  Group 1 was the normal bmi group (bmi<5), group 2 was the overweight group (bmi between 25 and 30) and the third group was the obese group (bmi>30).  After 40 years 1647 of the participants had died, roughly 47.6% of the total.  The finding were as followed:

• People in the obese group died on average 6-7 years earlier, regardless of gender or smoking status, when compared to those in the normal weight group.
• The overweight group saw a reduction in life span, by 3 years for smokers and 1 year for non smokers when compared to the normal weight group.
• Overweight female smokers did not show a statistically signifigant reduced life span when compared to female smokers of the normal range.

Now it goes without saying that BMI has it’s short comings, but for large sample studies like this it definitely makes a very conclusive argument that lighter people live longer on average.  Every individual has to be looked at individually when talking about specifics and there are always exceptions to the rule.  A study like this for example may not take into account an extremely fit individual with an unusually large bone structures who weighs more as a result of their bone structure and has a higher bmi.  Also consider an individual with a bmi of 23 (within the healthy range), but that eats junk food all day long and never exercises, obviously bmi may not be the best predictor of this individuals life span.  Still though when discussing longevity it is better to be light and fit then heavily muscled, thus weighing more, and fit.  Our organs and body no matter how fit you are, are still taxed more the heavier you are.

It should be noted though that being fit does compensate for weight in some regards as a recent study out of the Cooper institute showed that in some cases it is better to be overweight and fit as opposed to having a healthy bmi and being unfit.  This should not be misinterpreted though as it is always the best case scenario to fall within the healthy bmi  range and be fit.

Conclusion

It is generally then my recommendation that your body weight in relation to your height causes you to fall somewhere within the 18.5 to 24.9 healthy bmi range to achieve maximal longevity. The closer you are to 18.5 bmi the increasingly more important it becomes to micro manage your diet to ensure proper nutrition.  You can put on muscle without worrying to much about a detriment to your health up to 24.9 bmi. Although for individuals in a healthy bmi range increasing strength is always preferred to actually increasing muscle mass.

Forget the hype, all of it.  It comes from both sides of every issue.  Nothing is ever black or white.  Everything is a shade of grey.  Nutrition is a topic that can be very confusing.  Each article you read has a different take on proper nutrition.  Here it is at its most basic.  There are two types of nutrients; micro-nutrients and macro-nutrients.  Micro-nutrients are those required in small quantities.  Macro-nutrients are those required in large quantities.

There is a great deal of confusion about micro-nutrients.  First, micro-nutrients consist of vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals and various herbal supplements.  Some “experts” claim that you can achieve your needed nutrition through a proper diet.  There is a myriad of recommendations, such as, only eating organic foods or following the latest guru’s special diet.  Good luck.  Even if you could eat directly from the tree (plant, animal, etc.), you would fail to get what researchers are recognizing as optimal nutrition.  Additionally, your food loses some of its nutritional content as it travels to your home, is stored and gets prepared.  If you ate all of the necessary foods in the perfect quantities, you could probably get adequate nutrition to survive relatively well.  If you tried to go beyond getting adequate nutrition and opted for maximal nutrition you would need to eat so much raw and natural food that you would likely end up extremely overweight.  So, if your goal is to maximize your health, you will need to supplement micro-nutrients.  Attempting to supplement with a discount store multi-vitamin is hardly going to be adequate to keep you healthy.  Choose a high quality brand.  A little internet research will guide you to the better brands.  I’ve used Life Extension, Solaray, Twin Labs, AOR (Ortho-Core) and several other brands over the years.  There are many other high quality brands.  Ask at your local health food store or do the research, it’s your health.

Macro-nutrients consist of the big four (three plus one); fats, carbohydrates, proteins and fiber.  Fiber is really just an undigestible carbohydrate, but it is so critical to good health that I like to give it its own category.  All are necessary in quantity.  A typical adult might need somewhere in the area of 1500-2000 calories daily to maintain their weight and energy level.  Both, energy and weight (stored energy) are supplied by calories.  Calories come from the first three macro-nutrients.  Carbohydrates (carbs) and proteins supply 4 calories per gram of food.  Fats are calorie rich and supply 9 calories per gram, more than double the value of carbs and proteins.  It would take 167 grams of fat to supply 1500 calories.  That’s a lot of fat, too much fat.  Different theories abound as to how these calories should be divided.  Some of the older diets recommended eating mostly carbs.  Many vegetarians live by the carb.  They shun fats and take in only minimal amounts of protein.  Many vegetarians (not all) are thin and soft.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Choosing to be a vegetarian requires a bit more effort to balance out your diet and properly supplement.

On the other extreme we have those diets that avoid carbs.  These diets have shown how limiting carbs can bring about weight loss, maintain muscle, and avoid the high carb curse (diabetes, hypoglycemia, etc.).  The Adkins diet is a low carb diet.  It is great for weight loss, but even Adkins eventually adds the carbs back into the diet in a controlled manner.  Another diet option was the Sears diet.  He proposed a balanced diet; 30% of calories from carbs, 30% from proteins and 40% from fats (remember a gram of fat produces more than twice as many calories as a gram of carbs or proteins).  In grams this comes out to 38.5% carbs, 38.5% protein and 23% fats.  I find this to be a reasonable and balanced starting point.  The volume of food needs to be determined by your goals; losing weight, gaining weight, or sustaining your weight.  It is still not the answer for everyone.  Even the 30-30-40 balance can be adjusted depending upon your goals (strength training, endurance training, weight programs, etc).  It is, however, a good “middle of the road” starting point and will eliminate any gross imbalances.

Fats are necessary for health.  Unsaturated fats are often referred to as good fats.  Saturated fats in modest doses are not unhealthy, but if you choose to live on fast foods and high fat meats and dairy you will exceed what is acceptable to your body.  Additionally, trans-fats are never healthy.  Avoid them at all times.  Many packaged foods today proclaim they are free of trans-fat.  That is progress, but check the rest of the contents.  Having no trans-fats doesn’t make a food healthy, it just makes it less un-healthy.

One additional point related to calories.  Alcohol has 7 calories per gram!