SYDNEY, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The science behind how and why we age came under the microscope in Sydney this week at the 2019 Australian Biology of Ageing Conference which opened on Monday.
The aim of the conference is to explore how genetic, dietary and pharmacological factors influence how we grow old and to use scientific knowledge to extend life expectancy and general health.
Presentations included cutting edge advances in delaying age-related diseases and improving health through advanced understanding of human biology.
However, Professor Luigi Fontana from the University of Sydney who presented his research at the conference, using the latest evidence reiterated a more traditional approach -- diet and exercise.
“If people ate well and exercised, hospitals would be 80 percent empty,” Fontana said in an outline of his research.
“I have found that despite a view of diseases as suddenly cropping up, they often develop in our bodies over decades -- therefore, they can often be prevented from occurring in the first place.”
Fontana’s four steps to living longer are -- substitute refined and processed foods for those rich in vegetable fibre, stop eating when we are 80 percent full, eat most of our food within a restricted time frame (such as over ten hours during the day), and finally, at least once or twice a week, eat only “non-starchy raw or cooked vegetables dressed with extra-virgin olive oil.”
He also advises that we limit protein intake as, in tests on mice, high protein diets have been shown to shorten lifespans.
“Though heart disease is the top cause of death in Western countries, patients can increase their life span by, on average, 11 years, if they have optimal cardiometabolic risk factors,” Fontana said.
“So why… do we often neglect diet when treating, not to mention preventing disease?”
Australian Biology of Ageing Conference takes place from Monday to Wednesday.
