Key Takeaways and Final Advice

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And thanks to flexible cancellation, there's no more lodges all book folks oh cast and robber coming now with booking.com you're free to be flexible oh easy so you can go from home to holiday home with no dramas bigger place booked on booking .com, finding a holiday home is easy. And Booking.com, Booking. Terms apply. Available on selected properties. You can't do much in under five minutes. Boil an egg? Sure. Cook a roast dinner? No chance. But comparing car insurance prices with mustard.co.uk ? Easy. See what you could save in just a few minutes. Click mustard.co. uk. Authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. See website for details. Hi, I'm Catherine Ryan and welcome to Dr. Nicholas's second opinion, the bonus podcast, where science gets a front seat and aging gets a reality check. We're taking a deeper dive into the science we talked about on this week's show and giving you more details from our resident scientists' insight into our celebrity results . Plus, we're breaking down what it all means for your biological age. Stick around for your questions and of course Dr. Nick's quick fix to help you age smarter starting today. This week, Dr. Nick is going to take a closer look at Dame Prue Leith's astonishing biological age results. Dr. Nicola's second opinion. Hello and welcome back to Second Opinion. I'm Dr. Nicola Conlan, and in our recent episode with Prue Leith, we had quite an extraordinary result. And if you haven't listened to that episode yet and you don't want to spoil the result, I suggest that you pause this now and go back and listen to that episode first. Because I can reveal that your biological age is 48. Oh right, that's right then. 38 years younger, which is the biggest gap that we have ever had on the show. And just to put that into context, Prue is 8 6 . Now, when we see a result like that, it's tempting to look for some sort of secret. Maybe is she taking some supplements or has some sort of miracle routine or maybe a hidden longevity hack. But when you listen carefully to Pru's episode, what you'll actually hear is something that is far less dramatic and actually far more powerful, and that is consistency. So in this episode, I want to really unpack what I think Prue is doing right and why it aligns beautifully with what the science tells us about healthy aging . So let's just start by looking at the science behind Prue's lifestyle. And let's begin with her food. Because Prue is a Michelin star chef, and she told me that she has never eaten an ultra-processed food ever. In fact she couldn't even name one. I eat very healthily. I don't eat um neurotically healthily. I'm not on some keto diet or anything. I just cook everything from fresh. We never buy ultra processed anything. And it's not a religion, it's just that I like cooking and I like cooking from scratch and I like healthy food. And we buy all our veg from a local f farm's market, so it's really fresh. Now that might sound almost unbelievable in today's world, but biologically we see this in her result because ultra-processed foods are typically very high in things like refined sugars, industrial seed oils, additives, and they're also really low in fiber and micronutrients. And diets that are high in ultra-processed food have been associated with increased inflammation, poor metabolic health, higher cardiovascular risk, and all of these that we see are linked to age-related diseases. But by eating a really good whole and minimally processed food diet across decades, Prue is likely being able to have a much more stable blood sugar. She's probably had a lot less inflammation during her lifespan. And also a lot more gut diversity. She's eaten a big variety of different types of plants and flavorings and nuts and seeds and herbs and spices and all of these will support a really good microbi ome. And what you'll see is that this isn't about perfection when it comes to diet because we all know that through her job on the bake-off, she does like to eat cake. But this is about consistent patterns. So a diet isn't restrictive, it's a real diet , but that consistency of no ultra-processed food over decades has likely added up to great benefit . Now the second thing that really stood out to me was her sleep. So she said that she sleeps over eight hours a night and she also schedules in an afternoon nap. Even if she's filming, she doesn't squeeze sleep in around her life, she actually builds her life around protecting her sleep, and she said that is very important to her. And from a biological perspective, that's really powerful because during deep sleep, the brain literally clears waste using a system called the gymphatic system . And tissue repair is enhanced and also inflammation drops. But when we're sleep deprived on the other hand, this will increase our cortisol, it increases inflammation, it impairs our glucose regulation. And all of these we know will push our biological age up. If I had an hour off here before my next meeting and you said y I could lie here, I could just fall asleep for an hour. Really? I can sleep anywhere and I go to sleep very quickly. And I sleep eight hours every night, almost without fail, always. Perfect. Now the fact that Prue protects us sleep so deliberately, it's likely supporting all of her immune system, her resilience, and all of her cellular repair . The third thing that really stood out for me, and I'd say this is something that we really do underestimate a lot, is happiness and purpose because Prue described herself as very happy. In fact, she said this multiple times. She said she feels purposeful. She has good strong relationships with a partner and also a family or children. She still works, she remains intellectually engaged. And these positive social connections correlate with lower inflammation and better immune function. So this psychological well being influences our cardiovascular systems and also our cognitive function. Whereas chronic loneliness and stress on the other hand will accelerate our biological age. Because I'm really happy and I've had a very happy life. And I've had a tremendously lucky life. Of course there have been some prob you know, you don't get to be eighty six without a bit of m you know, I mean when my first husband died that was uh widowhood. The first the first year two years of widowhood really sucks I mean that's horrible but that was years ago and it happens to everybody. Now it's important to also acknowledge that as we move into our 80s and beyond, our biology does change. So our cells don't function as well, and this can reduce our ability to bounce back from stress, injury, and illness. So the question is: how is Prue avoiding this? Because she didn't have any real age-related concerns. And that's very unusual for someone in the 80s. And I'd say it's most likely that she isn't avoiding agent, but she's actually buffering it with her lifestyle. And what's striking is that she's not really doing anything extreme. So she's not doing crazy ice baths or restrictive biohacks or obsession over anything to do with her lifestyle. She's just living. She's eating real food, she sleeps properly, she maintains good relationships and just continues to engage with life. And this shows us that all of this stuff that I constantly go on about on the podcast, all of this good, healthy lifestyle stuff really does work. And this proves it. This really shows what decades of consistency and having an evidence-based healthy lifestyle actually looks like in action. Dr. Nicola's second opinion Okay, so let's get into your questions now. And on this episode, it's a case of Ask Me Anything, and Catherine's got the first one for us. First up is Beth, who's 45. She says, hi Dr. Nick, I'd love to hear your thoughts on fasting, not extreme versions, just time restricted eating. What does the science say about its impact on longevity for women. Hi Beth, and thank you for your question. I am really glad that you specified not extreme versions because that is exactly how I feel about this too. So, time-restricted eating, so simply shortening your eating window, has some really solid evidence behind it, particularly for your metabolic health. So it can improve your insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammation, and support this metabolic flexibility that I was talking about, which is your body's ability to switch between burning glucose and fat. And this metabolic health is very tightly linked to a better biological age. But for women, context really does matter. So if you feel that this fasting is improving your energy, your digestion, your sleep, things like that, it's likely supportive but if you feel that fasting starts to increase anxiety, it's disrupting your sleep, it's affecting your menstrual cycle, then that is a sign that it might be too aggressive for your body. And this is definitely a personal thing, but women don't tend to do as well on longer fasts. So I would say for a woman, especially someone in the 40s and beyond, a 12 to 14 hour overnight fast is definitely sufficient to support the repair activate and pathways without stressing your system out too much. So the next question is on email. It's from Zara3 8, and she says, I'm trying to understand how much genetics really matters to aging? If my family has a history of living long lives, does that mean I'm likely to age well? How much can lifestyle override genetics? Okay, that's a really good question. Many people believe that genetics is their destiny and absolutely it can play a role, but it's much less than people think. So most research suggests that only about twenty percent of our lifespan is determined by our genetics. So the rest is actually influenced by our environment and our lifestyle. So if your family tends to live long lives, then that's encouraging. It may mean that you've inherited some protective genes, but these are definitely not your destiny because lifestyle can amplify good genetics, but it can also dampen them. And interestingly, in studies of long-lived populations, shared lifestyle patterns often matter just as much as shared DNA. So diet, social connection, daily movement, purpose, all of these things will modify how your genes are expressed. So kind of think of genetics as the blueprint, but lifestyle is how the blueprint plays out. This episode of What's My Age Again is sponsored by MedExpress, the UK online pharmacy. 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