A look at "Longevity Olympics" winning routine: This 55-year-old single mom makes less than $100k per year and is reverse aging without spending millions.

[Gordo]

https://fortune.com/well/article/reverse-aging-habits-daily-routine-single-mom-budget/amp/

Julie Gibson Clark is aging at 0.665 of a year for every chronological year she lives and ranks no.2 in a global online longevity game.

BY 

ALEXA MIKHAIL

December 09, 2023 5:00 AM EST

 

Clark’s results are more than impressive. In a global online longevity game called the Rejuvenation Olympics, ranking 4,000 people’s pace of aging averages across six months, Clark is in second place. She ranks higher than no.6 Bryan Johnson, the wealthy tech founder who spends $2 million per year on reverse aging, and no. 19 Peter Diamandis, whose venture fund has put $500 million into growing technologies, many of which are aimed at research and development for healthy aging and extending lifespan, according to his website. 

Unlike the tech millionaires using extreme anti-aging protocols like spending up to $1,000 an hour to see a rejuvenation doctor, Clark’s secret is somewhat ordinary. After all, she makes less than six figures a year and cannot afford to spend her savings trying to live forever since she will need enough to sustain her into extreme old age. She spends $27 a month on a gym membership and $79 a month on a supplement subscription from NOVOS, the company whose trial she entered and worked with to submit her results to the longevity leaderboard. 

 

“Eventually the wheels will fall off the bus, and I’m like, well, mine aren’t falling off anytime soon,” Clark previously told Fortune. “So I’m going to do everything I can to keep the bus in good order.”

 

So what’s her daily routine? Turns out, you can do it, too. “This stuff has to just kind of be like brushing your teeth,” Clark says. 

A vegetable-rich diet

Clark typically consumes about 16 ounces of vegetables daily, snacking on carrots, radishes, and peppers during the workday. The majority, though, she gets through salads and soups. Eating a diverse array of whole foods, such as a range of vegetables, is associated with a strong gut, which can boost the immune system and keep the body healthy. 

Clark also limits the amount of refined sugars and grains she eats, which contain fewer nutrients than complex carbohydrates. 

Strength and cardio 

When Clark heads to the gym, she does a mix of cardio and strength workouts each week: Two days of upper body workouts with weights, two days of lower body with weights, and one day of strength-training targeting her midsection. She also does about 20 to 30 minutes of cardio four times a week. 

On the weekends, Clark hikes, kayaks, plays pickleball, or takes a long walk.  

 

Especially as people age, incorporating strength training into the week can help combat age-related muscle loss. Finding an exercise you enjoy can help you stick with it. 

 

A sauna and a cold shower

At least three times a week, Clark uses the sauna for 20 minutes before taking a cold shower. 

 

Longevity experts swear by cold and hot immersion to stress the body. As longevity expert Dr. Mark Hyman previously told Fortune, “a stress that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Heat immersion like a sauna can activate longevity pathways, he says. “You’ll end up increasing heat shock proteins which clean up all damaged proteins and boost your immune system and increase your cardiovascular health,” Hyman says. 

A cold shower, similar to the cold plunge, can do more than improve alertness. It can release adrenaline and keep the body resilient—a biological process known as hormesis, which can reduce inflammation. 

[mccoy]

Should we too subscribe to the NOVOS supplements pack for longevity? And get a gym membership on top of it?

 

 

[Gordo]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:09 PM, mccoy said:

Should we too subscribe to the NOVOS supplements pack for longevity? And get a gym membership on top of it?

My guess is that the supplements do nothing, gym membership not needed.  Veggie rich diet, limited refined sugars, cold showers, sauna, walking, cardio and strength training are what's important in her routine along with a lower than average BMI.

I like this idea of a competition with testing ("Longevity Olympics").  Everyone has their ideas, but lets let the science do the talking so we can figure out what really works.  This is what I like about what Bryan Johnson is doing (insane levels of testing), but if we can do something with hundreds or thousands of longevity enthusiasts we should be able to get a much better understanding of what works best and who's routines are producing the best results.  But I think we all know that most of this stuff is only going to shift your results in small ways, new technology will be required for big gains.

[drewab]

I recently have been reading about Dave Pascoe who ranks #6 on the "Rejuvenation Olympics" leaderboard. He looks fantastic and has a pretty solid regime that many people here will find of interest. 

Dave's comprehensive website is here. The brief article below is here. 

Who we're talking about: Dave Pascoe, a retired systems engineer. Pascoe is 61 years old, but he looks (and physically is) more like a 38-year-old.

And the news is: Pascoe currently sits at #6 on the Rejuvenation Olympics relative leaderboard, one spot above Rejuvenation Olympics founder Bryan Johnson. Pascoe's epigenetic age is 37.95, and his speed of aging is 0.66 biological years for every calendar year.

How does Pascoe stay so young? His philosophy is to look at what successful slow-agers are doing and emulate that. That's translated into many longevity interventions:

• Exercise every day

• Diet consisting of whole foods, mainly fruits, vegetables, and seafood

• Cold therapy

• Plasma donations to gradually filter his blood

• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

• Occasional fasting

• Rapamycin

• 120 supplements daily

Whoa, hold on: Pascoe's approach might sound demanding to you, but it's quite subdued compared to the longevity regimen of someone like Bryan Johnson.

Unlike Johnson, Pascoe doesn't restrict calories, isn't vegan, doesn’t use testosterone replacement therapy, and doesn't get a battery of tests to check on each of his organs. He estimates his entire protocol costs less than $30k per year, compared to Johnson's $2M per year.

So what does this mean for you? Pascoe's results show that extending healthspan (and remarkably youthful looks) is possible using interventions available today at a manageable budget.

If you'd like to find out Pascoe’s entire regimen, he documents it on his site. It's worth taking a look there. In the words of Pascoe himself, "I only wish I knew & applied everything I know now, decades ago!"

  

[Gordo]

3 hours ago, drewab said:

• Rapamycin

• 120 supplements daily

👍 I like these profiles of longevity olympians, but the fact is he is still being beaten by Julie Gibson Clark who doesn't take rapamycin or 120 supplements a day 😇 

And the other sad fact is that all of these routines will only get you to about age 92 give or take a few years.  

[TomBAvoider]

22 hours ago, Gordo said:

👍 I like these profiles of longevity olympians, but the fact is he is still being beaten by Julie Gibson Clark who doesn't take rapamycin or 120 supplements a day 😇 

And the other sad fact is that all of these routines will only get you to about age 92 give or take a few years.  

Yes, without some substantial genetic interventions, you are not going to gain more than a few years at most (even assuming that something like rapa actually slows down the rate of ageing in humans). It seems, that pharmacological agents are much less effective in longer lived species. The simpler the organism, the greater the effect - worms longer than mice, mice longer than dogs, monkeys and humans barely if at all. Healthy living (diet, exercise, avoiding alcohol, tobacco etc.) will simply allow you to come closer to your maximal lifespan potential, whatever that may be - for some of us, our bodies even with the best care were not designed for more than 80 or so, others have bodies with 100+ potential. 

But for real extention, lifestyle or even drugs are useless. For that, it comes down to genetic alterations. No matter how you starve, feed, exercise, drug or supplement a mouse, you are never going to get it to live as long as a naked mole rat. They have different genes. Until we humans alter our genes, we will gain next to nothing substantial. Some animals live for 200-500 years - it's not lifestyle, it's genes.

And sadly, for anyone alive today, such genetic interventions will probably not be available. That will happen only for some lucky future generations.

So why bother at all today, with our poor tools of lifestyle (and maybe drugs)? Personally, I'm shooting for healthspan. I don't count on 100+; I'm hoping that if all I get to is 85, at least I'll be a highly functioning 85, both physically and especially mentally - and even that is a very, very big ask and challenge... just look at all those lifelong health freaks who only last to their 70's or 80's often with pitiful mental capacities remaining. It's not easy to overcome your genetic destiny and limitations. All those healthy and still capable 90+ year olds? Quite rare, statistically. You hear about them precisely because they're rare. And btw., they often don't engage in especially dedicated health routines. It's mostly genes and luck. Think of Jack LaLanne and his brother. Jack was a lifelong diet and exercise freak who dedicated countless hours to taking care of his health - he didn't even make it to a 100. His brother, who did none of this, lived just as long as Jack (I think even a couple months longer). And both of them have been outlived by centennarians who have done nothing healthwise either. It's mostly genes. Just because you dedicate your life to your health guarantees nothing, as countless health gurus who drop dead early on, demonstrate (speaking of "outlive" - for some reason I have a feeling Peter Attia will not be beating any longevity records... sadly, he may not even participate in the sport he's been dedicating himself to - the "centennarian olympics").

That's why, if you manage to affect your healthspan even a little by all your efforts, you have truly accomplished a very difficult task. I'll count myself as very lucky to be a high funtioning 85-year old. More I don't have much hope for.

Genetic alterations, the only real hope for humanity. 

[drewab]

Julie Gibson Clark recently did an episode of the Ben Greenfield podcast. In this episode Julie shares about:

• The protocol that she has used to obtain her results as part of the rejuvenation olympics. 
• Her diet, exercise, sleep, meditation, and heat/cold routines.
• Her younger years and the significant stress she faced (divorced, frequent moving, lumps in her breast, kidnapping attempt at knifepoint). 
• Her genetic profile and it's possible influence on her results.
• Her eating window, use of NOVOS/supplements, and discovery of Bryan Johnson.
• Her love of cooking, the importance of eating in a parasympathetic state, her intersection with religion/spirituality. 

In some ways, what punctuates most of this is how "down-to-earth"  Julie is about her protocols in particular. She follows them most of the time (about days per week) but still enjoys meals out with friends/family on the weekend and isn't too obsessive about her protocol. Julie doesn't go off the rails and is still sensible but has struck a balance that many people would find appealing. 

 

[Jim Pearce]

Hm. My father died at 53 from diabetes and related health problems. 

I'm 67.

I was diabetic in 2014, had high blood pressure, and total cholesterol of 260. I'm sure my cholesterol reached higher levels and I just didn't know about it at the time. 

I can accept the fact that I had all that going on because of my genes.

My total cholesterol now is around 150, my blood pressure is quite often 105-115/56-65, and I am not diabetic.

In August, my LDL was 93, my HDL was 59, and my triglycerides were 76.

All of which will be lower by now, as I've dropped about 15 pounds since then. I know from past experience what happens to those numbers when I lose weight. 

Doomed by your genes? I think not.

Edited October 14 by Jim Pearce

[Jim Pearce]

I'm not going to freeze myself. I don't like being cold.

I do, however, routinely go hiking up the mountain when it's 105 degrees or more, and that dirt road bakes in the heat. I'll often go 8 or 10 miles round trip. That's as far as I can go in the heat without a drink. I carry water but it's for my poor dog who needs a drink before we get back far more than I do.

Lots of big hills on the Gladetop trail here in the Ozarks. 

Edited October 14 by Jim Pearce