Elderly or wellderly? Ageing well matters. Take your pick.

We’ll hear a lot in the future about this new word – “wellderly”. It was coined by an American cardiologist, Dr. Eric Topol, who has just come out with a book called Super Agers* that grew out of a long study of unusually healthy 80 year-olds.

The findings are of startling importance. They overturn long-held assumptions about ageing. They point the way to a happier old age. They have nothing to do with pills or potions. And they will cost you nothing.

And here, based on the book, is a simple test of whether you qualify as “wellderly”.

1.   You have no chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s or diabetes.

2.   You are physically active including throwing weights.

3.   You consider yourself reasonably well educated.

4.   You don’t suffer from depression.

5.   You sleep deeply without relying on drugs or supplements.

6.   You get yourself outdoors a lot.

7.   You ignore most of the advice of longevity influencers.

8.   You're not too concerned with wearables giving you a ton of data about sleep patterns, blood sugar levels and so on.

As a review of Super Agers in the New York Times in May explains, Dr. Topol has done his homework. A molecular scientist with no less than 1,300 research articles and many books to his credit, he’s the founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, a mouthful of a name for an organisation that aims to transform healthcare. And if this study is anything to go by, they’re well on the way.

About 20 years ago his team of researchers stumbled across what the NYT describes as a “striking phenomenon”, namely that most older adults suffer from at least two chronic diseases while a lucky few reach their eighties without a major illness. Having discovered this, the researchers firmly believed that these 'wellderly' were lucky because they happened to be born with better genetics than everybody else. But when they set about proving these convictions, they got a shock. After sequencing the genomes of 1,400 of “these ageing outliers”, they found, writes the NYT “almost no difference between their biological make-up and that of their peers”.

So it wasn’t genetics then. But they did find something more startling:  these wellderly were “more physically active, more social and typically better educated than the general public”.

Hence the study arrived at a different conclusion. Instead of relying on expensive tests of doubtful effectiveness and other “anti-ageing” solutions, a healthy longevity is better explained by lifestyle.

In a nutshell, by things we can do ourselves.

The NYT: “With these tools and new scientific insight into how lifestyle drives the biological breakdown that comes with age, we can now do more than ever to delay that process”.

Must say, this particular octogenarian feels a little smug about all this. Although I know that some kind of chronic disease may be around the corner and I take nothing for granted, I am pleased to say that I’ve spent my entire life ticking all of Dr.Topol’s boxes.

I have no ailments and take no medication. I strength train nearly every day, mainly with tension bands. I suffer from excessive optimism (and am grateful to have avoided depression.) I sleep well without recourse to pills or wearables - although I do enjoy a cold beer or glass of red wine. I run or bike outside several times a week, usually in the “green places” that Super Agers recommends. And the only health-related data I follow is my training log about which I’m conscientious. 

I know a lot of older, fit people who are having the time of their lives.

As this book makes clear, it’s mainly up to us.

*Super Agers: An evidence-based approach to longevity based on the Wellderly study.