How to unlock your personal health span?

Nigel Masters is a retired general medical practitioner. He summarises incoming medical notes. He has two active medical websites: https://www.smokingpackyears.com and https://www.clinicalindications.co.uk

We retired general medical practitioners strive to live long and well. The polypill¹ might provide one part of this strategy. It is easy to take and as long as you have no side effects seems greatly beneficial. Of course, I was aware of the 2003 polypill paper in the British Medical Journal² and have been on a cocktail of two antihypertension drugs at their lowest dose for over ten years. I have avoided aspirin which was in the original polypill as bleeding is a significant hazard. In addition, I do not tolerate statins due to troublesome gastrointestinal symptoms. My ‘white coat hypertension’ was discovered when I was being investigated for a blocked femoral artery in my left leg in my late fifties (cause unknown). This remains blocked and this in part explains why I need to exercise to keep my lower leg collateral blood vessels open.

So (apart from a Southern mediterranean diet) my main ‘health span’ extras are jogging and walking. The Copenhagen City Heart Study³ suggests an extra 6.2 years of life at my age of seventy-one by doing at least two light jogs of half an hour duration. Think Tortoise rather than the Hare for running in older age. Here Parkrun is so useful as a motivator, and I have described this in the past.⁴ In addition, low dose exercise can prevent atrial fibrillation.⁵

Parkrun now has Park Walk version⁶ which can help people reach their daily step count. As little as 2400 steps daily can start reducing cardiovascular mortality and 4000 all-cause mortality (6). I attend a London walking group once midweek as part of my fitness regime and this occurs whatever the weather. Like Aesop’s Hare I do occasionally take a midday nap. I remain unconvinced that red wine is a healthy tipple but still partake. Inheriting good familial longevity genes could give one a head starts in the living long and well race, but I have a very mixed bag so running is my elixir of youth in an attempt to stretch those life limiting telomeres.

References

1. Misselbrook D. A Secret Medicine BJGP Life 20^th July 2024. https://bjgplife.com/a-secret-medicine/ [accesseed 13/9/24]
2. Law MR, Wald NJ, Morris JK et al. Value of Low Dose combination treatment with blood pressure lowering drugs: analysis of 354 randomised trials BMJ 2003;326:1427-31 doi: 10.1136/bmj.326.7404,1427pmid12829554
3. Schnohr P, O’Keefe JH, Marott JL et al. Dose of jogging and long-term mortality: the Copenhagen City Heart Study J Am Coll Cardiol 2015 10;65(5):411-9. Doi: 10.1016/j.acc.2014.11.023
4. Zacher J, Filipovic K, Predel G et al. Exercise and Atrial Fibrillation: the Dose makes the Poison? A Narrative Review. Int J Sports Med 2024 ;45(1) :17-22 doi :10.1055/a-2152-7628 pmid37802082
5. Masters N. Parkrun eases the loneliness of the long-distance runner. Br J Gen Pract. 2014 Aug;64(625):408. doi: 10.3399/bjgp14X681025. PMID: 25071043; PMCID: PMC4111323.
6. https://blog.parkrun.com/uk/2023/10/19/over-one-million-global-parkwalks/ [accessed 13/9/24]
7. Banach M, Lewek J, Surma S et al. The association between daily step count and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis . European Journal of Preventative Cardiology 2023;30(18) :1975-85 https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad229

Featured Photo by Nathalie Désirée Mottet on Unsplash