- Venki Ramakrishnan is a Nobel laureate and author of “Why We Die.”
- He thinks there’s excessive hype around longevity, but there have been some breakthroughs.
- Ramakrishnan, 72, leads an active life and cooks from scratch.
Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel laureate and former president of the world’s oldest scientific academy, the Royal Society, has been watching as aging science and the hype around it has exploded.
In the last 10 years alone, more than 300,000 scientific articles on aging have been published, and more than 700 start-ups have invested tens of billions of dollars into aging research, the microbiologist based in Cambridge, UK, writes in his book “Why We Die.”
There have been some real scientific breakthroughs, deepening our understanding of the fundamental causes of aging, Ramakrishnan told Business Insider. But despite what companies who have jumped on the bandwagon will have you believe, “we’re not there yet,” when it comes to translating that research into real-life treatments, he said.
The global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market was valued at $25.1 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $44.2 billion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research group.
Unlike medications prescribed by doctors, biohacking treatments such as ozone therapy and ostensible longevity-boosting supplements like NAD+ aren’t rigorously tested and approved by the FDA before hitting the market.
“I wouldn’t spend enormous amounts of money on supplements until they’re very well established to have a real benefit. I would wait for the evidence, but people always feel they can’t wait because the clock is ticking. That’s what I think a lot of these businesses capitalize on,” he said.
“I’m not negative about longevity research or the science. There’s a lot of very good science going on, but I am negative about some of the excessive hype,” he said. He wrote his book to inject a note of realism into the space, he said.
Ramakrishnan, 72, shared three simple, evidence-based lifestyle choices he prioritizes as he gets older.
Eating nutritious food in modest portions
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How we eat can have a huge impact on our health. Eating a diet high in ultra-processed foods, for example, has been linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
Following a Mediterranean-style diet, filled with lots of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains, has meanwhile been linked to living a longer life.
Ramakrishnan tries to eat a good mixture of protein, fruits and vegetables, and fiber, he said. He’s a lifelong vegetarian and always cooks from scratch using basic ingredients.
He also believes portion control is important and subscribes to the writer Michael Pollan‘s famous food rule: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Cycling everyday
Exercise has all kinds of benefits for healthy aging, Ramakrishnan said. It helps many components of the body, including muscle cells and mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, regenerate.
As well as cycling at least six miles a day as he doesn’t have a car, Ramakrishnan goes to the gym a few days a week where he does both strength training and aerobic exercise.
“You need to do both cardiovascular exercise and weight-bearing exercise. One for keeping your cardiovascular system healthy, the other for maintaining muscle mass and strength,” he said.
In a 2022 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, based on data from 100,000 US adults with an average age of 71, people who lifted weights and did 150 to 300 minutes of aerobic exercise a week were 41% less likely to die of any cause compared with their sedentary peers.
Getting eight hours of sleep per night
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Ramakrishnan likes to get eight hours of sleep each night. During the sleep cycle, the body repairs a lot of the wear-and-tear we accumulate from day-to-day life, he said: “It’s a way of resetting things and regenerating things.”
Research suggests that getting enough good quality sleep could add a few years to your life. In a preliminary study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 2023 Annual Scientific Session, researchers identified five measures of quality sleep: Sleeping seven to eight hours a night; having difficulty falling asleep no more than two times a week; trouble staying asleep no more than two times a week; not using any sleep medication; and feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week.
Of the 172,321 people involved in the study, men who reported having all five quality sleep measures were expected to live 4.7 years longer than those who had none or only one. Women with all five lived 2.4 years longer.
“Sleep is much more important than people have realized,” Ramakrishnan said.
