Longer Life: What Does Science Say?

It is on.

Dr. Eric Verdin, thank you for coming on On.

Thank you for having me.

So you're, you're at the forefront of some of the most interesting ideas in this field.

So the first question, what is something about aging that would surprise the average person? And what do people get wrong about aging?

Wow, that, that's a big question.

It is.

Uh, what would surprise people is, um, how much control you actually have over the way you're going to age at the end of your life.

You know, many of us, uh, live through life sort of hoping for the best, uh, flying blind mostly.

Mm-hmm.

This is the state of medicine today, and I think, uh, there's a what I call a revolution happening in the way that we're finding out that the way you live can have a, a, a absolutely dramatic impact on how you're going to, uh, spend the, the later years of your life.

And in some way, that's the message I've been trying to spread because-

Yeah

...

I think it's an incredibly, uh, optimistic and positive message-

Mm

... versus a fatalistic sort of, uh, you know, "My parents didn't live very old.

Well, I might as well have another cigarette."

Right.

Right.

So what, what do people get wrong, would you say? Is that idea that you have to be sort of a decrepit person no matter what happens, like it's just the way, it's inevitable kind of thing?

Yeah, sort of a very fat- fatalistic view of their own aging.

What they get wrong also is the, the intensity of what needs to be done to actually get maximum benefits.

And I-

Mm