Editor’s note: This article has been reprinted. Originally published July 21, 2024.
I spoke with Siemland, author of the book ‘The Longevity Leap’, about the keys to optimizing health and longevity. Maintaining ‘biological youth’ is the most important factor in longevity, but the question is how to achieve this as we age.
Land’s book contains 8,000 references in 500 pages, making it a great resource for an in-depth look at strategies to help you stay biologically young. He is a leader in the field of longevity and he continues to make strides. He implements the programs he talks about and is a great example of good management of biology. Land, who lives in Estonia, is chronologically 29 years old, but claims the biological ages of his organs are much younger, at 17 overall and 9 for his liver.
It is interesting that these estimates are based on relatively new epigenetic and biological age tests, but it is not yet known whether the results translate into longer lifespans. I personally don’t have much trust in them and believe they are flawed. The land is described as follows:1
“What does it mean if you have a 9-year-old’s liver? Does that mean he could live exponentially longer than anyone else? We don’t have that data yet. I’m not going to focus too much on the test itself, but rather look at traditional biomarkers like glucose, inflammation, etc.”
Historically, many mistakes have been made in longevity research, particularly in focusing on extreme calorie, carbohydrate, and protein restriction.2
“The practical result is that you eat very little food and become very weak and thin. But in the real world, we are now starting to see that frailty is a huge risk factor for premature death and mortality. And malnutrition itself increases the risk of developing a variety of diseases, all-cause mortality, neurodegeneration and heart disease.
“I think the field is now starting to evaluate much more tangible, practical, functional outcomes, such as muscle strength, body composition, and other biomarkers that move more from the theoretical side of biological aging.”
Optimal protein and carbohydrate intake for longevity
Land and I agree that most adults need about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight (ideally not necessarily your current body weight) for proper muscle maintenance and growth, or for Europeans, about 1.76 grams of protein per pound.
“Eating too much can be problematic in terms of kidney health and homocysteine levels. Eating too little can put you at risk for sarcopenia and weakness,” says Land. When it comes to carbohydrates, we also agree that low-carb diets are generally not optimal for longevity.
Land cites research showing that moderate carbohydrate intake is associated with the lowest risk of death. “Carbohydrates, too, are often thought to be bad for your health. At least in observational studies, the opposite is true: carbohydrates are generally associated with the lowest risk, so 40 to 55 percent of calories are associated with the lowest risk,” he says.3
Land argues that while low-carb diets may be beneficial in the short term for certain individuals, long-term carbohydrate restriction may impair metabolic flexibility.4
“In the short term, someone can have prediabetes or insulin resistance, and in the short term, it makes sense to adjust their carbohydrate intake a little bit to restore some of their insulin sensitivity. But chronic ketosis, chronic low carbohydrates, impairs long-term insulin sensitivity.”
In fact, adequate carbohydrate intake is critical for optimal mitochondrial function and overall health. This is the optimal fuel for your mitochondria, but most people don’t eat enough healthy carbohydrates. If they are metabolically healthy, most adults need at least 200 to 250 grams of carbohydrates each day, while active individuals need closer to 400 grams. Chronically restricting carbohydrates can increase stress hormone production and cause muscle breakdown.
Although many people experience initial health improvements with low-carb diets, these benefits are usually not sustainable over the long term. The short-term benefits occur because you no longer feed your gut with harmful bacteria, reducing the production of endotoxins that can damage your overall health. However, over the long term, not consuming enough healthy carbohydrates will cause your mitochondrial health to suffer.
Low-carb diets provide temporary relief from symptoms by starving harmful bacteria, but they do not address underlying mitochondrial and gut health issues. A more sustainable approach involves addressing root causes, including improving mitochondrial function, reducing exposure to environmental toxins, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals from seed oils, plastics, and electromagnetic fields (EMFs), and supporting a healthy gut microbiome balance.
The most powerful intervention to maintain biological youth
When asked how to maintain biological youth, Land says exercise is probably the most powerful intervention.5
“Perhaps the most powerful way to fight biological aging is moderate exercise. Just staying physically active targets all the hallmarks of aging in a positive way. It improves the function of all organs and also improves the risk of all chronic diseases. It targets everything you need to slow down biological aging.”
As highlighted in Dr. James O’Keefe’s groundbreaking research:6 Exercising too vigorously can be harmful, so finding the right balance is important. Land found that for vigorous exercise, such as resistance training, the optimal amount of time is about 140 to 200 minutes per week.
Rand adjusted his routine based on this data. “I’m doing about 180 minutes of resistance training, maybe 150 to 180 minutes, three times a week, cycling between upper body, lower body or push-pull leg splits,” he says.7
We also reduced resistance training to three days a week to account for the potential risks of overtraining, but most people need more exercise. Moderate intensity exercise, such as walking, is an ideal form of physical activity because it is very difficult to overexert yourself.
The Importance of Protein Quality and Collagen
It’s not just the quantity of protein that matters, but also its quality and amino acid balance. Often overlooked, glycine and collagen are among the most important ingredients. The land is described as follows:8
“Glycine is conditionally essential, not essential, because the body produces 3 grams of glycine per day. But those 3 grams are used for things like creatine synthesis. But for collagen conversion, like optimal collagen turnover, there’s 12 grams of glycine.”
Most people are deficient because they consume only 0 to 1 gram of collagen protein each day. About one-third of total body protein is collagen, so it is important to consume adequate collagen through foods such as bone broth or grass-fed ground beef, which contain connective tissue or glycine, which supports connective tissue health.
Prevalence of insulin resistance and metabolic disorders
Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) is a test discovered in 1985 that is the gold standard for measuring insulin resistance. Using HOMA-IR data, up to 99% of the U.S. population may have some degree of insulin resistance. Using this test is a simple way to assess your metabolic health.
You can find out your HOMA-IR using two simple tests: fasting blood sugar, which you can do at home, and fasting insulin levels, an inexpensive test. Multiply these two numbers and divide by 405 if you are in the US, or by 22 if you are in Europe as they use different units than the US. If your result is less than 1, you do not have insulin resistance. A lucky group of people, less than 1% of the population, do not have insulin resistance.
Land agreed that this is a useful indicator, while emphasizing the importance of looking at multiple biomarkers to assess metabolic health.
The importance of sunlight and vitamin D
We also discussed the importance of sun exposure and maintaining optimal vitamin D levels. Land, who lives in high-latitude Estonia, maintains her vitamin D levels by exposing herself to sunlight when possible and using diet and supplements when necessary.
The sun is one of the most important factors in longevity, perhaps comparable to exercise. I think it’s almost biologically impossible to be healthy without enough exposure to sunlight. If you live in an area where year-round exposure to sunlight is not practical, one way to compensate is to use topical lanolin.
Applying lanolin to your skin before sun exposure is especially useful if you are concerned about photoaging, as it enhances sunlight-induced vitamin D production and helps reduce skin dryness, cracking, wrinkles, and cracks.
However, if your diet is rich in vegetable oils, you should be extra careful about sun exposure. This oil is high in linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid that is easily oxidized when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. When sunlight interacts with skin containing these oils, they break down, causing inflammation and DNA damage.
Therefore, if you have consumed these oils, it is recommended that you limit your sun exposure early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Ideally, you should refrain from using seed oils until they have been used for 4 to 6 months.
Practical Recommendations for Longevity
By focusing on the fundamental aspects of your health, from mitochondrial function and gut health to exercise and nutritional balance, you can significantly improve your long-term health outcomes. Some key strategies for optimizing health and longevity covered in the interview include:
• Exercise regularly, including moderate-intensity activities such as walking and about 150 to 180 minutes of resistance exercise per week.
• Consume adequate carbohydrates (200 to 400 grams daily for most adults) from whole foods to support metabolic health.
• Prioritize protein quality, aiming for about 0.8 grams per pound of lean body mass, with about one-third coming from collagen sources.
• Exposure to sunlight regularly and maintain optimal vitamin D levels.
• We focus on gut health through diet, lifestyle and, where possible, targeted interventions.
• Minimize exposure to environmental toxins, including seed oils, endocrine disruptors, and EMFs.
• Assess your metabolic health regularly using a simple test like HOMA-IR.
• Prioritize sleep, stress management, and overall lifestyle balance.
You can find out more in Land’s book “The Longevity Leap,” which provides a comprehensive overview of these topics with extensive scientific references. He explains:9
“I’ve covered a lot of specific chronic diseases. We have kidney disease, metabolic syndrome, a whole chapter on heart disease, heart disease, and actually three chapters on neurodegeneration and inflammation. We’re going to delve into a lot of these diseases in depth.”
As research into the science of longevity continues to advance, it is clear that a proactive and comprehensive approach to health is important. The path to longevity appears not to find a single magic bullet, but to consistently apply evidence-based health practices, engage in regular self-monitoring, and be willing to adapt as new information becomes available.
