Nobel Winner shares three tips for longevity

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, 2009 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, warns that we are at a crossroads, and suggests that often the 'secret' to living healthier, longer lives lies in the simplest of solutions.

In an interview with Vatican News on Monday, he made these observations, while highlighting major questions being raised when considering longevity.

The Nobel Laureate was in the Vatican to participate in the "Vatican Longevity Summit: Challenging the Clock of Time" of the Pontifical Academy for Life which took place the afternoon of Monday, 24 March, at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome, which was presented in the Holy See Press Office on Monday morning. 

Vatican News: If you could explain to us why you are here participating in this Vatican summit, and why do you believe longevity is such an important question to tackle?

Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Right. So we're at a crossroads in terms of where we are in terms of life expectancy. Biology has made great strides in understanding the causes of aging and for the first time is trying to see if we can do something about tackling aging itself as opposed to tackling specific diseases. This has broad social and biomedical implications. At the same time, there's a great deal of money that has gone into research, often, a lot of it from private investment, and I also wonder how this is distorting priorities. I also wonder what will happen if there is success, what will that mean, and what will it mean for society if we all start living longer, or whether it's even possible to to live healthier without living longer. I question whether that's actually possible. I think we may end up also living longer, and this has implications for society, especially where birth rates are all over the world are falling. Therefore, I think this is going to be a very important meeting. There are a number of people tackling, looking at, various aspects of longevity, from demographics to molecular biology to therapeutics. So, it's a good mixture of people and the hope is something interesting comes out of it.

In terms of living healthier, longer lives, and in particular living healthier, what from your expertise is necessary or could contribute to such a trend?

Well, I've written a book called 'Why We Die,' and in the process of writing the book, I came to the conclusion that the trio of a moderate and healthy diet regular exercise and adequate sleep is probably better than anything out on the market today in terms of supplements or drugs. Now to that, you can add avoiding social isolation and having a sense of purpose in life, because social studies have shown that both of those can improve mortality and health in old age. Therefore, those are some of the things that I think people can do while the whole biomedical research establishment tries to come up with more powerful interventions.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Well, you know, we're here because of the Vatican's interest. And, of course, everybody is aware that the pope has been very ill and has only just recovered. He's 88 years old, and I would say he needs to follow the advice of his doctors; but as he gets better, the trio that I suggested would work for him, just as it would for anybody else.