Turns out living longer and living better might be two mutually exclusive goals! I have been following a CNN series featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta (Sanjaya jokes aside). He has been conducting interviews with various people in the medical field who specialize in longevity medicine and research. Gupta interviewed people doing all kinds of things just to stay alive to that maximum age, some may even seem strange. One couple was living on a starvation diet which many studies show could prolong life and quality of life (i.e. having all your mental and physical faculties) up to eight years. This amazed me. While eight years is great I thought we were talking 20 or 30! It’s amazing that people would deny themselves more exciting pleasures just to stay alive 8 years longer at the END of their life. People on calorie restriction diets were shown also to have lower sex drives and low energy. For eight years it may not be worth it to have a low quality of life for 70 years. The starvation diet was noted for 30 to 40 pounds of weight loss overall so in that respect the health benefits are obvious.

More after the jump…

Gupta also interviewed people taking growth hormones and found that most patients who did it claimed that the results were great but not many wanted to be interviewed. Most doctors don’t recommend this approach because even though as you age you lose much of this hormone, the negatives are astronomical, especially severe joint pain and possible cardiac and lung problems.

Gupta found that many medical professionals came to similar conclusions about what would help you live a longer healthier life: Eat a mostly plant based diet that is low in fat and bad carbohydrates, daily low impact exercise, taking a regular multi-vitamin, healthy fish oils and possibly having a nice high antioxident glass of wine each day which helps scrub arteries. Greek and Low-fat, low sodium Asian foods are good cooking styles to try. Tofu was sited as being the absolute perfect food, low in fat, high in protein AND vitamins.

Gupta followed the research of a doctor studying centinarians and discovered that there are certain hot spots where people in large groups actually live longer. One of them was our own Loma Linda, California. The research showed that many factors in each of these hot spots were key in creating longevity for an entire population but each time they were different. The folks in Loma Linda have the highest concentration of Seventh Day Adventists in the world, a religion that follows a true Sabbath where families literally just rest all day. They also live active farming life-styles. Other hot spots sited a fruit and vegetable heavy diet as being a good factor. In Asia one long lived culture has purpose. They know what their purpose is and they follow it all their lives. Doctors think that knowing this for certain is a stress relieving element that adds more years to your life. Cooler body temperature and very high good cholesterol were a common thread between centenarians. Interestingly enough though diet was a factor, centenarians ranged in their overall health and exercise habits from very healthy to being overweight and from high energy to no exercise at all. This has led scientists on a journey to see if humans could actually put the fountain of youth into a pill form. It makes it much easier for all of us who can’t abide by dieting. Doctors think that if we found that perfect ‘cure’ for the aging disease that humans might be able to live a thousand years or more! Science fiction or just wishful thinking? Some think we could achieve this through more stem cell research.

Whether it’s in pill form or not, we probably should also think about the quality of our lives as well. Is it better to live a terribly restricted life for 120 years or life a good 70 doing all the wild and crazy things you can? Overall the absolute worst habit was smoking which could take 15 and even up to 30 years off of your life. So if you’re a smoker, kicking the habit could be the thing that gives you the most time. Being a woman gives you an 85% higher chance of reaching 100 over men. It also turns out that the old myth that married people live longer doesn’t hold up for women. I took the age calculator myself and ended up with 76. That was a surprise. Overall it told me I could add 16 years to my life by eating less sugar, getting regular check ups, keeping good blood pressure and cholesterol, taking calcium and taking 81mg of asprin.

Catch Dr. Gupta on CNN Saturday and Sunday at 8 & 11pm E.T.

Some helpful links: See how you should take care of yourself at each stage of life, Calorie Restriction Recipes (consult a doctor. This diet puts people well below the 1500 or 2000 calorie diets suggested by the FDA), Check out the life expectancey calculator