top 12 things you can do to slow your rate of aging. Adopt one each month,
starting today. As the next month starts, add another. The maximum overall
benefit adds up to about 15 years younger for somebody who is 55.
1 and 2. Walk 30 minutes a day (speed doesn’t matter), and tell a friend you
did it. Walking makes your heart and immune system healthier, and calling
someone keeps you doing it (and provides support in times of trouble). Together, walking and talking can make you up to eight years younger. Bonus:
Buy a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps a day.
3. Eat six walnuts 30 minutes before lunch and dinner, or take a DHA supple-
ment (from algae, 600 mg). That decreases your desire for food later. Less food
equals smaller waist. Smaller waist equals longer life. Add a glass of water or
wine and take a walk, and you’ve made your RealAge five years younger.
4. Eat 100 percent whole grains, which keeps your blood sugar low and pumps
you up with fill-you-up fiber. Eating 35 grams of fiber a day if you’re a woman
or 25 grams if you’re a man makes you up to 2. 3 years younger.
5. Eat 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week to make yourself up to four
years younger.
6. Eat curry dishes or foods with mustard once a day to decrease your risk of
Alzheimer’s disease.
7. If you’re angry or annoyed at someone, try to harness your emotions into
doing something with the opposite emotion. Instead of being hostile, try being
empathetic (maybe that person who cut you off was trying to get his ultra-
p regnant wife to the hospital).
8. S tart a routine in which you build muscle, which is essential for keeping
t he fat around your belly at a minimum (it’s called omental fat). That also
h elps keep inflammation in your arteries low. Doing 30 minutes of resistance
e xercise a week makes you 1. 6 years younger.
9. Vitamin D helps to prevent cancer, incorporate calcium into your bones
a nd slow the aging of arteries. Get 1,000 IU a day if you’re younger than 60 or
1, 200 IU a day if you’re older.
1 0. T ake two baby aspirin a day (162 mg). Aspirin decreases your risk of heart
a ttack, stroke, impotence, wrinkles and some cancers. But check with your
doc to make sure it’s right for you, and take it with half a glass of warm water
before and after to help prevent gastrointestinal side effects.
11. Get to know your blood pressure. It should be 115/75, and it’s the second
most important number you can know (after your spouse’s birthday).
12. It’s never easy to break an addiction, whether it’s to cigarettes, alcohol or
jelly doughnuts. Check out the addiction-breaking plan at www.realage.com
or www.oprah.com and plan to set aside five minutes a day to get some quiet
time for yourself. A great place to meditate: the bathroom, where you’re less
likely to be disturbed.
13. Bonus: On your next Costco trip, check out the books I’ve written with
Mehmet Oz to help keep you young: YOU: The Owner’s Manual, YOU: On a
Diet and YOU: Staying Young. Take our advice to heart and you’ll keep your
heart much happier, healthier and younger. A
Dr. Roizen is chief wellness officer and chair designate at the Wellness Institute of the
Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.
