Giovanni Scapannini: “Genetics? not enough. Longevity is overcome by lifestyle »

Everything is ready for the second edition of longevity Festival, Founded and organized by Pietro Miro Costa Smeralda Consortium and Alex production. An idea-filled day in a stunning setting like Porto Cervo. On August 31, experts at the international level will discuss issues of rigorous scientific interest, such as the high concentration of centenarians in some regions of the world. It is actually a very complex phenomenon but it hasn’t stopped many scientists from a long search for the secrets of longevity. Among them is also prof John ScapanniniProfessor of Clinical Nutrition at Molise University who chooses to approach the topic of blue zones from every point of view.

So what are the characteristics that make blue areas Like Ogliastra and Okinawa so incredibly close?

“The common points are many. And if we compare the blue areas, especially Okinawa and Sardinia, there are common aspects related to physical activity that have nothing to do with sports. People maintain a very active outdoor lifestyle throughout their lives. From a nutritional point of view, they are also not very affected by globalization due to “For they live almost exclusively on the produce of the harvest, and develop thanks to strong and reassuring social relations. Life in this case is not polluted by the rhythms and pressures of big cities.”

In your opinion, can an individual’s health be “measured”?

“There are many health biomarkers that are useful for determining our body’s biological age which can also differ from the biological age of our ID card. Among the various biomarkers, one of the most intriguing is undoubtedly the telomeres, the kinds of caps on top of our chromosomes that can be compared to an hourglass. As we get older, these items get shorter and shorter. There are also genes called clock genes and many other biochemical factors that can also be used to understand whether we are aging well or badly. Not to mention the numerous imaging technologies that provide us with very useful information about the aging state of our brain, our musculoskeletal and skeletal systems.