Nothing is new under the sun, the Good Book says. When my parents were my age, I could see them—especially my mum—taking health supplements. Whenever my brother visited home from the US, one of his key assignments was to bring herbal supplements. I never paid much attention because they didn’t mean much to me. Those were dawas for old people. Now I am those ‘old people’, even though I refuse to keep calling myself old. In our recent Silver Fox gathering, we called ourselves wababa Gen-Z, hehe. Now I understand and appreciate why supplements are important as we age. They top up the nutrients that our bodies run low on as age creeps up.
Sometimes my home resembles a clinic. There are children’s medicines for common ailments like homas and fevers. Then there are the capsules, coloured drinks, and strange-smelling powders from a herbal plug my aunt connected us to over a year ago. I have since been back for reviews and a top-up with my mum and sister. Daktari often asks me whether I have improved, and my answer is usually, “I don’t know.” I can’t say I feel remarkably different, but she encourages me to keep taking them, as health is a long game. A good health span is what determines a good lifespan. My mum and sister, however, testify to improvements in their health, and for that, I’m happy we are taking miti shamba.
On my trip to the Shompole Wilderness last year, our guide, Wilson, drove us to and from the hide where we photographed animals up close at night. Now and then, he would stop the vehicle in the bushes to pluck a leaf or berry, explain what it was, and pop it into his mouth. When he offered it to me, I believed him and followed suit. I could taste mint and other bittersweet flavours that he described as natural toothpaste and medicine for various ailments. Nature truly does have the dawas to most of the diseases that humankind suffers.
In my ongoing research on midlife, I came across A Study of One: The Longevity Manifesto — written by Derek Gehl, CEO of Modern Elder Academy, and Barbara Waxman, a gerontologist and executive coach who advises the Stanford Centre on Longevity. They call it ‘the study of one’ because rather than giving one-size-fits-all advice, it invites us to test their findings against our own lives.
Derek, who had spent a decade selling supplements, discovered that the things that actually work can’t be bottled. While supplements support a healthy body and mind, they cannot replace other critical success factors for a fulfilling second half of life. Their manifesto seeks to answer the question many of us are asking at midlife and beyond: what does it actually take to live longer and better?
The truth is that most of what will extend our lifespans can’t be bought. Daily movement, sleep, a reason for getting up every morning, having people you want in your life and who genuinely want you in theirs, getting out in nature and maybe going to shags, preferably near a mountain, (I couldn’t resist a shout out to my favourite small town, Nanyuki hehe). You can’t bottle such, and that’s what we need more than the supplements, folks. I see supplements as the icing, not the cake.
As Derek says, dependence, loneliness, and irrelevance are what keep people up at night at midlife; no supplement cures those. So we have to get serious about pursuing those free things that will determine whether we age well and meaningfully. If nature’s remedies and supplements make up one half of the equation, then our bodies, purpose, community, and peace make up the other crucial half. In fact, I’d argue it’s worth more than half.
Barbara Waxman talks about research featured in Science Magazine in January this year. Here, researchers found that roughly half of how our bodies age comes down to genetics. This we have no control over, since we can’t choose what lineage we’re born into. Lifestyle makes up the other half, and that’s the half within our power. It’s like we can’t choose our relatives, but we can choose our friends, and if they get real close we can even adopt them as relatives, hehe.
My medical reviews, plus listening to my body, are what led me to herbal supplements and to the gym. Both were deliberate choices, aimed partly at lowering my bad cholesterol. That has been the most stubborn number in my medical reviews over the years. It has refused to go down even when I was almost on a full rabbit diet of leaves, sigh… The struggle continues, but we shall overcome with a combination of supplements and some healthy living habits.
Thankfully, the greatest predictor of health, according to a Harvard study, isn’t cholesterol level; it’s the quality of relationships at midlife. I’m fortunate to have a number of those. Maybe I need to invest more there to lower my cholesterol hehe. Social connections are key as we age. The World Health Organisation recognises loneliness as a major public health concern. Are you lonely? Then it’s time to invest in social connections; your second half depends on it.
Purpose is the other free yet priceless supplement that cannot be bottled. Apparently, people with a strong sense of life purpose have lower mortality rates. That reminds me of my late mzungu father, Mike Eldon. He was living out his purpose until his last days. In my view, few have lived a fuller life than he did. What’s your purpose, folks?
Mindset and cognitive engagement are another powerful supplement to take at midlife and beyond, and for me that starts with how we think about retirement. I have my own personal views on it. I think it works more against us than for us. Maybe it’s because I grew up seeing it as leaving formal employment and doing nothing until we expire. I prefer active retirement, where we do and learn new things that we enjoy as we contribute our expertise and life experience to those who need it. Lifelong learning supports better cognitive function. In addition, adults with more positive beliefs about ageing seem to have better physical function and health. I see that at the gym when seniors, my parents’ age, are there keeping fit. I have no excuse not to keep fit for the rest of my life.
So folks, maybe it’s time we reversed our approach to midlife. We need to start with healthy habits first, and then bring in supplements to support that lifestyle—not the other way around. Let me continue reading this research, and I’ll share more hacks for living a long and healthier life.
And there I was thinking that it was life after Tusker???