Longevity - Hype or scientifically proven?

Longevity Congress in Hamburg: Longevity – Hype or Scientifically Proven?

How can we succeed in aging as healthily as possible? Is longevity just a hype, or is there scientific evidence? A congress in September aims to provide information. Initiator Kluge advises caution in an interview.

tagesschau.de: As a specialist in internal medicine, what does a healthy lifestyle look like from your perspective?

Stefan Kluge: Our life expectancy is partly defined by our genes, which play a role to the tune of 20 to 30 percent – but to a large extent, how old we become is in our own hands. And the most important measures are actually well known and surprisingly unspectacular: not smoking, exercising regularly, avoiding excess weight, eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep, and adequately managing risk factors such as blood pressure and blood sugar.

Research Seeks the Secret to Longevity

tagesschau.de: Research on the topic of longevity has been going on for a very long time. What topics play a role in this field?

Kluge: The classic things I just mentioned are of course being researched further. There are efforts to determine how much exercise is particularly helpful in terms of longevity, and what type of exercise? What kinds of exertion are beneficial – is heart rate important for this, or do we measure it by other parameters?

Or when it comes to sleep – what quality of sleep are we talking about, and what duration of sleep is beneficial?

And then there is new research, of course. For example, it has been shown that in animal experiments, certain medications or dietary changes actually extended lifespan – in animal models. There are attempts, particularly in the United States, to transfer these findings to humans, even though that is still a thing of the future.

At the same time, we are of course seeing that AI and the monitoring of the body through various sensors and wearables, such as smartwatches or fitness trackers, are also advancing further and further. And there will certainly be some possibilities in the future to support us in achieving longevity.

Relevant Health Benefits

tagesschau.de: A huge market has also developed around this topic. Nutritional supplements play a very significant role. How well-established is the evidence on these supplements?

Kluge: We have seen many hypes and trends emerge over the past few years. Commercial interests often play an important role here – and one must be very careful. Whenever things are not covered by health insurance and cost a lot of money, that should make you particularly alert. For many of these offerings, a relevant health benefit has not yet been proven by reliable studies.

And the idea that expensive tests, supplements, or technical procedures could compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle is something for which there is naturally even less evidence. So one must be very cautious about who is promoting what. Are the results truly independent? Because billions are being made from all the hype surrounding the topic of longevity.

Hype or Proven Benefit

tagesschau.de: How does an ordinary person who is interested in health navigate all of this? There are cures, ice chambers, blood plasma injections, and so on and so forth...

Kluge: This is certainly a problem. The general practitioner, who is no longer available everywhere, should of course be the medical point of contact here and look at which treatments are evidence-based. Evidence-based means that studies can actually prove that such therapies work.

If you look very carefully at what medical professional associations, medical chambers, or for example the German Nutrition Society recommend, you can already get a good picture. You have to be cautious about anyone who has a commercial interest – and that is often relatively easy to identify. To help a little with this, we are now launching a new congress format – the Longevity Forum Deutschland. We want to try to clearly work out what is scientifically established, what is hype, what is a future prospect, and what cannot be substantiated – in order to genuinely help with public education.

"Ageing as vitally and as healthily as possible"

tagesschau.de: The promise of salvation that ultimately stands behind all this is a life as long as possible. Can that be meaningful?

Kluge: That is of course more of an ethical question. Well, I do think that people want to live a long life. Even more important is the "healthspan" – that is, the time during which one lives long, but without serious physical ailments.

A large proportion of people in Germany die in hospital, and many people require care in their final years of life. And this of course also requires considerable financial resources in the healthcare and care system. From my perspective, it would be beneficial both for patients and in terms of costs if we were to extend the so-called healthspan. So that we age as vitally and as healthily as possible. We are not particularly good at this in Europe. But that should be the goal.

Germany lags behind in life expectancy

tagesschau.de: The congress, which takes place at the beginning of September in Hamburg, is aimed at researchers, doctors, and the interested public. Why?

Kluge: We have two strands. One for scientists and doctors who are already very deeply immersed in the topic. And then we invite all other interested, health-conscious individuals. We see with both groups, even with doctors, that there are many open questions: Do I need to do strength training? Is that recommended for everyone in order to genuinely prevent more falls in old age? What about sleep? What about supplements? What role do vitamin B or omega-3 fatty acids play?

So there are many questions among professionals, experts, and ordinary people. And we want to separate the hype somewhat from what is clearly scientifically recommended. We spend a great deal of money in Germany on the healthcare system. Despite this, Germany lags behind in life expectancy compared to many other Western European countries. Our shared goal is for us as a society to position ourselves more strongly and to improve. That is our aspiration.

Congress in Hamburg

tagesschau.de: You are the scientific director of this congress – what do you want to achieve with it?

Kluge: We really want to inform people. We can see that interest in this topic of healthy aging is enormous. At the same time, this longevity market is growing – a term that is currently spreading everywhere. And we want to clearly work out, with high-caliber speakers: What is truly evidence-based – scientifically proven – what is hype, and what is definitely not to be recommended? Where are health-conscious people spending a lot of money for nothing?

We have researchers there who deal with the topic of sleep. The subject of dementia is on the agenda – what can we do to prevent dementia? There are topics such as sports medicine, nutritional medicine, but also issues like noise pollution, environmental pollution, and of course drug therapy, and we will be addressing the entire supplement market.

Which vitamins are actually relevant, which dietary supplements, which supplements? What is evidence-based, scientifically proven, and what is simply not to be recommended? That is the goal we have with this congress. And I think we are on a good track.

The interview was conducted by Anja Martini, science editor at tagesschau. It has been shortened and edited for the written version.