Scintillating and informative talk about having healthier, happier life

INTRIGUINGLY for a woman who looked two-thirds of her biological age, Liz Earle MBE told a packed town hall, populated by quite a specific female demographic (and one token male), that she hated the term “anti-ageing”.

Here to talk about her new (36th) book, A Better Second Half: Dial back your age to live a longer, healthier, happier life, it turned out that she has a healthy respect for the natural ageing process and has a “cellular age” of 39 to 45, despite having a chronological age of 60.

The entrepreneur, skincare expert and mother of five described the book as a “manifesto for midlife women” and talked about how we could future-proof our wellbeing, adding that both she and her 33-year-old daughter felt they had at least “second halves” of their lives still to go.

She felt she might make the age of 120, notwithstanding the proverbial “being hit by a bus”. In 1995, Liz founded an eponymous skincare brand with her friend, Kim Buckland.

Her own struggles with chronic eczema then led her down a path she called “mesearch”, where she talked to scientists and followed studies about subjects including the power of healthy eating, gut health and female hormones.

But far from sounding like a prescriptive ascetic, Liz divulged that she still likes an occasional glass of Chardonnay.

She said that we should aim to eat food that didn’t come out of a packet and that our grandmothers would recognise and that while vitamins and minerals should come from good foods as far as possible, there were various supplements that would help with insomnia, the menopause, weight gain and other issues.

Her advice was earnest and informed as she talked about magnesium helping with sleep and the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D3 and Coenzyme Q10.

There was a vast range of topics covered, with everything from the goodness of natural daylight for our circadian rhythms to walking barefoot in the grass and getting in touch with nature, to intermittent fasting and the concept of biohackers, who make incremental changes to improve their mind and body health.

She talked about her daughter, Lily, who had her own health struggles, including chronic pain, but had just had her first baby, which had opened up a delightful whole new chapter of grandparenthood for Liz. The talk was scintillating and informative without ever feeling like she was pertaining to be a medical expert, although she had some interesting reflections on general practice.

Her own mother, now in her late eighties, had given up hormone replacement therapy, but Liz suggested she go back on it. While her mother’s GP took some persuading, it had been life-altering.

Liz herself swears by the benefits of HRT and said that if someone threatened to remove hers, they’d have to take it out of her “dying hands”.

My friend who came with me was thrilled to hear that the chemical compound quercetin might help with her chronic hayfever and she was intrigued by the idea that we can dial back our biological age by making a few life changes.

We both bought the book and I look forward to finding out more.

Natalie Aldred