I’m 59 but have a biological age of 21 — here’s how I did it
Extracts from a Times article by Helen Carrol
After a health scare, Leslie Kenny, a Harvard-educated CEO, dramatically overhauled her lifestyle. Leslie Kenny will celebrate her 60th birthday next year, yet according to a biological age test she is a positively girlish 21 years old. (see image)

Discovering the secret of eternal youth would be a feat for even the most genetically blessed and clean-living among us, but for Kenny, who was diagnosed with three autoimmune diseases — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Hashimoto’s disease — at the age of 39, and told she may only have “five good years” of health left, it is even more remarkable.

It is fair to say that Kenny has spent the past two decades doing everything in her power to reverse that terrifying prognosis, and managed to put all three conditions into remission.
Although she was prescribed immunosuppressants to treat her lupus and RA, she decided early on that she wanted to approach her health holistically rather than medicating individual symptoms.

Here’s how:
Avoid inflammatory foods
One of the first things Kenny did post-diagnosis was take an allergy test, which identified sensitivities to gluten and dairy. Believing this may have been contributing to inflammation levels, she cut out both. “The same foods won’t cause a reaction in everyone, so it’s important to find out if you have any sensitivities of your own,” she says.
She also removed sugar (“it’s junk”), alcohol and most carbohydrates, other than sweet potatoes and white basmati rice that has been cooked and left to cool, then drizzled with coconut oil. Unappetising though it may sound, the cooling process increases the level of resistant starch, which ferments in the large intestine and feeds “good” gut bacteria, helping her avoid glucose spikes.

Fast regularly
Kenny fasts for 18 hours most days, making do with coffee for breakfast — albeit one with added antioxidant-rich raw cacao and coconut creamer — having lunch at 1pm and dinner by 7pm. Her meals are largely plant-based, though she eats oily fish, eggs and small portions of “high quality” meat.
Researchers have known for some time that fasting, or restricting food intake, can help reduce chronic inflammation, which is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, by stimulating autophagy, the body’s cellular renewal and recycling process. Earlier this year University of Cambridge scientists discovered that fasting also raises levels of a chemical in the blood known as arachidonic acid, which inhibits inflammation.

Get to bed well before midnight
Kenny sleeps for about seven hours most nights and aims to get in an hour or two of shut-eye before midnight to maximise its restorative benefits.
The hours between 10pm and 2am, she says, are crucial for optimising the amount of time we spend in non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the initial phase when the body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system — all important for longevity.
To reduce inflammaging [age-related increases in levels of inflammatory markers] it’s essential to ensure you get a good night’s sleep,” Kenny says. “I try to align my sleep patterns with the natural rhythms of the day by going to bed earlier and waking up at roughly the same time. If I struggle to nod off at night, going for an early morning brisk walk resets my circadian rhythm with the sun.”

Do regular inversions such as shoulder stands
Stress management is essential to reducing inflammation and Kenny’s favourite way to relax is getting upside down. Inversions — postures that bring your hips above your heart and your heart above your head — have been used in yoga for centuries to reduce both physical and psychological stress.
Kenny does headstands up to six times a day on an inversion chair, bought from a German company called Feet Up (£189). “The chair makes headstands really easy because you’re putting weight on your shoulders, as opposed to wrists or elbows, which can be a point of weakness in women,” she says.
Inversions aren’t advised for those with high blood pressure, and passive inversions — lying on the floor, resting your legs up the wall — or shoulder stands can be a good place to start for beginners.
“Inversions are just so relaxing,” Kenny says. “I think it’s because I have to focus so much on the moment, to stay in balance, that any stresses and worries leave my mind for that time. It takes all my concentration, which is both mindful and meditative.”