The Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute (Eric Topol) has published a book advocating 'precision medicine'. Topol maintains, that if we ban pseudoscience we could increase general health in later life. He thinks we are on the verge of preventing cancer as well as heart and neurodegenerative disease. The formula, he says, is simple. Eat lots of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fish, so so-called Mediterranean diet. Go easy on caffeine and alcohol. Exercise, stay socially active, as well as getting deep and regular sleep. Topol notes, however, that very few folk appear to stick to this regime. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/08/eric-topol-health-book). It's notoriously difficult to change diet and exercise. Some folk (especially the poor) may find it impossible to afford the range of required foods. They're also bombarded with advertising, encouraging them to deviate from a healthy diet. Alcohol and caffeine rich drinks are also heavily marketed. Pseudoscience is also flourishing on the world-wide web. Even folk who attempt to follow Topol's advice, are currently likely to be ingesting high levels of microplastics and 'forever chemicals' .Drinking water contains contaminants. Exercising outside can expose you to unhealthy atmospheric contaminants. Some folk (especially those with neuroses and psychoses) find social activity problematic. Others may have jobs, making getting deep and regular sleep virtually impossible. And, then we have climate change, especially impacting on the health of older folk. It's not easy, getting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to improve your health in your twilight years.
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