Dr Sophie Shotter and Nadine Baggot longevity, sexism and anti-ageing

The Independent

Well Enough Episode 6: Is longevity just anti-ageing repackaged? With Dr Sophie Shotter and Nadine Baggott Source: The Independent

Transcript

00:00Most of us want to live well, not necessarily longer.

00:04The beauty industry has taken something that should be a scientific background and are

00:08essentially just rolling the politically incorrect turd of anti-ageing in glitter.

00:14The best biohacks are completely free.

00:18Has the longevity boom made us more obsessed than ever with looking youthful?

00:23Joining me to discuss this is Dr. Sophie Schotter, who is a longevity expert,

00:26an aesthetic doctor, and the host of the Age Well podcast. Sophie, welcome.

00:30Thank you for having me.

00:31Also joining me is Nadine Baggett. Nadine is a beauty journalist and a presenter.

00:36She's also an expert on all things beauty and well-being. Thank you so much for joining me.

00:41My pleasure.

00:42Is longevity just anti-ageing repackaged for the new generation?

00:45In my opinion, not. They're different concepts. And I have to be honest, I hate the term anti-ageing.

00:50I think it's so negative. Ageing is inevitable and actually a privilege. So much that comes

00:55with ageing is a positive. So for me, that's old, outdated language, although we still see it in

01:01a lot of places. For me, longevity encapsulates something different. It's the fact that we're

01:06talking not necessarily about how to live longer, but how to live better for longer. So it's a

01:11different concept. It's maybe more about health spam than about lifespan. And I do think that is

01:17relevant to the beauty and the skin industries. But I do agree the two are becoming linked in maybe

01:23not always the right way at the moment.

01:25For people that don't understand the difference between health span and lifespan, can you maybe

01:28explain what that means?

01:30So lifespan is how many years we live. But health span is how many of those we live healthily.

01:37So if you think about many people who you know who have become elderly and then passed away,

01:44maybe the last five years or 10 years of their life weren't spent in good health, maybe with

01:48limited mobility or various health conditions. So health span refers to the period of time where

01:54we're living at good function and can have, enjoy the activities of daily life, we don't need support

01:59to do them, and we live independently.

02:02Makes sense. And I think, so you mentioned the term anti-aging and the fact that you don't like it.

02:07Nadine, I wonder what you think about it, because you have seen the beauty industry change.

02:11And I wonder whether you've observed the brands that sell us anti-aging products soften a little bit.

02:19Well, I think from a science perspective, longevity and anti-aging are fundamentally different.

02:24So longevity would be about skin vitality and anti-aging would be skin vanity.

02:30So you've got vitality versus vanity. But from a beauty perspective, I only see people jumping on

02:37the longevity bandwagon in the sense of rebranding what is a politically incorrect term, which is

02:43anti-aging. So for me, the beauty industry has taken something that should be a scientific background

02:49and are blurring it and are essentially just rolling the politically incorrect turd of anti-aging

02:56in glitter.

02:57It's a fair point.

02:58Yeah.

02:59There are six new, seven new longevity products launching in the next six months.

03:04So for them, the long term longevity is their way of repackaging anti-aging, because essentially

03:10all of those products are anti-aging within the skin.

03:13They're not necessarily about skin health or about skin resilience.

03:17Longevity would be health and resilience.

03:19They're essentially about tackling lines and wrinkles and sun damage.

03:23And are we naturally going to always fear that?

03:27I mean, is that part of the human condition?

03:28Are we always going to fear aging or has that been baked into us because we've grown up

03:33watching ads for anti-aging skin care?

03:36I think in the West, we're culturally impregnated with the idea of fearing aging.

03:42So we see only the negative signs of aging.

03:46We don't see the privilege or the we're not culturally available to understand the idea

03:51of wisdom or people who get older essentially become invisible in the Western world as opposed

03:56to other cultures.

03:57We're trying to change it in the same way that you do age positivity, in the same way

04:01that you do body positivity.

04:02But we've got a long way to go, right?

04:03I think we're moving towards the right direction.

04:07But for example, I find when I'm proofreading blogs for my website, even, you know, people

04:12who've worked with me for a long time use the word youthful.

04:16And I'm like, OK, so in this context, that's not what we're doing.

04:19It's not what my patients come in asking for either.

04:21But with the longevity side, there is that, generally speaking, most people who are younger

04:27are healthier.

04:28Most diseases in the Western world are associated with an increasing age.

04:33So you can talk about youth and health, which are generally inextricably linked.

04:39But I don't see it generally amongst my patients as a quest for youth.

04:43But the beauty industry is still a very, very long way away from that.

04:46And I think culturally, there is still a lot of fear.

04:48I hope you're enjoying this episode from Nadine and Dr. Sophie.

04:52But I want to pause for a second just to tell you about our sponsor.

04:55This episode is sponsored by Visit Costa Rica.

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05:14I lost count of the amount of times I felt moved, seeing incredible animals like sloths,

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05:34It means pure life, but it's also a mindset centered on gratitude, presence, and living well.

05:39This is why so many people flock to Costa Rica in search of health, healing, and living well.

05:44Personally, I'm already planning my next trip.

05:47Now, on with the show.

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