6 Minute English / The secrets to a healthy old age

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Phil.

And I m Beth.

Grey hairs, wrinkles, and poor eyesight are common signs that our body is growing old. Much as we d like to, we can t avoid ageing, so it s important to stay healthy as we get older.

In this programme, we ll be hearing about some new research offering fresh advice on how to stay young at heart, an idiom meaning to keep a youthful outlook on life, whatever your age. And, of course, we ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But 6 Minute English isn t just about vocabulary we improve your listening skills as well, so why not turn on the audio subtitles or download the script to read along as you listen? It could also help you answer my question. The oldest recorded person ever to have lived was a woman who was born in 1875, and lived to the ripe old age of 122. But which country was she from? Was it:

a) Japanb) France or,c) Italy?

I am going to say Japan.

OK, Beth, I ll reveal the correct answer later in the programme. Ageing is partly caused by the body s cells starting to decay, so you might think we re powerless to stop it. But listen to this good news from Professor Sarah Harper, Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing:

Prof Sarah HarperI think the really exciting thing is that even 10 years ago we would have thought: Yes, it's all to do with our cells. Now we understand this relationship between what we call cell and society , and we really can make a difference! And in fact, a recent paper just came out which said that 60% of our ageing can be controlled by how we live.