I'm a longevity doctor. These are my daily habits to stay young
Wake up
I'm up at 6am every day and the first thing I do is take myself out to the garden to do some breathing. I live with my parents in their house in north-east London at the moment, and they're lucky enough to have a lovely garden. I moved in with them 18 months ago just as I was opening my longevity clinic. It made sense financially for me as I was setting up my business, but they're also in their mid-70s now and being there means I can spend more quality time with them.
I'm getting married this summer and then I'll split my time between my parents' and my future wife's, who lives on the Kent coast.
Once I'm outside, I'll do breathing exercises or pray for a few minutes, but just putting my bare feet on the ground helps me to wake up. Even when it's been raining!
Then, I'll brush my teeth and hop in the shower. Only then do I switch my mind to work, looking at my phone and checking emails and messages.
Breakfast: 0 calories
I rarely eat breakfast because I've worked out that I feel more energised when I do intermittent fasting. So I'll have my last meal of the day by 8.30pm, and then my first meal at lunch. It means I'm carbohydrate-free for the whole morning, so biologically, I'm in a fasted state five days a week. When you haven't eaten for 10-12 hours, glycogen stores in the liver become depleted, so your body begins breaking down protein and fat stores for energy.
Before I leave for work, I'll take my morning supplements with some water. I'm always adjusting the amount and the ones I take depending on what my body needs. I take up to eight some days, but others I don't take any at all.
I have annual blood tests taken at my own clinic that help me decide on which supplements to take. These tests... look at an extensive list of 120 biomarkers that indicate what's going on in our bodies – from our immune system to our hormones and digestive health – and identify areas of health that need attention.
I'm 41 now, and I do think your 40s can be a slippery slope in terms of health, which is why the annual blood test is worth doing. People don't become sick overnight. There are silent things that can accumulate in the body and if you can catch these as early as possible, you can do something about it.
This turns medicine on its head a bit, because we're not looking to treat an individual symptom or organ, we're looking to treat a whole human. As a doctor, I find I can improve people's health much better when I'm looking at all of their systems together, rather than in bits and pieces.
The last time I had my blood tests taken, I discovered elevated levels of the protein zonulin in my blood, indicating I have a leaky gut at the moment. That's where the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, allowing bacteria, toxins and undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream.
So now I'm on a supplement plan that contains L-glutamine, digestive enzymes and probiotics. I've also removed dairy from my diet for now as it was flagged as one of the leaky gut drivers for me. I've noticed that my bloating has gone down and the dry skin I was also experiencing has gone away.
The blood test also showed that I have adrenal fatigue, and that my stress-response hormones aren't working as well as they should be. Symptoms that people can look out for are feeling 'wired but tired', getting colds and flus more often, and feeling generally run down. As well as taking supplements to help with this, I'm being more mindful of my workload and making sure I'm bringing down my cortisol levels in the evening with a few minutes of meditation or deep breathing.
I'm also taking peptides to support tissue repair and recovery as I'm doing a lot of strength training ahead of my wedding.
My commute
I commute on the Central Line from my parent's home to my clinic in South Kensington and it takes about an hour. I'll listen to podcasts on the way. At the moment I've been listening to Robin Sharma, humanitarian, author of The Wealth Money Can't Buy, which I enjoyed a lot. I'll also plan for the day ahead by taking notes or journaling.
I have my first coffee at around 9am before starting my day at work. Every day is different, and I have some days where I'm seeing back-to-back clinical patients, and then some that are full of management meetings with my team. I try to take some of those meetings as walking meetings so that I can get my steps up, and get some more daylight and fresh air.
I love my patient time because I love working with people. I do a day a week as a GP with the NHS, so most weeks I'm working six days. Within the week, I also spend about 20% of my time educating my team and leading in-house learning with different specialists and building out our team of experts. It's full-on, but I feel like I have important work to do that will hopefully help people.
How I make time to exercise
At lunchtime, I take an hour and a half break and go for strength and conditioning training at a nearby gym which, at the moment, is focused on my core and posterior strength development. I'd started to get some back pain from being quite sedentary. It's not too bad yet, but I wanted to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue.
I'm getting married in August, which is really motivating me to get fitter and healthier, because that can slip when you're busy. I've got my sights set on a really nicely fitted suit.
I also do boxing once or twice a week, and that's my cardio. My training regime does tend to vary. I love to be outside when I can, so in the warmer months I'll do my boxing and circuits outdoors.
On the days that I'm not commuting, I try to go for a run outside or do some skipping. You should always make time to move your body; it's one of the most important things you can do for your mental and physical health.
Snack: 185 calories
If I feel like I need something to keep me going until lunchtime, I'll have a smoothie with blueberries, a scoop of almond butter, 22g of collagen protein, greens powder, oat milk and water.
Lunch: 800 calories
Once my training is done, I have my first meal of the day. Usually that's something with good, clean protein – like a salmon fillet or tuna steak – with lots of vegetables. Because I'm doing strength training at the moment, I want to make sure my protein levels are extra high, so I'll have that along with a protein shake.
I change the protein source in the shake, and go through periods of using a pea-based protein or a beef collagen protein, sometimes a whey protein. I'm using a collagen peptide protein at the moment.
I'll have lunch in the eating area at my clinic and chat to whoever's around. I'll take 25 minutes there without my phone before heading back to work.
Then I work through until around 7pm and try to miss rush hour if I can. On the way home I'll be journaling again, emptying my thoughts before I get home. I use this time to reflect on work, relationships, home, finances, and check in on what's coming up.
Dinner: 1000 calories
Once I'm home, I have my final meal of the day. I do two or three days a week vegetarian, and only eat red meat once a week. Otherwise, I have a good portion of chicken or fish with a nice two-thirds of my plate as vegetables, depending on what's seasonal. I vary these throughout the week to make sure I'm getting a good mix of fibre and micronutrients. I'll have broccoli, potatoes, squash, turnips, cabbage, peas, courgettes, asparagus.
I really enjoy cooking. I'll do meal prep for the week ahead on Sundays, and cook dinner at least twice a week for my family. One of my favourites at the moment is a nice oven-roasted chicken with ras el hanout, an Algerian spice mix. It's got turmeric in it, which is a great anti-inflammatory.
I love extra virgin olive oil too, so I usually drizzle that over my dinner, with a bit of Himalayan salt. The oil is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and the salt is less processed than standard table salt.
I'm from the Indian subcontinent – and if mum's cooked, it's usually a nice curry. I'm not a big rice eater, but if I do have rice it'll be wild rice, because it's better for the digestive tract.
"If you develop a healthy relationship with your work and find purpose and mission in it, it can improve longevity." Photo / 123RF
My parents taught me the importance of working hard. If your relationship with work is unhealthy, that can be ageing. But if you develop a healthy relationship with your work and find purpose and mission in it, it can improve longevity. My mum and dad showed me that work can give you your get-up-and-go. I also inherited meditation and prayer from my parents, which is a big part of their approach to longevity and managing life's stresses.
They've passed me so much wisdom throughout my life, so it's great to have an opportunity to share some of my own wisdom with them and support them as they get older.
Bedtime routine
Caffeine doesn't affect me too much, so I have a cup of tea with unsweetened oat milk in the evening before bed. I aim to be in bed around 10.30pm, and keep my bedroom slightly cooler by leaving my windows open.
I've always been a decent sleeper, but I do still track my sleep, aiming to get two hours of deep sleep a night. I won't watch TV before bed and I keep my room a phone-free zone. I strongly believe deep sleep supports regeneration and healing and helps to balance your immune system. A lot of other good stuff happens during deep sleep, like cell and tissue repair, memory consolidation, and hormone regulation.
Self-care for a doctor can be hard
Living in a city like London, where everyone is go, go, go all the time, you absorb people's energy and momentum. It's easy to get caught up in that to the detriment of your own health and your goals. Getting out of that environment from time to time is super important, so I head to the coast when I can.
To help regulate my nervous system in the city, learning to tolerate cold exposure has been really helpful. I have cold showers a few times a week, and three times a week at home I use a large bowl of cold water with some ice cubes in. It needs to be deep enough for me to submerge my head in, and I keep it in for about 10-20 seconds. I find this to be a really good challenge that helps to teach me to control my stress response as I come out of the cold water.
The fear of going into the icy water is a bit of a mental challenge, which turns into a biological stress response when you start breathing rapidly. It's helped to train me to let my body know that it's going to be fine. Learning to be calm and present and empty my mind in this situation means I can manage stress better when it comes up in other areas of my life.
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Dr Mohammed Enayat is a London-based GP and the founder of the HUM2N Longevity Clinic. Here, he walks us through how he structures his day to ensure he lives a longer, healthier life. Wake up I'm up at 6am every day and the first thing I do is take myself out to the garden to do some breathing. I live with my parents in their house in north-east London at the moment, and they're lucky enough to have a lovely garden. I moved in with them 18 months ago just as I was opening my longevity clinic. It made sense financially for me as I was setting up my business, but they're also in their mid-70s now and being there means I can spend more quality time with them. I'm getting married this summer and then I'll split my time between my parents' and my future wife's, who lives on the Kent coast. Once I'm outside, I'll do breathing exercises or pray for a few minutes, but just putting my bare feet on the ground helps me to wake up. Even when it's been raining! Then, I'll brush my teeth and hop in the shower. Only then do I switch my mind to work, looking at my phone and checking emails and messages. Breakfast: 0 calories I rarely eat breakfast because I've worked out that I feel more energised when I do intermittent fasting. So I'll have my last meal of the day by 8.30pm, and then my first meal at lunch. It means I'm carbohydrate-free for the whole morning, so biologically, I'm in a fasted state five days a week. When you haven't eaten for 10-12 hours, glycogen stores in the liver become depleted, so your body begins breaking down protein and fat stores for energy. Before I leave for work, I'll take my morning supplements with some water. I'm always adjusting the amount and the ones I take depending on what my body needs. I take up to eight some days, but others I don't take any at all. I have annual blood tests taken at my own clinic that help me decide on which supplements to take. These tests... look at an extensive list of 120 biomarkers that indicate what's going on in our bodies – from our immune system to our hormones and digestive health – and identify areas of health that need attention. I'm 41 now, and I do think your 40s can be a slippery slope in terms of health, which is why the annual blood test is worth doing. People don't become sick overnight. There are silent things that can accumulate in the body and if you can catch these as early as possible, you can do something about it. This turns medicine on its head a bit, because we're not looking to treat an individual symptom or organ, we're looking to treat a whole human. As a doctor, I find I can improve people's health much better when I'm looking at all of their systems together, rather than in bits and pieces. The last time I had my blood tests taken, I discovered elevated levels of the protein zonulin in my blood, indicating I have a leaky gut at the moment. That's where the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, allowing bacteria, toxins and undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream. So now I'm on a supplement plan that contains L-glutamine, digestive enzymes and probiotics. I've also removed dairy from my diet for now as it was flagged as one of the leaky gut drivers for me. I've noticed that my bloating has gone down and the dry skin I was also experiencing has gone away. The blood test also showed that I have adrenal fatigue, and that my stress-response hormones aren't working as well as they should be. Symptoms that people can look out for are feeling 'wired but tired', getting colds and flus more often, and feeling generally run down. As well as taking supplements to help with this, I'm being more mindful of my workload and making sure I'm bringing down my cortisol levels in the evening with a few minutes of meditation or deep breathing. I'm also taking peptides to support tissue repair and recovery as I'm doing a lot of strength training ahead of my wedding. My commute I commute on the Central Line from my parent's home to my clinic in South Kensington and it takes about an hour. I'll listen to podcasts on the way. At the moment I've been listening to Robin Sharma, humanitarian, author of The Wealth Money Can't Buy, which I enjoyed a lot. I'll also plan for the day ahead by taking notes or journaling. I have my first coffee at around 9am before starting my day at work. Every day is different, and I have some days where I'm seeing back-to-back clinical patients, and then some that are full of management meetings with my team. I try to take some of those meetings as walking meetings so that I can get my steps up, and get some more daylight and fresh air. I love my patient time because I love working with people. I do a day a week as a GP with the NHS, so most weeks I'm working six days. Within the week, I also spend about 20% of my time educating my team and leading in-house learning with different specialists and building out our team of experts. It's full-on, but I feel like I have important work to do that will hopefully help people. How I make time to exercise At lunchtime, I take an hour and a half break and go for strength and conditioning training at a nearby gym which, at the moment, is focused on my core and posterior strength development. I'd started to get some back pain from being quite sedentary. It's not too bad yet, but I wanted to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue. I'm getting married in August, which is really motivating me to get fitter and healthier, because that can slip when you're busy. I've got my sights set on a really nicely fitted suit. I also do boxing once or twice a week, and that's my cardio. My training regime does tend to vary. I love to be outside when I can, so in the warmer months I'll do my boxing and circuits outdoors. On the days that I'm not commuting, I try to go for a run outside or do some skipping. You should always make time to move your body; it's one of the most important things you can do for your mental and physical health. Snack: 185 calories If I feel like I need something to keep me going until lunchtime, I'll have a smoothie with blueberries, a scoop of almond butter, 22g of collagen protein, greens powder, oat milk and water. Lunch: 800 calories Once my training is done, I have my first meal of the day. Usually that's something with good, clean protein – like a salmon fillet or tuna steak – with lots of vegetables. Because I'm doing strength training at the moment, I want to make sure my protein levels are extra high, so I'll have that along with a protein shake. I change the protein source in the shake, and go through periods of using a pea-based protein or a beef collagen protein, sometimes a whey protein. I'm using a collagen peptide protein at the moment. I'll have lunch in the eating area at my clinic and chat to whoever's around. I'll take 25 minutes there without my phone before heading back to work. Then I work through until around 7pm and try to miss rush hour if I can. On the way home I'll be journaling again, emptying my thoughts before I get home. I use this time to reflect on work, relationships, home, finances, and check in on what's coming up. Dinner: 1000 calories Once I'm home, I have my final meal of the day. I do two or three days a week vegetarian, and only eat red meat once a week. Otherwise, I have a good portion of chicken or fish with a nice two-thirds of my plate as vegetables, depending on what's seasonal. I vary these throughout the week to make sure I'm getting a good mix of fibre and micronutrients. I'll have broccoli, potatoes, squash, turnips, cabbage, peas, courgettes, asparagus. I really enjoy cooking. I'll do meal prep for the week ahead on Sundays, and cook dinner at least twice a week for my family. One of my favourites at the moment is a nice oven-roasted chicken with ras el hanout, an Algerian spice mix. It's got turmeric in it, which is a great anti-inflammatory. I love extra virgin olive oil too, so I usually drizzle that over my dinner, with a bit of Himalayan salt. The oil is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and the salt is less processed than standard table salt. I'm from the Indian subcontinent – and if mum's cooked, it's usually a nice curry. I'm not a big rice eater, but if I do have rice it'll be wild rice, because it's better for the digestive tract. "If you develop a healthy relationship with your work and find purpose and mission in it, it can improve longevity." Photo / 123RF My parents taught me the importance of working hard. If your relationship with work is unhealthy, that can be ageing. But if you develop a healthy relationship with your work and find purpose and mission in it, it can improve longevity. My mum and dad showed me that work can give you your get-up-and-go. I also inherited meditation and prayer from my parents, which is a big part of their approach to longevity and managing life's stresses. They've passed me so much wisdom throughout my life, so it's great to have an opportunity to share some of my own wisdom with them and support them as they get older. Bedtime routine Caffeine doesn't affect me too much, so I have a cup of tea with unsweetened oat milk in the evening before bed. I aim to be in bed around 10.30pm, and keep my bedroom slightly cooler by leaving my windows open. I've always been a decent sleeper, but I do still track my sleep, aiming to get two hours of deep sleep a night. I won't watch TV before bed and I keep my room a phone-free zone. I strongly believe deep sleep supports regeneration and healing and helps to balance your immune system. A lot of other good stuff happens during deep sleep, like cell and tissue repair, memory consolidation, and hormone regulation. Self-care for a doctor can be hard Living in a city like London, where everyone is go, go, go all the time, you absorb people's energy and momentum. It's easy to get caught up in that to the detriment of your own health and your goals. Getting out of that environment from time to time is super important, so I head to the coast when I can. To help regulate my nervous system in the city, learning to tolerate cold exposure has been really helpful. I have cold showers a few times a week, and three times a week at home I use a large bowl of cold water with some ice cubes in. It needs to be deep enough for me to submerge my head in, and I keep it in for about 10-20 seconds. I find this to be a really good challenge that helps to teach me to control my stress response as I come out of the cold water. The fear of going into the icy water is a bit of a mental challenge, which turns into a biological stress response when you start breathing rapidly. It's helped to train me to let my body know that it's going to be fine. Learning to be calm and present and empty my mind in this situation means I can manage stress better when it comes up in other areas of my life.
