While death and taxes are inevitable, ageing can at least be slowed down with the help of a healthy lifestyle and some cunning new treatments.

Mr Albert Einstein’s most famous theory posited that time is a relative concept, a phenomenon that depends entirely on the perspective of the observer. Time flies when we’re on holiday, but it crawls to a snail’s pace when we’re faced with the task of filing expenses. Ageing, too, is little more than an expression of our personal relationship (psychological, physiological, emotional) with a ticking clock.

We are all culturally programmed to fear the ageing process but a good dermatologist, along with some sensible lifestyle modifications, can certainly slow down that ominous tick-tock. While previous generations spent their lives trying to fight disease that came about as a result of ageing, we, on the other hand, are lucky enough to be able to employ preventative measures that keep the body and mind relatively unaffected by the passing of time.

Today, getting old doesn’t necessarily have to involve “ageing” on a mental, physical or even cosmetic level. That said, given that the body’s reparative processes start to slow down in a man’s mid-twenties, with decline occurring at around one per cent a year, it’s worth employing the following tips to keep time on your side.

The visibility of time on your face is down to two key markers: the level of collagen in your body and the amount of antioxidants you have to fight off free-radical damage. Your lifestyle, diet and, above all, your genetic make-up, determine both these variables.

A twice-daily encounter with an antioxidant-rich cream may be grounded in the best of intentions but it is the exact concentration of active ingredients in relation to these personal levels of protection that will reap maximum results (and, no, more doesn’t always mean better; saturate your skin with antioxidants and you will create a “tolerance” of sorts).

The brains behind bespoke skincare brand Geneu have devised a cunning plan. PhD-qualified advisers at the flagship store on London’s New Bond Street extract DNA from clients’ saliva and analyse it on the spot thanks to a very clever piece of microchip technology. Within 30 minutes you are able to see your genetic relationship with the two aforementioned agers. Knowing your level of collagen breakdown and antioxidant protection means staff can mix up a bespoke cocktail containing specific quantities of key ingredients that will counterbalance the way you are genetically programmed to age. While the personalised potions do appear to bend time, they do not exonerate bad behaviour and so clients are given lifestyle advice based on their genetic profile.

Part of the ageing process is down to poor cell turnover and a decrease in essential vitamins and minerals. Attempting to replenish dwindling stores by popping a pill is one solution. The only pitfall with living off supplements is that the gastrointestinal tract will invariably break down most of the nutrients in a pill. In fact, a person with a healthy intestinal tract is likely to get somewhere between only 25 and 50 per cent absorption from an oral supplement, energy drink or vitamin pill (depending on which study you read).

Getting your essential nutrients intravenously may sound extreme, but a drip guarantees 100 per cent absorption because the usual digestive mechanisms are bypassed. And yeah, OK – it also leaves you feeling seriously buzzed. Dr David Jack has pioneered the treatment in London, creating bespoke anti-ageing cocktails depending on his clients’ specific needs. One anti-ageing ingredient he never excludes from the mixture is glutathione, an intracellular antioxidant that is essential to life (but which decreases with age). Crucially, glutathione is poorly absorbed orally and needs to be drip-fed directly into the system.

The 17th-century satirist Mr Jonathan Swift said: “Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.” It’s likely, then, that he would be very pleased with the advances in cosmetic dermatology, which now offer non-surgical procedures that match the results afforded by invasive surgery but without the downtime (or, you know, cutting your face open).

Dermal fillers and Botox may be commonplace among men and women, but it is the surge in laser and light therapies that affords the best results for signs of ageing, including scarring pigmentation and loss of elasticity. The state-of-the-art Phi Clinic in London has an all-in-one anti-ageing treatment that uses the latest technology on the market, including fractional non-ablative lasers, which effectively resurface the skin. The treatment, Phi 360, employs no less than five pieces of kit to do everything from vein and pigmentation removal to vacuum-based skin abrasion (to get rid of the “old” layers of skin) and complexion-boosting LED phototherapy. 

Less hardcore is the signature “face-lift” facial from cult Los Angeles brand Face Place. The bespoke 75-minute treatment incorporates galvanic currents to tighten skin and drive a potent vitamin C serum deep into the dermis.

Testosterone is arguably one of the most transformative time-reversers known to man (well, men). But as with all good things, levels decline with age, leaving many guys prone to fatigue, reduced muscle mass, more body fat and, of course, a lower sex drive after 40. “Men go through ‘man-opause’ too,” says Ms Susie Rogers, one of the brains behind the Youth supplement and co-author of The Hormone Doctor. “The problem is that men don’t talk about these things the way women do. Hormone depletion goes hand in hand with ageing, so I would highly recommend that every man who can afford it gets their hormone levels tested once a year,” she says.

If your tests show that you’re out of balance and require a hit of testosterone and/ or human growth factor, then a (very specific) dose can lighten heavy moods and turn back time in a rather dramatic fashion (too much, though, and you’ll probably end up driving your fist through someone’s face). Topping up on your “T” by way of a gel, patch or intramuscular injection still isn’t regarded as “normal” practice in Europe but clinics offering testosterone therapy have been cropping up across the United States over the past few years.

Ms Rogers’ alternative to taking T is, er, having some good old-fashioned time with your right hand. “We’ve found that with women, achieving orgasm on a regular basis boosts hormone levels and lowers stress, both of which play a role in ageing. There’s nothing to suggest that men can’t replicate the same results,” she says. A sound argument we’re sure you’ll agree.

Breakthroughs in our understanding of the human brain have made neuroplasticity something of a buzzword in the past few years. In layman’s terms, neuroplasticity means that the brain is constantly able to change and adapt well into old age; habits and behaviours that we may believe are “fixed” or hereditary are, in fact, completely changeable should we choose to invest enough time and effort in changing them. One such myth about the brain is that our memory will decline as we age.

Neuroplasticity demonstrates that learning is not something that stops after you finish your formal education. And a decline in memory is not down to cognitive ageing so much as the fact that, culturally, we’ve become rather lazy about retaining information (mostly due to the advent of smartphones, Siri and Google Maps).

Since the brain is so responsive, it is worth keeping it active, just as you would exercise your muscles. It is important to seek out new memory-training exercises and creative pursuits that effectively rewire (and hopefully challenge) your brain. In their book Super Brain, Dr Deepak Chopra and Harvard professor of neurology Mr Rudolph E Tanzi recommend the following to keep you neurologically fit over the years. Don’t rely on lists, seek out a wide range of mental activities (crosswords and memorising grocery orders require different parts of the brain), be patient with lapses in recall and focus on associations rather than trying to pin down the thing you’re trying to remember.

Glycation comes about as a result of sugar reacting with amino acids in your body, an interaction that creates inflammation. And inflammation of any kind is bad news. “Inflammation produces enzymes that break down collagen, the connective tissue in our body that holds together our joints and gives us supple skin,” says Dr Nicholas Perricone, founder of namesake skincare brand Perricone MD. “Glycation makes collagen stiff and inflexible where it was once soft and supple, resulting in dull, dry and even brittle-looking skin,” he adds.

Ditching all forms of sugar, along with high-carb foods that convert to sugar in the body (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc) are sure-fire ways of offsetting the ageing process, even if you don’t have an issue with your waistline. Omegas 3 and 6 can reduce inflammation in the body, so be sure to get your fill of oily fish such as wild salmon, mackerel or haddock, and start cooking with coconut oil instead of butter.

In terms of topical solutions, Dr Perricone recommends products containing alpha lipoic acid, which is found in his Nutritive Cleanser and Intensive Pore Minimizer. “Alpha lipoic acid prevents, and may even reverse, the attachment of sugar to collagen by allowing better metabolism of sugar in the cell and enabling the body’s natural repair mechanisms to function better,” he advises.

Given that the heart is the one organ that will determine how long we stay on this planet, it’s worth looking after it with regular endurance training. The benefits of cardiovascular exercise include a metabolism that’s age-proof, reduced body fat, lower blood sugar levels, a boost in good cholesterol (and a decline in the bad kind), not to mention reduced anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. The other key thing about moderate exercise is that it helps reduce inflammation (see above), whatever the cause.

But the benefits are external too. Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario monitored participants who completed at least three hours of moderate or vigorous exercise every week. They biopsied skin samples and discovered that, after the age of 40, those who had been active had noticeably younger-looking skin – much like that of those in their twenties or thirties.

In technical terms, the participants had a healthy stratum corneum (the outermost layer of skin) and thicker dermis layers. There are many genetic and lifestyle variables that could affect these results so they performed the same test on over-sixties. They found that exercise could actually reverse skin ageing in these senior participants, leaving them with the complexion of, at worst, a 40 year old.

Of all the physical pursuits available, a regular and dynamic yoga practice is arguably the most effective at stalling time (running, by contrast, will probably age you by a good decade). Not only is the stretching of muscle, fascia, ligaments and tendons invaluable as we age, but consciously calming the nervous system through focused breath calms the stress response. In the East, it is not unusual to see yogis pushing 100 years of age even though there is no affordable healthcare in most of the country. Less stress means less inflammation, which means less ageing.

Fixed sequences performed in heat, such as Bikram yoga, provide an intense work-out while oiling joints, flushing out toxins, stimulating the endocrine system and improving strength and posture. Postures that involve the head going below the waist improve circulation and deliver a fresh supply of oxygenated blood and nutrients to the skin. If cells are fed in this way they will work harder and pump out more of that precious collagen.

A clean diet rich in antioxidants will help slow the passing of time by fighting off free-radical damage. But not all superfoods have to taste like cardboard. Resveratrol is a potent antioxidant found in grape skin and, as luck would have it, it’s also present in red wine (about 14mg per litre, to be exact). Not only does resveratrol slow down visible signs of ageing, it also appears to have a positive impact on cardiac disease, obesity and vascular dementia on account of its ability to preserve nerve transmission in the brain (too much Malbec, though, and you’ll probably end up killing those brain cells).

As if this wonder compound didn’t have enough properties, it also interrupts the activation of the COX-2 enzyme, which is responsible for setting off inflammation in the body (see above). It is for these reasons that scientists think red wine is the answer to the “French paradox”, the phenomenon wherein our Gallic friends are able to binge on foods that are high in saturated fat and yet have arteries that are perfectly intact.