A Closer Look: How you can live a longer, healthier life

In A Closer Look, The National provides an in-depth take on one of the main stories of the week

For centuries people have searched for everything from mythical elixirs of youth to secrets for immortality to stave off the effects of ageing.

Longevity, the act of living a longer and healthier life, remains at the forefront of many people's minds, with billionaires spending millions a week on treatments to stay forever young.

But is it necessary to spend a fortune to avoid feeling old?

Here, host Sarah Forster speaks to The National's health editor, Nick Webster, to hear how far the wealthy go to achieve eternal youth but also how you might achieve the same results for next to nothing.

In the blue zone: The secrets to living beyond 100

Longevity: how science is pushing the boundaries for the first 150-year-old human

Body scanners at Arab Health 2024 to help increase lifespan: in pictures

Tue Lehn-Schioler, chief executive of BrainCapture wearing the device which helps to diagnose epilepsy and other neuro problems at the Arab Health conference held at Dubai World Trade Centre. Pictures: Pawan Singh / The National

Dr Hidayath Ali Ansari, staff physician in the imaging institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, said MRI scans can be expensive.

The scanning machine on display at the Siemens Healthineers stand at Arab Health.

The latest scanners are much sleeker and less cumbersome than the larger models of the past, one expert told The National.

Visitors descend on the Anfas stand at Arab Health.

Vivek Kanade, Managing Director of Siemens Healthineers for the Middle East and Africa with the latest MRI scanner at Arab Health 2024 in Dubai. Photo: Siemens

Classification of skills

A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.

A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.

The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, Group B
Barcelona v Inter Milan
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)

UK’s AI plan

AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
£10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
£100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
£250m to train new AI models

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013