The biggest ageing myth (and how it's shortening your life) – with Dr Kerry Burnight

Age Better with Liz Earle

Liz Earle

Gut Health, Liz Earle, Women's Health, Supplements, Beauty, Education, Skincare, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Arts, Fitness, Midlife, Menopause, Healthy Ageing, Exercise, Fashion & Beauty, Better Second Half, Health, Wellbeing, Hormones

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gerontologist Dr Kerry Burnight joins Liz to explain why your beliefs about ageing could add or subtract years from your life – and introduce the concept of "joy span" as the missing measure between lifespan and healthspan. They discuss the four research-backed practices that predict thriving at any age, why loneliness is as harmful as smoking 14 cigarettes a day, and how finding purpose is simpler (and more powerful) than you think.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This erroneous thought that everything is downhill is so dangerous to our health that, in fact, people who endorse aging as decline live on average 7.5 years shorter than those who have come to embrace a continued growth and an empowered mindset.
0:24.9	Now, do you see aging as inevitable decline or as a continued joyful growth? Well, gerontologist
0:33.2	Dr. Kerry Burnite says, whatever you believe is likely to be true. I'm Lizelle. This is the
0:39.8	Lizelle well-being show and a huge welcome to you. This is the podcast helping us all have a better
0:45.3	second half. As I'm sure you know by now, it is my mission to find ways for all of us to thrive,
0:52.1	especially in our later life by investing in our health and our
0:55.9	well-being today. Well, this time of year, the run up to Christmas and the new year, it's
1:00.9	supposed to be filled with carefree joy, isn't it? I have to say, I think that's rarely the
1:06.1	case in reality. It can be pretty chaotic and stressful too. But is joy something we should be making
1:12.8	a point of seeking and creating? Could living joyfully be the secret to living a longer and
1:19.3	healthier, no doubt, happier life? Well, Dr. Kerry Burnite has a PhD in gerontology and
1:26.3	taught geriatric medicine and gerontology for 19 years at the University
1:31.7	of California Irvine School of Medicine and her brilliant book, Joy Span, a short guide to enjoying
1:38.5	your long life, explains how you can replace a fear of aging with confidence that you can age into the very best version of yourself.
1:57.0	Kerry, a warm welcome. Can we start actually by understanding what exactly a gerontologist is and maybe which parts of this world of aging that you specialize in?
2:09.2	A gerontologist is someone who studies the aging process. And as we know, there are many aspects to it. So, of course, the biological, but then there is also the psychological, the sociological,
2:22.9	the public policy, the economics.
2:26.9	And my part of that world really started on what I'd call the dark side.
2:34.1	I really worked for many, many years, 16,
2:38.0	with people who had suffered such incredible older ages, people who had endured elder abuse,
2:45.9	neglect, financial exploitation, loneliness, mental illness, anxiety. And I thought I would spend my whole
2:56.2	career there, except that I started to see research that it didn't have to be that way. And that
	...

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