Instant Genius - Can we slow down the ageing process? - Sue Armstrong

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

As the size of the ageing population rises, the field of gerontology, the study of ageing, is bursting with discoveries. How and why do we age? What can be done to slow the ageing process, and how do we improve our health spans, rather than our life spans? Sue Armstrong discusses what she found when writing her book Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your oceanfront room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building.

Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Peak pollination season, and my business is scaling fast. To keep the nectar flowing, I need a phone plan with top priority data speed. That's why I chose GoogleFi Wireless. My connections stay strong even when the hive is buzzing. Plus, unlimited plans started $35 a month. Now that's a deal that doesn't stay. Explore GoogleFi Wireless plans today.

Plus taxes and government fees. GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. This podcast is sponsored by name, audio and focal. Streaming has made music more accessible than ever, but true listening is about more than ease. It's about quality. British audio experts name audio, alongside French acoustic specialist focal, Combine handcrafted tradition with cutting-edge innovation and high-end materials, delivering digital precision with analogue warmth. So you can experience exceptional sound at home.

Music just as the artist intended. Visit name audio.com to learn more. One of the interesting facts is that the fastest growing segment of the global population, believe it or not, is people over the age of 85. So it's not the babies who are coming along behind. It's the elderly people who are sort of, you know, the population pyramid has been turned on its head, or it is turning on its head gradually. You're listening to the Science Focus podcast

from the BBC Science Focus magazine team. With the UK's best-selling science and technology monthly, available in print and in several digital formats throughout the world. Find out more at sciencefocus.com or look out for us in your app store. Hello and welcome to the Science Focus podcast. I'm Alexander McNamara, online editor at BBC Science Focus magazine. As every second ticks by, one inevitable fact of life is that all of us are getting older.

But as our knowledge of the human body improves, and with advances in medicine keeping us fitter and healthier for longer, the size of the ageing population is rising. In fact, the very elderly are now the fastest growing segment of the population. Along with this has come huge advances in the field of gerontology, the study of aging, which today's guest, Sue Armstrong, explores in her new book, borrowed time. In this episode, we talked to her about why we age, from evolution's abandonment of us once we've served our reproductive purpose, to the aspects of our modern lifestyles that are speeding the aging process. She explains what scientists are doing to slow or even reverse

time, and whether we can expect to start using any of these interventions anytime soon. We look into a few of the attempts to avoid the issues that come with age, like extreme calorie restriction and repurposing of existing medication and chat about the scientists aiming for immortality. Here's BBC Science Focus editorial assistant Helen Glennie talking to Sue Armstrong. Your new book is called Borrowed Time, The Science of How and Why We Age. So can you give me an overview of what the book's about and what motivated you to write it? Okay. What motivated me to write it first? I had done a previous book for Bloomsbury, who had just started their popular science in Prince Sigma

and I did a book on cancer genetics and then they said to me what would I like to do for a follow-up and I had done a series of radio programs on the biology of all kinds of different things and I found, I did one on the biology of aging many moons ago but I remember finding it very interesting

I realized there were lots of interesting avenues being explored but particularly I realized that this is just a massive issue everything one hears You know, you keep hearing, it's sort of in the zeitgeist, just how big this problem is of an aging global population. Because one of the interesting facts is that the fastest growing segment of the global population, believe it or not, is people over the age of 85. So it's not the babies who are coming along behind. It's the elderly people who are sort of, you know, the population pyramid has been turned on its head or it is turning on its head gradually.

and we all know in our countries just how much our health services are struggling to sort of cope with how we look after elderly people. So I thought this is a really interesting issue to look into. Great. And you mentioned that the fastest growing group are the people over the age of 85. What's prompting that? I think it's a sort of combination of things. I think it's living standards. You know, people are kept warm and in the Western world, in the development, countries. People's standard of living is very high. People are not hungry. People are not cold.

There's lots of medical interventions. So, you know, if your hips are bad or your heart's bad, there's just lots and lots of things you can tinker with to keep people going. And so I think, and also, of course, infectious diseases, which used to be sometime back, they used to be the big killers. And particularly also of older people, people that we would succumb to things like pneumonia and flu and so on. But nowadays, we've got such good medication. So it's medicine and standards of living, I think, have turned the tables. Even though that seems like a great thing, you know, people are living longer. That seems wonderful. But it is causing quite a lot of social problems, isn't it? That's a sector of society that isn't working and who are expensive

to support because of those sorts of medical issues. Is that right? Absolutely. And I mean, that's where, that was my fascination with the book and what I found so interesting actually interviewing people. Because I think gerontology, the study of why and how we age, has got a slightly bad name for itself because it's slightly stigmatized by the people who are wanting to sort of push our lifespans up to sort of a thousand years and even immortality and so on. And so I think it's sort of associated with the snake oil salesman. But in fact, most gerontology is not so much focused on pushing our lifespans up, extending our lifespans to these impossible ages, but increasing our health span, which means that they're trying to find ways of helping older people to remain healthy and to remain fit much later in life. And so you don't sort of start getting really, you know, bad, bad knees and a bad heart and high blood pressure and all of those sort of. things for the last 20 years of your life, which makes you infirm, they're trying to find ways of making you age more healthily. And I think that's a thoroughly worthwhile endeavor. Yeah,

absolutely. So how did you go about writing the book? Who did you decide to talk to? What sort of lines of inquiry did you go down? Well, I got a few contacts from when I did the radio programs, And I say that was probably about 15 years ago. So I just started looking around. And I always follow my nose in these things. I just get fascinated by a line of inquiry. And I speak to one person who says, oh, you should go and see so and so and go and see so and so.

And then I do a lot of reading around and just gather loads and loads and loads of material and information. As I say, following the lines of inquiry that I find fascinating and other people's suggestions. But then I end up with this huge. huge amount of information in my head, and that's the difficult part when you think, well, how on earth am I going to make sense of this? Because you can cut the cake in lots of different ways. And you have to sort of find a way of doing it. So what I've done is each chapter could actually be a whole book in itself, because this is a popular science book. It's not an academic treaties. So what I've done is I've looked at several different organ systems or tissue systems,

and areas of research and done chapters on those with the things that I find most exciting about them, with a little bit of the sort of historical background to them, and then the science of them. But all the way through, I've concentrated also on the characters of the people that I've met along the way, because there are some very interesting people involved in this field. So there's personal stories, and I tend to look at issues through the eyes of the people I'm interviewing. Great. So let's dive into the science of how and why we ate, the topic of the book. First of all, can you define aging for me? What is it exactly? I'm going to tell you something. I can't. And nobody can. That's one of it. That's, of course, where the whole thing started. That what is aging? And I mean, all of us know what being old is. But when does aging start? And it reminds me of the story of time. You say to somebody, do you know, what time is. And everybody says, of course I know what time is. But when you try to pin it down,

what is the essence of this thing? It's almost impossible. And the same with aging that when exactly do you start aging? Because our tissues turn over from, you know, when we're baby, babies onwards, you get things called senescent cells, which is when your individual cells run out of steam. And they go sort of quiescent. And those start happening from very early on. So it's very, very hard to say exactly what aging is. But I think possibly the definition that or the explanation that is most widely accepted now is an evolutionary one which talks about evolution is or nature is most interested in us passing on our genes to the next generation. And so we as our bodies invest a huge amount in maintenance and repair of our bodies up until

maturity and until we've had our children and so on and passed on our genes for the next generation, but then thereafter it doesn't invest so much energy and resources into maintaining our bodies because it's a very expensive operation maintaining bodies. And so we gradually run down sort of after a few years after maturity, we begin to sort of, you know, the process begins to accelerate a little bit. So I think that's the main thing. And that that theory is called the disposable soma theory, which means that nature looks after our eggs and makes sure that we're fit and healthy to carry them through to maturity when we can pass them onto the next generation. And then it runs out of steam of it, or it loses interest in us once we've had a few years

of looking after our families and so on, and doesn't use the resources of food and energy to keep us going quite so long. And so gradually the systems run down. that's a sort of broad theory at the moment. Interesting. And can you tell me what problems characterize ageing? What sort of things happen to us as we get on in years? Well, I think it's actually a very interesting thing.

I think two messages come through very clearly in the book. And they came through to me, I suddenly realized this was where it was going. That we all know the diseases, if you ask somebody, anybody, what diseases are characterise an old person, and you'll say heart failure, and you'll say arthritis, and you'll say dementia and cancer and those sort of things. And those are all recognised as age-related diseases. But what's interesting is that people feel that those are the things that people focus on, and that's where the health services are focusing at the moment.

So geriatrics will treat old people when they get very sick. But what seems apparent is that the single biggest risk factor for all of these very obvious age-related diseases that we very obviously recognize as diseases is the aging process itself. It's just the passing of the years. And so what gerontologists are doing is looking at that aging process and recognizing that the diseases that we recognize as diseases of aging are in fact just the end game of a pro se of a long process. And so if they can intervene earlier and earlier, then you can get at the roots of many of these problems rather than just treating them when they come up. And so that's the thing. Yeah, okay. So do you think then that all of these seemingly diverse age-related diseases, heart failure, Alzheimer's, cancer, things like that, do they have a single root cause? They don't have a single root cause. And I think that's one of the messages that there's never going

to be an elixir of youth, that, you know, one single thing we can do, one pill we can take and it'll clear the whole thing. But they absolutely have common roots, and they have common roots in the aging process of the body. And so gerontologists are looking at different organs and systems to see how they're aging and whether there's anything we can do about it. And the good news is that it's quite clear that aging happens to us all. It is an inevitable process, but it isn't inextrable. It doesn't just. run its course and there's nothing we can do about it. We're finding that there are a lot of places that you can intervene. It is a modifiable process and that's what they're finding.

Okay. So can you tell me about some of these studies that these gerontologists are doing? Where can you intervene and how much good is it doing? Okay. Well, one of the fascinating things is a phenomenon called senescent cells. And what's been discovered, of course, is that all of our dividing cells, they come to the end of their life. They have a finite lifespan. But rather than just dying off and being sloughed off and being replaced by daughter cells and so on, they actually stick around for a while. Now, when we're young, they have a role to play these senescent cells. They encourage the immune system to heal wounds and things like that.

They send out signals to the immune system to heal wounds and things. And then the immune system itself clears them away. So there's a sort of turnover of these cells that have stopped dividing. But as we get older, the immune system itself gets older and it stops clearing these cells. And they can do a lot of harm if they stick around for too long, these senescent cells, because they secrete substances that eat away at the collagen, which is the nice elastic glue that holds ourselves together and keeps our skin nice and firm and young. And this is one reason why we get wrinkles,

because the collagen is degraded by these senescent cells, which have been hanging around too long. And so that was obviously a problem, the accumulation of senescent cells. But in the labs, they found that there are ways of actually reversing the decline of these cells, getting them to be able to divide again and making them plump and healthy again. And they found that they're able to do this in quite a number of model organisms too. Rats and, I mean, you know, rats and mice and worms and flies, all the things that they use in the lab. But these things don't always translate into treatments for human beings.

And so there's a long way between managing to do it in the lab and it actually being something in the clinic of clinical use. But you know, it's a very, very promising line that. But I also found the talk about calorie restriction interesting because that again is one of the things that we, ordinary human beings. don't need to go to your doctor about that. You can work on that on your own. One of the things they discovered was that there was a guy in America in the 30s who discovered that with his lab rats, that if he gave them a very calorie restricted diet, he found that they lived, he could double the life of these animals.

He didn't know why or anything. But they found that this was a sort of rule across the board with a lot of the laboratory models, rats and mice and worms and flies and so on. And they teased a lot of that out. But then people, some people got so interested in this, they thought, wow, the evidence is so strong, let's do it ourselves. And so there are these people who call themselves cronies, which is calorie restricted on optimal nutrition. And they live very spartan diets, have very spartan diets, and they don't, they eat once a day and so on. But the evidence is, that even if in human beings, this doesn't extend the lifespan particularly,

it quite massively helps slow down and prevent the onset of these age-related infirmities, you know, the heart failures, other cardiovascular diseases, stroke and dementia and so on. So, you know, there seems to be a lot in that, and I found that very interesting. In fact, I found the whole thing interesting. Yeah, so is there in the case, in the case, calorie restriction studies that you looked at, are there benefits to a kind of calorie restriction that would be achievable for the general population? You know, calorie restriction where you don't feel hungry all the time? Well, that's the holy grail. Because the people that

I spoke to or read about are people who call themselves cronies. And these are people who are fiercely self-disciplined and ready to do whatever it takes to sort of cut their calories. I mean, it sounded absolutely awful to me. It really did. It sounded, you know, I thought, well, I wouldn't want to live longer anyway if I was on that diet. But, I mean, one guy I spoke to was just a lovely guy. And I'd imagine they would be fairly sort of humorless evangelists. But he didn't take himself very seriously.

He was lovely to talk to, a guy in Philadelphia who's a calorie restrictor. And he also discovered that if you keep your body temperature a little bit colder than comfort, that synergizes with very low calories. And so that will actually add years to his life as well. So he was sitting there with an ice vest on in the middle of summer and having had a sort of let his sleep for breakfast. Oh, wow. Anyway, but the interesting thing is the more they've teased out

what is actually happening biologically to give the benefits, the more they're feeling that maybe there will be drugs that you can use to mimic the effects of calorie restriction without the awful self-discipline. I don't think that means that it's going to allow you to eat cream cakes and chocolate bars just like that. But I think what it will do and what the Holy Grail is, is to find ways of helping your metabolism deal with the food that comes in without the bad effects of, you know, without too many sort of spin-on. from your metabolic processes and so on. And I think they're making progress on that too. Yeah, so you mentioned premature aging diseases.

Now, your book was the first time I'd ever heard of Werners Syndrome, a disease that's characterized by premature aging. Can you describe what happens to those people? There are a number of premature aging diseases. And what happens is that that one is associated with an accumulation of senescent cells. But, of course, not all the cells in our body are dividing cells. So you get just that the aging effects that are caused by senescent cells that accelerate in these people. And so they get the age-related diseases very, very much younger, you know, in their sort of 20s and things like that.

They get, they're subject to heart problems and arthritic problems and all of those sort of things. So, you know, it's pretty distressing. Yeah. I think it's rare, though, too. It's not very common. Mm-hmm. So that's senescent cells as one line of research. Are there other lines of research that are being pursued in gerontology?

Absolutely. One of the interesting lines of research is into the immune system. And as I say, the immune system, which is supposed to be, you know, the soldiers in our blood, which make sure that invaders that come in get attacked and wiped out and things. The immune system itself ages. And I found that very fascinating because there are some very vivid images in that. One of the main cells of our immune systems is a little cell called the neutrophil. And it's in the bloodstream sitting around waiting for signals from the body that it's been invaded by bacteria or viruses or cuts of wounds or something.

And then this cell goes from the bloodstream. It homes in on the site of injury or site of infection. And it literally climbs through the cell walls. It cuts its way through the cell walls directly to where it's needed. And it gets there and then it calls in the other soldiers of the immune system that are more specialized to sort of deal with the threat. But what they've discovered is that as we get older, this little cell, the neutrophil, loses its sat-nav, its GPS system. And so it finds it very hard to hear where the signal is coming from and it goes zigzagging through the tissues to try and find where the site of infection is. is, and it causes a lot of problems in its own right. It does a lot of damage, zigzagging through

and sort of breaking through walls and so on. And it causes, it's a sort of cause of underlying grumbling inflammation in our bodies, which, you know, it's below the radar. You don't notice that you've got inflammation because you're not fevered and you don't have hot red skin and that sort of thing, but it's just a grumbling below the radar level of inflammation. And they reckon that that is one of the other main causes of aging. So much so, just this grumbling level of inflammation, which is caused not only by the immune system itself getting a bit aged, but by the senescent cells as well, which keep the immune system, you know, there's a lot of noise from the senescent cells, keeping it on its toes the whole time until it gets exhausted. But inflammation is considered to be such a key, play such a key role in aging that it's actually, somebody's actually coined the phrase inflame aging. So that is also a very, very big area of research.

What are the multiple causes of inflammation in our cells, in our bodies, in our tissues, in our organs, and what can be done about it? Interesting. So when we have acute cases of inflammation now, you know, we have anti-inflammatory drugs. There are things that we can take to help stop that. Is that a target for research as well? Do you think eventually there might be something we can do to stop that inflammation? One of the big problems with finding medicines or getting medicines translating what they're doing in the labs into clinical things in the clinic for us treatments and so on is that it takes a hell of a long time to get clinical, to get permission from the regulatory authorities and so on. So there's a very, very long road from a very promising procedure in the lab to something which is a treatment in the clinic. So what they're doing at the moment is looking at some, they're looking at repurposing drugs, which is looking at some of the drugs which are already in clinical use for other conditions and so on. And they often find that they have uses that weren't expected beforehand. And they just notice that they do have an effect. So there are a number of drugs in medicine cabinet already that they're looking at as possible treatments for senescent cells and for inflate information and so on. So those are very promising lines of inquiry.

And so at the moment, is there anything that we can do to slow the aging process that's really well backed up by science? A lot of things. But unfortunately, quite a lot of them sound, you know, people will yawn when you say, well, it's diet and exercise. But diet and exercise are massively important. And I think one of the things that I found very interesting in my book is we've all heard these messages. We're always being exhorted to eat properly, have a good diet, lots of ruffage, lots of fruit and vegetables and so on. and to do exercise. But what I found fascinating in the book is this book actually explains why. It tells you what the biology is if you don't have a good diet and what the biology is if you don't exercise and so on.

And one of the fascinating things about going back to the immune system is that they find that muscles which aren't being used, if you're sedentary, if you're sitting at your desk for a very long time, your muscles are sending out pro-inflammatory signals to the immune system. which is sort of keeping one, it's one of the things that's driving this very low-grade inflammation, that you're getting signals from these muscles that are just not being used. And but if you get up and walk around do things, your muscles then send out anti-inflammatory signals. So you get a balance and your immune system, you know, you manage to keep inflammation at bay.

But one of the things they've discovered is literally just standing up and putting weight bearing, on your leg muscles and things like that is enough to counterbalance the pro-inflammatory signals. And so one of the people I interviewed, who is an immunologist, she's actually got herself now at her office. She's got a standing desk. And I know quite a lot of people are turning to that. But the science tells you that this balances out the pro and anti-inflammatory signals in your muscles and is a very good thing. So, you know, that's a sort of positive message. And that's one of the ways that it shows you that the biology is telling you why we keep being told that we should take exercise and we shouldn't just sit like couch potatoes all the time. Okay. Now, it also seems

that we're able to keep the body alive and functioning for longer, but we're struggling a lot more with the brain. Do you think that's true? It is. It is. It is. And it's actually one of the sad things that I've got several chapters on the brain. And again, it's very interesting. They're making massive progress in understanding how the brain works and so on, but actually knowing what causes the brain to stop functioning in dementia. There are still, they're still not definitive answers. There are definitive answers to certain sorts of dementia. But Alzheimer's still there are lots of questions to be answered. They know what the pathology looks like inside the head. They know that they have sort of, yeah, that they get parts of a protein that gums up in the brain and they get collapsed cells and things

like that. But they still don't know what kills the cells and whether quite whether it's what interrupts the signaling or what the cause from the outside world is all about. So, so, you know, quite a number of things that they've tried or they've thought would be effective treatments have proved not to be so good when they're in the clinic. And so a lot of the pharmaceutical companies have sort of turned away from doing that kind of research. But I think, you know, it's not a bad story because lots and lots is being learned. And I think they are on the edges of breakthroughs. Nice.

That is promising. Now, do you think that we're ever going to be able to significantly improve the way that we're aging so that we can have a higher quality of life for, you know, the length of life that we're alive for? I don't think there's any question. I finished this book, you know, really looking at the research. and thought to myself, yeah, we really are on the brink of a revolution here. There was a time when we thought that the clock just moved in one direction.

And it does generally. I mean, we do all, you know, the years just roll by. But as I say, in a lot of the systems that they've looked at, particularly in dishes, they've found, I mean, absolutely remarkable reversal of things and quite creepy at times. You know, they've found ways of turning mature cells back. into stem cells so that you could possibly increase the stock of our stem cells, which are the repair materials of our body and maintenance materials. So, I mean, that's another line of

inquiry. It's not there yet, but those are the sort of things we'd be looking at as well. And they've managed to do it in all kinds of model organisms and so on. And it is, as I say, it's quite sort of, It seems quite sort of sci-fi stuff that. But there's a hell of a lot they can do in dishes, in labs and with model organisms that show that, show that, yeah, we're going to be able to do it. Aging is not an unmodifiable process. It's not something we just have to lie down and say, oh, well, anodomini. That's how it will be. There's going to be an awful lot we can do.

Yeah, so this is kind of getting into this real sort of sci-fi stuff. But in the book, you do mention a few examples of animals that don't age. You know, there's a jellyfish found in the Mediterranean and around Japan that reverts to its larval state and then regrows into adulthood a whole number of times. And you call them biologically immortal. Do you think that with all this research that's going on, will ever be able to get humans to a point where we can stop aging or reverse aging? Well, there are people who absolutely believe that. And there are people who are absolutely dead set on that. that is their motivation for doing this research.

But I have to say that having spent a lot of my life traveling around the world and seeing different communities and so on, I feel this is such a divisive way of looking at it and such a, it seems so narcissistic to be trying to beef up, you know, to let us live forever or live for a thousand years because it's never going to be possible for everybody. It's going to be an expensive procedure and that sort of thing. I think it's both it will increase inequality, but quite frankly, I think it's a waste of massively, massive brain power and massive scientific endeavor to look for that rather than to look for increasing the health span. Because I think the health span, a bit like with antibiotics, it's going to be something which is applicable to people wherever they are in the world. And I, you know, maybe we will be able to live forever at some point.

But I don't think we're anywhere near the brink of that. Partly because one of the things that's fascinating about biology, and I mean, people have sort of said, well, you know, why don't we just replace the bits that get faulty like we can in cars? And you can keep cars on the road forever if you just keep replacing the bits that go wrong. We do that to a certain extent in us humans. We get pacemakers and new hips and new knees and so on. But biology is incredibly complicated and messy and clever.

And like we find with viruses and so on, biology will find the way around whatever we humans do. So if biology is driving towards something, it's not going to be diverted by us putting in a new sprocket or something. So I don't know where immortality will come from, and that's not the area of the gerontology that particularly interested me. So I didn't spend a lot of time looking at that. Yeah, so did the whole thing make you feel a bit more optimistic about ageing,

or did it make you a little bit more scared of the process? No, not at all more scared of the process. I felt really optimistic. As I say, even though my book is not a book of prescriptions, this is what you should do to stay young. I found it hugely empowering because, you know, a friend of mine has recently fallen down the stairs and he's an older man. And I could tell very, I knew what sort of sequelae there were, what it would be, you know, how his immune system would be affected by it and what he needed to do to, um, to stop it affecting him too badly and so just to sort of keep going and to make sure he didn't get depressed and all of that sort of thing. So, yeah, I found it hugely empowering and very encouraging, actually. I feel optimistic. I really do. That was Sue Armstrong talking about how and why we age. Her new book, Borrow Time, is available now. Thank you for listening to the Science Focus podcast.

In the latest issue of BBC Science Focus magazine, the first featuring our brand new design, we explore the hidden power of the brain. We also take a look at the oldest galaxies in the universe, examine why charismatic leaders can be successful despite a lack of competence, and we introduce a new section called Reality Check. As always, there's much, much more inside. And don't forget to tweet us at Science Focus and let us know what you thought of the episode and who you'd like us to speak to next.

Thank you for listening to the Science Focus podcast from the BBC Science Focus magazine team. with the UK's best-selling science and technology monthly, available in print and in several digital formats throughout the world. Find out more at sciencefocus.com or look out for us in your app store. This podcast is sponsored by Name, Audio and Focal. The texture and emotional depth of music can be lost through digital sources or poor signal. Name audio believes you can have digital precision with analogue warmth. Alongside French acoustic specialist focal,

Name creates high-end audio systems, combining innovation with craftsmanship, so you can listen to music, just as the artist intended. Discover more at name audio.com. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping this week. We start with only the freshest items, then review your list and carefully choose each one. Then we pack it all up and deliver it in as little as 30 minutes, so you can feel confident it's what you're. ordered. Fresh groceries, your way, with Ralph's delivery and pickup. And right now, you can save $20 on your first delivery or pickup order. Ralph's, fresh for everyone. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute.

Columbia's Omnyshade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer at Columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on allolo lotion. You're welcome, Columbia, engineered for whatever.