Why we age and Why we don’t have to!

Daily things you can do to live a longer life full of vitality!

“ Wait, what? We age because that is part of the normal cycle of life, right?”

“And what do you mean by…why we don’t have to age… Is that even possible?”

Those were the questions that crossed my mind when a friend of mine recommended me the book LifeSpan: Why we age and why we don’t have to. Such a controversial topic that challenges the belief about why we age, might have you wondering how the author of this book has been able to gather accurate information that explains the reason why our bodies slowly degenerate till death comes, and how that unavoidable process can be slowed down.

David Sinclair, the author of this book, is an Australian biologist, professor at Harvard Medical School, and a co-founder of multiple biotechnology companies such as Genocea, Sirtris, Ovascience, among others. Throughout this book, David compiles hundreds of amazing discoveries and conclusions about biotechnological advances that have been taking place in the last decades and have increased exponentially in the latest years.

This article, though, does not intend to explain under which conditions these experiments are being conducted nowadays since this would require an extensive amount of pages. The objective of this article is to summarize (1) what is the reason human beings age, and (2) what things we could do daily to avoid aging at the pace we do.

What is the reason human beings age?

One of the key conclusions exposed in this book, which have been reached through extensive research by world-class scientists, is that aging is the most common disease and the root cause for most of the other diseases that are nowadays treated — such as Cancer, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.

Experiments have proved that aging results from the loss of information in our cells, which cause them to be degraded and lose their identity and function. Ultimately, developing diseases like the ones mentioned before. Unfortunately, as sad as it sounds, we have considered these diseases normal for our old relatives and friends to suffer because “that’s how life goes”.

It is precisely in the cell degradation process where discoveries show that the loss of information in our cells can be slowed down by activating our longevity genes. The activation of the longevity genes can be provoked by challenging our survival circuit. For those who are wondering what the survival circuit is, it is the system that has been in our cells since millions of years ago and the reason living organisms — such as human beings, animals, plants — are the outcome of the continuous evolution that have resisted the most challenging environments.

The changing environments our survival circuit has gone through is one the main reason why aging has evolved, allowing human beings to live longer in the past centuries. Nevertheless, even though the average human life expectancy has increased in the last decades, there is even stronger proof that we still have a long way ahead to make progress in human life.

Such proof rest on the fact that (1) we haven’t prolonged vitality, which would mean to live our last years of life more active, healthy, and happy. Instead, we have been adding years to the average human life (72 years) by keeping people alive through pain and disease thanks to medical treatments, and (2) we haven’t overcome the limits of life expectancy (around 120 years*)

So, what could we do to avoid aging at the pace we do?

The incredible findings that display the benefits from activating our longevity genes are proof of how medical therapies will slow, stop, and even reverse aging. Unfortunately, as with any new technological treatment released into the healthcare industry, these treatments are extremely expensive. Thus, to have these treatments democratized and available for the use of people at a reasonable cost, will take a couple of years.

The good news is that besides the expensive therapies that will ensure a better quality of life and extend our years of life, there are many things we can start doing to slow down the pace at which our cells degrade and lose information.

So, no matter who you are, where do you live, or how well your finances are doing, you can start right now!

Nutrition

• Animal protein reduction: Overwhelming advice comes down to eating more vegetables, legumes, and whole grains while consuming less meat and dairy products. Heavily animal diets are responsible for high cardiovascular mortality and cancer risk.
• Less processed food: More fresh food rather than processed food. Nowadays, there are plenty of products at the supermarket that claims to be healthy and natural but you would be surprised when reading their description and finding out the multiple additives names that you are not even able to pronounce.
• Periodic Fasting: Eating normal portions of food in 8 hours with periodic windows without meals of 16 hours. This hunger caused by not having meals during long hours will engage our survival circuit by activating our longevity genes.
• Calorie restriction (the 5:2 diet): Eating 75% fewer calories for two days a week will also have a similar effect as periodic fasting.
• Short supply of amino-acids: Nine of the essentials amino-acids can be found in meat and vegetables. However, meat, weight by weight, contains all the nine relevant amino-acids in more volume than vegetables. This is not necessarily bad news when having a plant-based diet. This will cause a sort of stress to our body that will trigger our survival-circuit due to the low levels of amino-acids.

Nevertheless, experiments have shown that even if we adopt a healthy diet based on less processed food rich in vegetables, we may live longer but it won’t increase our lifespan as we might have expected. Thus, this means that nutrition adversity won’t maximally trigger our longevity genes. For that, it is also required to include some physical adversity, too.

• Exercise: This physical stress applied to our body will trigger our survival circuit to high levels. For those who are not fond of exercising, studies demonstrate that exercising only 15–20 minutes per day reduces all-cause mortality by 45%.
• HIIT (High-intensity interval training): Although exercise is beneficial for longevity genes, it is this type of exercise that engages the greatest number of health-promoting genes. For those who are wondering what HIIT is, it is the type of exercise that accelerates your heart and respiration rate at a high level. For more information, there are hundreds of workout videos on Youtube that you can follow up from home.

These recommendations based on nutritional and athletic routines are the most effective ways to trigger our longevity genes to maximize our lifespan. Fortunately, there are plenty more things you can do to activate your longevity genes!

• Exposure to cold: Longevity genes also get activated when being out of less than comfortable temperatures, requiring our body to do extra work to stay warm. Therefore, one way to accomplish this is by taking cold showers in the morning, exercising in the cold, or taking a walk with a T-shirt on a winter day.
• Exposure to heat: Exposure to hot temperatures does not reflect as many benefits as it does with cold temperatures because we are warm body species. Multiple studies have demonstrated that people that use saunas as part of their weekly routine have lower probabilities of suffering cardiovascular diseases and fatal heart attacks.

These recommendations have as objective to stimulates our longevity genes regardless of whether it is by causing cellular stress through nutritional, biological, or physical adversity. Still, it is essential to maintain a healthy equilibrium when applying any of these suggestions. One thing is dealing with adversity that benefits our epigenome, and the other is genetically damaging ourselves.

On the other hand, as there are things that stimulate and trigger our longevity genes to prevent DNA damage. There are other things we can stop doing to avoid extra damage.

• Do not smoke: The habit of smoking accelerates DNA damage and degradation, making work overtime the DNA repair cells. Thus, the reason smokers age faster.
• Avoid plastics: PCBs are the carcinogenic compounds found in plastics. Hence, the advice to avoid drinking from plastic bottles and eating from take-out containers.
• Do not use the microwave: These carcinogenic compounds (PCBs) are released even more when microwaving any food or liquid in plastic containers.

Your genetics load the gun. Your lifestyle pulls the trigger

— Mehmet Oz

So far, there have been introduced methods that (1) trigger our longevity genes by putting ourselves through adversity, and (2) prevent extra damage to our DNA. Besides, there is one more thing that we can do to get some extra help that will decelerate our aging clock — (3) Vitamins!

• Metformin: This drug mimics aspects of calorie restriction, which put us in nutrition adversity. Consequently, this medication is not only being used by people with diabetes but also by people that do not suffer from diabetes. It has been proven that metformin also inhibits cancer cell metabolism. The author of this book takes 1 mg of Metformin every morning since nowadays it is possible to buy this medicine without a prescription. Also, it is found naturally from lilas.
  * It is not recommended to take metformin if you already have an athletic routine as habit.
• Resveratrol: Natural molecule found in plants produced in times of stress — like rough temperatures — that makes them produce chemicals for themselves to tell their cells to survive. This means plants have survival circuits too. This natural chemical, resveratrol, is in strawberries, lettuce, and grapes. Therefore, the reason why countries with wine culture, such as France and Spain, have lower rates of heart diseases even though their diet is high in saturated fat.

Other beneficial chemicals from stressed plants:
— Epigallocatechin from green tea.
— Quercetin from fruits, capers, kale, and red onions.
— Allicin from garlic.

• NMN (Nicotinamide mononucleotide): It is a compound made by our cells and found in food such as broccoli, avocado, and cabbage. Taking this vitamin would have a similar impact as doing fasting or exercising since it transforms into NAD after hours. The author of this book takes 1 gram every morning.

Each of these tips challenges our survival circuit by stressing our cells, as a consequence, activating our longevity genes without damaging our cells. Hence, these suggestions should be adapted to a level that is close to, but not beyond, the edge. So, remember that moderation is essential to get the best benefits.

Applying these suggestions might be challenging to stick to because of the preparation and discipline they require to be adapted in our already chaotic daily routine. Therefore, I would advise you to progressively adopt these recommendations until they become part of your daily habits.

Also, what could make the incorporation of these suggestions even more difficult is that we have always thought about aging as an unavoidable process of life. Therefore, making us wonder whether following any of these tips, would buy us some extra time on earth. Hence, besides this book, I recommend you to read the material available on the internet (research papers, peer-review journals, podcasts, documentaries), which validate the positive impact of activating our longevity genes. And the best way to do this is through a healthy lifestyle based on our nutrition, being active, and avoiding bad habits, which will, consequently, promote healthy aging.

And although for now, aging is coming for us all, we still can slow down the rate at which our cells degenerate, in other words, the rate at which we age. So, by adopting these recommendations as part of our lifestyle, we are buying years of life that will allow us to try better ways to reduce the loss of information in our cells. Not only prolonging our years of life but also improving the vitality in which we will live our last years next to our loved ones.

The first wealth is health

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

PD:I would recommend this book for those who want to gain knowledge of the latest advances and findings that are taking place in the biotechnology industry related to expanding our lifespan. More importantly for those who want to know how to obtain the benefits of these discoveries in a natural and less expensive way, which will not only reduce the pace you normally age but also will increase the vitality you live your life.