Is the fountain of youth a myth? Could we one day find it? Maybe. We all already have some cells in our body that are immune to aging these are called germline cells – those from which our offspring are made when egg and sperm combine – is kept at zero. If they weren’t we would be born at Mum and Dads age! So is physically immortality is possible. Alas we are a long way off.
Ask your doctor how to stay alive until 100 and he will say diet, exercise and keep your fingers crossed as genetics have a big play here.
So why do we age? No one is really sure.
What we do know is that it takes a lot of energy to maintain cells and repair the damage that occurs throughout a lifetime. Wear and tear takes a toll. Cells break down, much like cars.
DNA damage in our cells’ nuclei and mitochondria start to accumulate. Meanwhile, the older we get, the harder it is to repair things. At a certain point, the damage is bad enough, and widespread enough, that our cells can’t fix it.
And — in case you haven’t noticed — this functional decline ends in death.
However by improving our diet and becoming active, we can live longer, a lot longer. We are now looking not at life span (not a lot of joy living till 90 if the last 20 years are in a state of misery in an oldies home somewhere). We need to address health span. It is vital that we are healthy in our old age.
We can’t stop aging you are going to get wrinkly and your hair will look odd. However there is a difference between aging and decaying.
Aging is a given, decaying is a choice. As soon as you start to send messages to your body that you are no longer much good to the tribe by being sedentary and eating too much. The body will start to decay to kill you off so that you don’t waste that wonderful resource – food and make it available to the younger more valuable members. Survival of the fittest.
70% of age related diseases can be eradicated, that’s right not slowed down eradicated!
So what do we do to live strong healthy lives into our 90s?
Diet and exercise. Simple but not easy. It takes commitment, determination and discipline but didn’t everything worthwhile you’ve done in your life require those traits? Think about it, your career, your family your sporting achievements, quitting smoking etc.
We need to exercise 6 days a week. That’s right 6 days a week which includes weight training, strenuous aerobic workouts and stretching, yoga or Pilates are good options for this. A good starting point is 4 days a week and then work your way up. For those of you who are shouting “I don’t have the time for that” you right you definitely won’t have the time when you leave this world prematurely from not making exercise a priority in your life now. How much time do you have to devote to your most valuable asset, you?
Maintain healthy nutritious eating habits. Delete refines carbs and sugars. Eat mainly a plant based diet.
Embrace IF (intermittent fasting) there are a number of protocols from the 5:2, 1 meal/day, 24 hour, window fasting from 14-16 hours per day and eating in the remainder.
Ancient hunter-gatherers often ate only intermittently. This suggests that the ability to function at a high level both physically and mentally during extended periods without food may have been crucial in human evolution, and that the human may have adapted to perform at its best with intermittent fasting.
Prior research suggests that in animals, intermittent fasting can fend off or even reverse such illnesses as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Animal studies suggest that intermittent fasting provides these benefits by allowing the body to respond better to stress that might otherwise damage it. For example, fasting could starve tumours, reduce inflammation, or improve the removal of damaged molecules and other components of cells, the researchers said.
One of intermittent fasting’s main effects seems to be increasing the body’s responsiveness to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. Decreased sensitivity to insulin often accompanies obesity and has been linked to diabetes and heart failure; long-lived animals and people tend to have unusually low insulin, presumably because their cells are more sensitive to the hormone and therefore need less of it.
If you would like more information or help please email me on david@newu.pt or call my mobile 0419 221 212. I am here to serve you
