Article content
About youthful appearance, vitality and a long, successful life humanity has strived since the beginnings of its history. And now it seems that scientists have discovered one of the keys to turning back the wheel of time.
Researchers from Arizona State University and Texas A & M University reached a breakthrough discovery in plant DNA that could lead to a complete halt of cancer and a slowing of the aging process, reports ABC News affiliate ABC 15 Arizona.
The research concerns telomerase, the enzyme that creates DNA telomeres, which have been shown to play a role in the aging process. When your telomeres lengthen, they protect your cells from aging.
Learn from the experts: Centenarians reveal their secrets
Although direct applications of the study for human health are still distant, according to one of its co-authors there are many things you can do now to improve the length of your healthy life.
In interviews and surveys conducted with people who reached one hundred years of age, certain themes repeatedly emerged when explaining why they live so long.
Among the 10 most common reasons they gave for their long lives were:
- maintaining a positive attitude
- doing low-impact exercises such as walking, gardening, swimming, etc.
- independent living
- a circle of friends
- faith / spirituality
- consuming good food
- a healthy lifestyle (not smoking, not drinking excessively)
- family they see regularly
- being born with “good” genes
- staying mentally active and constantly learning
Centenarians are today the fastest growing segment of the population. Their numbers double every decade; it is expected that by 2050 the number of people who have reached one hundred years will exceed 0.3% of the population.
Centenarians have a 60% lower rate of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure, yet the scientific explanation for their health and longevity remains elusive.
As a group they are happy and optimistic and have an extremely low rate of depression and other mental problems, which suggests they may live longer by maintaining the right attitude.
Hope and positivity affect the heart
There are troubling connections between heart and mental health. Untreated depression or an anxiety disorder, for example, increases your chances of a heart attack or developing heart disease.
The main culprits are again stress hormones.
According to Julie B. Boehm, author of earlier Harvard studies focusing on optimism and cardiovascular disease:
“The absence of the negative is not the same as the presence of the positive.
We found that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction and happiness are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease regardless of factors such as the person’s age, socio-economic status, smoking or body weight.”
The author of a later study, Eric Kim, told The Harvard Gazette:
“While most medical and public health efforts today focus on reducing risk factors for disease, increasing evidence suggests that a difference can also be made by increasing psychological resilience.
Our new findings suggest that we should try to strengthen optimism, which has been shown to be associated with healthier behavior and healthier ways of coping with life’s challenges.”
The importance of deep sleep
Getting good sleep is important for both mental and physical health. Too much or too little sleep can lead to metabolic problems as well as mood changes and reduced ability to concentrate.
Your circadian rhythm, which influences your sleep-wake cycle, also affects your brain, body temperature, hormones and cell regeneration.
“Irregular rhythms have been associated with various chronic health conditions, such as sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder,” say scientists from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Italian researchers found that deleting a specific gene related to aging also affects glucose homeostasis.
According to their article published in the journal Glia, “disruption of the circadian rhythm in humans is strongly associated with metabolic imbalance and shortened lifespan.”
Your circadian rhythm also governs telomeres and telomerase activity, which makes proper sleep an important component of longevity.
In a 2007 study conducted on 21,268 adult twins, Finnish researchers found that adults who slept more than eight or less than seven hours per night had an increased risk of death.
Of course, not only the quantity but also the quality of your sleep is important. Good, high-quality sleep in an appropriate amount can improve how you think and adapt you to the demands and changes of the day.
There is evidence that a calm mind and an active body are two important ingredients of longevity.
It has been shown that the meditation technique known as “mindfulness (sati)” has a beneficial effect on gene expression.
According to an article in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, meditation has also been found to influence the enzyme telomerase, which some researchers believe plays an active role in the aging process.
After resting, don’t forget to refuel
In addition, there are many other strategies you can incorporate to improve your health and extend your life. To live longer you need to counteract the age-related gradual loss of muscle mass by increasing protein intake.
Older people, bodybuilders and endurance athletes usually have higher protein requirements than are common for their age group.
It is also important to alternate cycles of high and low protein intake. Ideally you combine protein restriction with time-restricted eating (for example only between 11:00 and 17:00), after which during strength-building days you follow increased protein intake.
An apparent ideal is daily fasting lasting 16 to 20 hours, as it allows your body to more thoroughly deplete glycogen stores in your liver.
Benefits of fasting include suppression of the “mammalian target of rapamycin” (mTOR) and activation of autophagy, both of which play decisive roles in disease prevention and longevity.
You also do wisely to avoid eating two to three hours before bedtime, because eating late at night reduces levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is very important for health and longevity.
Late-night eating can also take care of unwanted pounds, because excess calories are not burned but stored as fat.
Preventing cognitive decline
It is natural that if you live longer you will want to remain healthy for the rest of your life, and that includes maintaining your cognitive function.
Specific nutrients that may help prevent dementia and cognitive decline include vitamin D, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), folic acid and magnesium.
Other important nutrients deserving attention are:
Astaxanthin – commonly also called “the king of carotenoids”, is a strong antioxidant with powerful protective and anti-inflammatory effects from certain species of microalgae and may be useful in treating painful joints and muscles. It also helps healthy vision and can be used as an “internal sunscreen”.
Ergothioneine – found in mushrooms, it apparently plays a special role in protecting your DNA from oxidative damage. Together with glutathione it may provide protection against age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart disease.
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) – especially important for the health and protection of your mitochondria. PQQ has been shown to help protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It also acts synergistically with coenzyme Q10, yielding better results than when both are taken separately. Dietary sources of coenzyme Q10 include celery, parsley and kiwi.
There is, of course, also the problem of exposure to toxic substances, which can take a toll on your health. Therefore it is essential to avoid toxins and also to consume a healthy diet of organic, unprocessed foods.
This means throwing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal care products, air fresheners, insect sprays, lawn pesticides, insecticides and the like and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
A team of scientists from Southeast University and People’s Hospital No. 7 in Changzhou, China published a study on the role of plastics in our environment and how long-term exposure affects our health.
They found that high concentrations of nanoplastic particles shortened the lifespan of nematodes.
They are convinced that different levels of exposure can have effects on movement and immune response, suggesting that nanopolystyrene is likely toxic to all kinds of organisms.
“Our results highlight the potential of long-term exposure to nanopolystyrene to shorten lifespan and impact health status in the aging process of environmental organisms,” they wrote.
