Live Healthy – Look Marvelous – Live Longer
There are actions you can, and should take today to dramatically improve your health, your appearance and your longevity. You can control 70% of the factors affecting your longevity; only 30% are controlled by genetics until very late in life when genetics become more controlling
Almost all of the effects of aging and the common diseases that come with aging are treatable, to at least some extent. The key is early detection and early treatment.
Our understanding of the aging process is advancing rapidly. Some scientists believe that the first immortal human may be living today.
In 1786, life expectancy was 24 years. Better diets and some medical innovations allowed it to double to 48 years in the next 100 years.
Modern medicine has now increased life expectancy to over 76 years. Future medicine promises to increase it to over 100 years during our lifetime.
“Over half the baby boomers here in America are going to see their hundredth birthday and beyond in excellent health.” says Dr. Ronald Klatz of the American Academy of Anti-Aging. “We’re looking at life spans for the baby boomers and the generation after the baby boomers of 120 to 150 years of age.”
The key to Live Healthy – Look Marvelous – Live Longer is to delay the diseases of aging so that when they do occur, it is very late in your life.
The causes of aging are finally being understood. There are actions you can take today to take advantage of the recent medical developments. Dr. Rudman ran a series of tests on aging people and demonstrated that the effects of aging could be slowed and even reversed. He concluded: “The overall deterioration of the body that comes with growing old is not inevitable.”
The Causes of Aging
Almost all life on earth blossoms with youth, until it has reproduced and passed its genes on to the next generation. After that, the flowers wilt and die, and we humans began to age. Yes, we begin to age while we are still in our 20’s.
We age because the products of our metabolism, I.e., the “ashes” from the oxidation processes that produce energy in our cells, accumulate faster then our endocrine system can remove them. This is because most of the cleansing hormones that surged through our youthful bodies begin to decrease as we begin to age. Some of these more critical hormones have decreased by about 10 to 30% as we enter our 30’s. The decreases become ever more dramatic as we enter successive decades of life. Most of our hormones have decreased by over 50% and some have been reduced to near zero as we enter our 70’s. So we age. Our muscles and bones weaken; our reaction time slows; we lose our agility; all combine to make us more susceptible to accidents. Our immune system weakens and makes us more susceptible to disease. And we die.
The Death Clock
Dr. Hayflick has shown that we have another cause of aging. He has shown that we have a built-in death date of about 120 years, if diseases or accidents do not get us earlier. The point at which our cells have divided a fixed number of times sets this death date. It has been termed the “Hayflick limit.”
Our cells divide to produce new cells to replace the old cells damaged by metabolic ash build-up, free radicals, toxins, and other wear and tear mechanisms. As the cells divide, the chromosomes split to provide chromosomes for the new cells. When the chromosomes split, they lose part of their telomeres – the genes at their ends that keep the chromosomes organized. After a certain number of splits, the telomeres wear away and become too short to keep the chromosome organized and therefore the cell dies without being able to replace itself.
You can think of telomeres as analogous to the plastic bands on the ends of shoelaces. Telomeres hold the important DNA code intact, preventing it from fraying as the molecules replicate over time.
Resetting the Death Clock
But tests over the past few years have shown that the “Hayflick limit” can be extended by the use of an enzyme that causes the “organizing genes” at the ends of the chromosomes (the telomeres) to re-grow. This enzyme is called telomerase.
Telomerase treatments on human cells in the laboratory have indicated that telomerase can make human cells immortal. Doctors and researchers involved in these treatments are reporting that it is their belief that death is not inevitable.
Telomerase is actually an enzyme (a catalytic protein) that is able to arrest or reverse the telomere shortening process. The body produces telomerase when we are embryos in the womb to accommodate the very rapid growth of the embryo. But, unfortunately our bodies do not produce telomerase after birth except possibly for the creation of sperm.
So for humans to extend life we must do two things: first, eliminate the oxidants and toxins in our foods and environment; and find a dietary or pharmaceutical method for increasing and preserving the length of our cells’ telomeres.
Promising Anti-Aging Research
There are many ongoing projects that promise to solve our problems of aging. One is from a team of South Korean scientists. They report that they have created a newly-synthesized molecule, named CGK733 that can make cells younger.
“All cells face an inevitable death as they age. On this path, cells became lethargic and in the end stop dividing but we witnessed that CGK733 can block the process,” Prof. Kim Tae-kook reported. He further stated: “We also found the synthetic compound can reverse aging, by revitalizing already-lethargic cells. Theoretically, this can give youth to the elderly via rejuvenating cells.”
Kim expects that the CGK733-empowered drugs that keep cells youthful far beyond their normal life span would be commercialized in less than 10 years.
Researchers at The Wistar Institute have defined a key target of an evolutionarily conserved protein that regulates the process of aging. The study provides fundamental knowledge about key mechanisms of aging that could point toward new anti-aging strategies and cancer therapies.
Aging saps our strength and ability to enjoy life, cripples us, and eventually kills us. Tens of millions die from age-related conditions each and every year. Comparatively few people know that degenerative aging can be slowed with diet and lifestyle choices, medicines and nutracuetials.
Comparatively few people are aware of the many serious scientific efforts, presently underway, aimed at understanding and intervening in the aging process – in order to one day reverse its effects.
Your objective should be to have a healthy life and continue to live long enough to take advantage of all the medical advances and technologies now in development.
Our health is determined by our genetics, our diets, and our past and current lifestyles. You can now optimize your current and future health by defining and taking medications, vitamins, and other supplements and treatments tailored to your specific health needs. The program to do this recognizes the validity of three basic themes:
- The Future of Medicine is in Personal Tailoring
- Preventative Medicine is Key
- Aging is a Treatable Disease.
Your Anti-Aging Longevity Plan
It is strongly recommended that you get familiar with the latest anti-aging information and develop your personal Longevity Plan. The key to longer life is to detect any health issues as early as possible and take advantage of the available technology to address them. Time really is of the essence.
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