How do we age?  Do we age according to how we have lived our lives throughout? Or is it a continuous pull on the gravitational force into the end of it? It doesn’t have to be so bad.  A lot of research is available to understand the processes and how we go through it. As well as improving upon it all. And yes, we have to work at a more conscientious awareness as we develop the process so it can be the best it can be!

Our bodies could be compared to a highly sophisticated computer system.  Our cells alone could be compared to the networking known as the world wide web.  With over 100 trillion cells downloading all kinds of information to each part of our organs and electrical systems isn’t it amazing that our internal hard drive doesn’t crash frequently?  Feeling fatigued may feel like a computerized melt down.  Individuals with fibromyalgia know this feeling.  As well as other metabolic conditions that contribute to it.

Scientists continuously discover how aging actually occurs within all of us.  Nothing should be assumed about the processes of aging.  It has all been researched and each day more and more information becomes known.  Every degenerative disease currently known has its start in our earlier years. Many degenerative processes develop from a state of cellular inflammation. This can develop throughout our lives.

Some skin cancers, for example, are set up in our younger years.  Spending summers on the beach getting bad burns can change our DNA to generate skin cancers such as melanomas, in our chronological older years. Arthritis is known to be a condition in very young people not just the chronological aging adult.  As does many other physical conditions.  Some conditions take many years to become known to us.

Our chronological age isn’t our biological age.  Aging isn’t just the passing of time. Chronologically we have a number attached to us.  But this doesn’t designate how healthy we are or how efficiently our body is running.  How healthy and active we are determines our biological age.  Unfortunately, our physical appearance often confuses chronological versus biological age.  Research indicates that genes do not drive the aging process but the general loss of molecular fidelity does.  It is the state of these pre-existing molecules that governs longevity determination and development.

Other theories involve the concepts of oxidation.  The environment continually ages our bodies causing oxidation to our internal processes.  Drink a lot of sodas, well that helps the process of oxidation.  It helps to rust out our internal foundation that run our organs and body processes, increasing how our body runs.  Antioxidant supplements and antioxidant foods help rectify this process.  Giving up the soda does wonders!  White tea would be a great alternative.

Telomeres are an interesting concept that help to determine aging..  And testing is now available.  Telomeres are sections of DNA at the end of the each chromosome that serve as a cap to your genetic material.  Every time a cell replicates its telomere will become shorter.  Shorter telomeres imply a shorter life span for a cell.

Age adjusted telomere length is the best method to date to assess biological age using structural analysis of chromosomal changes in the telomere.  Serial evaluation of telomere length is an indicator of how rapidly one ages relative to a normal population.  Therapies directed at slowing the loss of telomere length may slow aging and age-related diseases.

An inflammatory diet, or one that increase oxidative stress, will shorten telomeres faster.  This would include refined carbohydrates, fast foods, processed foods, sodas, artificial sweeteners, trans fats and saturated fats.  A food plan that involves large amounts of antioxidant foods (vegetables, fruits, grains) and relatively uncooked, mixed with fiber, monounsaturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids, cold water fish and high quality vegetable proteins can prevent premature shortening to addition, caloric, restriction is advised.  AND WE HAVE TO KEEP MOVING!  GET EXERCISING!!!

REFERENCES:
Hayflick, Leonard, Ph.D. How and Why We Age. Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. 1996
Hayflick, Leonard, Ph.D.  Biological Aging is No Longer an Unsolved Problem. Annuals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1100, Biogerontology Mechanisms and Interventions. Page 1-13, April 2007
Spectracell Laboratories, www.SpectraCell.com (Telomere testing).