Praetorian
16-02-2012, 05:59 PM
Check out these articles by Charles Poliquin...should give you some ideas.
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Back to Basics I: A Fresh Approach to Anti-Aging
PART 1 - Inflammation – Self-Destruction
by Anna Kukhta
8/31/2009 5:55:59 PM
A 52-year-old Christie Brinkley proclaims in a CoverGirl ad: “I don’t want to be younger, I just want to look it.”
When MAC Cosmetics scouted aging celebrities for its “Beauty Icons” campaign, several actresses refused participation because it required admitting their age.
Aging actors – including Russell Crowe at 42, George Clooney at 45, and Robert De Niro at 63 – still command leading roles while the trend-setting entertainment industry elbows aside the aging actress. “It depresses me that there are so few roles written for grown-up women,” Academy Award winner Kim Basinger says. “For every woman in this branch like Meryl Streep or Susan Sarandon, who thanks to their talent are able to keep their career continuing, there are a dozen well-known actresses older than 40 who can’t get any roles anymore.”
“The message is ‘don’t get old,’” as aging-specialist Becca Levy, professor at Yale University School of Public Health, notes.
It’s a lucrative message. Anti-aging spending by consumers was projected to approach a whopping $42 billion this year with 35- to 50-year-olds spending $20 billion on plastic surgery and non-surgery skin treatments alone. Looking to wrinkle creams and botox syringes for the figurative Fountain of Youth misses a critical point: to decrease the effects of aging, we must work from the inside out, not the outside in.
CAUSES OF AGING
What exactly is ‘aging?’ When we as a society talk about aging, we are really referring to the rate at which we age. This includes visible wear-and-tear such as wrinkles, muscle wasting, and cataracts, as well as a multitude of diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, cancer, heart and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cirrhosis.
Symptoms of aging may be traced back to two main causes: cell division – the more rapidly cells divide, the more rapidly they age – and accumulated damage to cells. In the initial three installments of this four-part series, we’ll investigate four conditions that promote this cellular division and damage: inflammation, insulin mismanagement, oxidation and glycation. In the final chapter, we will look at natural habits favoured for reducing the effects of aging.
INFLAMMATION
Inflammation is one of the key accelerants of aging. It has been linked to most diseases. It is the suspected cause, for example, of as many as 50% of all atherosclerosis cases.
Inflammation is genetically designed to be a protective mechanism. It counters injury and infection with reactions such as swelling and stiffness to create healing time while simultaneously guarding the affected area against re-injury.
It also neutralizes threats. Consider its response to invading bacteria: temperature-sensitive bacteria flourish at 37°C, the body’s normal temperature, secreting toxins and multiplying. By raising body temperature above the advantageous 37°, inflammation kills the assailants.
Inflammation’s protective instincts are roused by a variety of attacks, including:
Oxidation
Glycation
Sleep deprivation
Trans fats (a big problem, given that Americans consume a shocking 80lbs of processed vegetable oil each year)
Elevated blood sugar and/or insulin levels
Nutrient (such as Vitamin D) deficiency
Cigarette smoking
Muscle damage through exercise
Stress: physical, mental and emotional
Even something as simple as a sunburn
SELF-DESTRUCTION
For all of its protective benefits, inflammation is a double-edged sword. It may become self-perpetuating, causing rather than alleviating disease. Autoimmune Disease is an illustration of this, occurring when inflammation is unable to differentiate between proteins and invaders. As a result, it attacks the body’s own tissues. Huntington’s Disease, whereby a genetic defect causes a defective protein which inflammation seeks to neutralize, inadvertently wages war on the body itself.
Similarly, whenever the underlying causes of general inflammation are not relieved, inflammation becomes chronic. Chronic inflammation has been found to precipitate most diseases (including asthma, allergies, and psoriasis), certainly including diseases of aging like frailty, diabetes, wrinkles, and cancer.
Chronic inflammation is also strongly linked to neurodegenerative decline, be it the mild loss of memory, learning ability, and concentration that characterizes aging, or the menacing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, or MS. This is suggested by the presence of two inflammatory markers -- microglial cells and COX-2 enzymes. (Microglials are brain cells whose mission is to engulf and eliminate neurons that have been killed by injury or illness. In doing so, however, they can stimulate production of dangerous neurotoxins and free radicals. COX-2 enzymes are also an inflammatory response that likewise have dangerous side effects. They provide a pathway for the making of powerful pain- and inflammation-triggering prostaglandins.)
Chronic inflammation may also be associated with obesity, though as a consequence rather than a cause. Researchers have found that obese people, regardless of age, have a high quantity of the inflammation marker C-reactive protein (CRP) in their blood. While obese men displayed twice the normal amount of CRP, women studied exhibited as much as 8 times the quantity, indicating obese females have an elevated risk of chronic inflammation.
In the next instalment of our anti-aging series, we look at a second aging precipitator: insulin management, its influence on cancer and its promotion of insulin resistance.
Anna Kukhta specialises in peri-menopausal lifestyle and fitness training. She is located in London, England, and is contactable through Bernhardt@Amarantos-Fitness.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . She is presently completing her level 2 PICP certification.
Copyright ©2012
Back to Basics II: A Fresh Approach to Anti-Aging
PART 2 - Insulin & Sugar Misuse
by Anna Kukhta
8/31/2009 5:59:40 PM
In Part 1 of this 4-part series, we discovered that symptoms of aging are linked to two main causes: cell division – the more rapidly cells divide, the more rapidly they age – and accumulated damage to cells. Continuing our exploration of conditions that trigger these two causes, this article looks at insulin mismanagement.
Insulin’s main role has long been perceived as storage of excess nutrients. However a second role is now being recognized, that of lifespan regulator with insulin often credited as being a major accelerant of aging. This stems partially from the one “lifespan marker” common to various studies of centenarians: insulin sensitivity.
This is hardly surprising when you consider how powerful insulin is. It influences other hormones, such as lowering the muscle-developing GH and the catabolic glucagon. It affects many bodily systems, such as cholesterol and triglyceride manufacture, and stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (the resultant arterial spasm explains why heart attacks are 2-3 times more likely to occur after a high-carb meal). Its effects on aging cannot be overemphasized.
Let’s look at two of the reasons for this: insulin resistance and cell division.
Cell Division
As a mytogenic hormone, insulin causes cell proliferation and division, leading to one of the major diseases of aging: cancer. Studies have confirmed a strong correlation between cell division and breast and colon cancer, for example.
Cornering 22.8% of mortalities, cancer is one of the top three conventional causes of death in industrialized countries, according to the National Vital Statistics Report (October 2004), from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. However, although the most common cause is cardiovascular disease, if we look only at deaths under the age of 85, cancer takes the lead.
Insulin Resistance
Excess insulin further accelerates aging through its promotion of insulin resistance.
Cells develop insulin resistance to protect themselves from the toxic effects of high levels of insulin. Insulin resistance starts with liver and muscle cells and means these cells are less able to accept insulin and sugar, forcing sugar to fat cells and so increasing body fat. (Forty percent of dietary carbs are converted to fat in a normal person; this percentage is expected to be much higher for someone who is insulin resistant.) When fat cells themselves become resistant, blood sugar levels elevate, prompting the pancreas to counter with increased insulin production. This is known as hyperinsulinemia. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are associated with Syndrome X and diabetes.
Insulin resistance has far-reaching health repercussions. Consider for example the vicious circle of magnesium deficiency and insulin resistance. Magnesium is necessary for the production and performance of insulin and so every rise in insulin depletes the body’s magnesium. However, insulin resistance blocks the storage of magnesium while at the same time causing hyperinsulinemia, and so magnesium demands increase as supplies dwindle. Over time, we become deficient in magnesium, which only serves to increase insulin resistance -- magnesium relaxes muscles and its deficiency constricts blood vessels, impeding glucose and insulin from reaching tissues and compounding insulin resistance.
The increased blood pressure as a result of low magnesium levels also raises the risk of heart disease. And since intracellular magnesium is essential for all energy-producing reactions in cells, magnesium deficiency reduces energy.
Looking for Signs
How can you tell if you are insulin resistant? Aside from the fact that it is very prevalent and increases with age and every exposure to insulin, insulin resistance has the following tangible effects: it makes people feel tired: it provokes brain fog that inhibits concentration, memory and creativity; it causes sugar or caffeine cravings; it elevates body fat; it increases blood pressure – hypertensive people are routinely insulin resistant; and it triggers depression as a result of the natural “downer” effect of carbs.
As a final interesting note about insulin resistance: some researchers believe determination of insulin resistance begins at the point of fetal fertilization. And that furthermore, if a pregnant woman has a high-carb diet, she increases the insulin resistance of her fetus, particularly if a female.
To learn how oxidation and glycation develop and how they contribute to aging diseases, please stay tuned for Part 3 of our anti-aging series.
Anna Kukhta specialises in peri-menopausal lifestyle and fitness training. She is located in London, England, and is contactable through Bernhardt@Amarantos-Fitness.com . She is presently completing her level 2 PICP certification.
Copyright ©2012
Back to Basics III: A Fresh Approach to Anti-Aging
PART 3- Oxidation (“Rusting”) and Glycation (“Caramelization”)
by Anna Kukhta
8/31/2009 6:01:38 PM
In her first two articles, Anna examined two contributing factors to aging – cell division and damage and sugar. In the third part of this series, she describes oxidation and glycation, also known as “rusting” and “caramelization.”
OXIDATION: Rusting from the inside
We rely heavily on oxygen. Were we to do nothing but “vegetate” on a couch all day, we would still require 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute to function. For a 60-kilogram person, this translates to 302 litres per day, just to exist.
We use oxygen in a process called oxidation. Occurring whenever a molecule comes into contact with oxygen (e.g. as with a slice of apple browning on a counter top, or the “rusting” of our cells,) oxidation is essential for a number of metabolic processes. These processes include extracting nutrients from food, cellular respiration, and ATP energy production.
They also occur in the mitochondria, where enzymes make use of the available oxygen. In doing so, between 2-5% of oxygen “goes bad”, resulting in Reactive Oxygen Species (R.O.S.) and their infamous by-products: free radicals.
Free radicals are highly-reactive molecules containing unpaired electrons. They crave the stability that an additional electron would bring. Under ideal circumstances, the body produces (or receives supplementation of) sufficient antioxidants, which sacrifice their own electrons to quench the marauding free radicals before they wreak havoc on neighbouring molecules.
Before we examine what happens when antioxidants fail to keep free radicals in check, let us first examine the useful role that free radicals play in the body.They are naturally produced at low levels, as a by-product of oxidation and therefore as an inevitable result of aging. They assist in cellular communication, detoxify threats, and destroy invaders such as viruses and bacteria.
In attacking these pathogens, free radicals both stimulate the gathering of helpful immune cells and remove the assailants from our systems. They also destroy old and damaged tissue, allowing for new growth and hypertrophy development in muscles.
This is what occurs post-exercise, when damaged muscles attract white blood cell repair agents, which in turn produce free radicals to remove tissue debris. Free radicals can also helpfully obstruct production of destructive agents, such as inflammatory enzymes called prostaglandins (for more information, see Part 1 of this series - Inflammation ).
The threatening side of free radicals comes to the fore when they are no longer kept in check by antioxidants. To complete themselves, free radicals now steal from neighbouring proteins, membrane lipids, and even DNA and RNA components. This is known as oxidative stress and results in accelerated cellular destruction that is implicated in many aging diseases, and even death.
Free radical domination happens either through antioxidant depletion – intense exercise depletes vitamins C and E and CoQ10 -- or through booming free radical production. Free radicals are created by toxins (such as UV radiation and inhalation of cigarette smoke), stress, and chemical foods.
They are also produced during exercise: intense aerobic activity increases oxygen demand 10-20 times, producing 2-3 times the amount of free radicals. There is speculation that weight training may also increase free radical production. Pumping iron temporarily interrupts blood flow to the muscle, which is rapidly restored between contractions. This hurried re-oxygenation of the muscles could prompt a surge R.O.S. and free radical production and is called reperfusion injury.
GLYCATION: Caramelization
Also known as the Maillard Reaction, glycation is what causes toast to brown and steak to toughen when cooked.
A similar effect happens both inside and outside (as in brown or fluorescent skin pigments) of our bodies when a sugar molecule (e.g. fructose or glucose) binds to a protein molecule without the benefit of enzyme mitigation. With the average person in the United States today ingesting over one-half cup of total sugar a day – ¼ cup from soft drinks alone – glycation is prevalent.
Glucose-protein marriages in conjunction with enzymes are beneficial and are called glycoproteins. They are essential to our well-being. Their creation is carefully regulated.
Non-enzymatic glycation, on the other hand, alters both the effectiveness and structure of the involved protein so that it becomes toxic to the body. Often, the protein in turn forms cross links with neighbouring glycated proteins. In both cases, normally smooth proteins become bulky and sticky, less flexible and functional. They damage the body (particularly organs that require flexibility, such as the eyes, skin, and heart). They also fatigue the immune system, overworking white blood cells in struggles to eliminate them. To think of it in cooking terms, glycation causes our body’s proteins to become rancid and caramelize.
Persistent glycation is known as Advanced Glycated End Products (A.G.E.s), named partially for their contribution to the aging process. Cooking without water is one habit that has been found to promote A.G.E.s, so eating raw or steamed food would be superior to baking, roasting, or broiling.
A.G.E.s have been linked to the development of many aging conditions, such as cataracts, aging skin, erectile dysfunction, and urinary incontinence. Excessive quantities of A.G.E.s, according to researchers, are produced earlier in life in diabetics than in non-diabetics.
Although inflammation (Part 1 ), cell division, insulin resistance (both Part 2 ), oxidation, and glycation are all unavoidable side effects of metabolic processes and the passage of time, the choices we make in daily life heavily affect the degree of their influence. In Part 4, we will explore a few natural anti-aging strategies.
Anna Kukhta specialises in peri-menopausal lifestyle and fitness training. She is located in London, England, and is contactable through Bernhardt@Amarantos-Fitness.com She is presently completing her level 2 PICP certification.
Copyright ©2012
Back to Basics IV: A Fresh Approach to Anti-Aging
PART 4 - Natural Strategies and Solutions
by Anna Kukhta
8/31/2009 6:02:40 PM
In Parts 1 to 3, we looked at society’s interpretation of aging, how it manifests itself physically, and processes that accelerate aging including inflammation and oxidation.
In this final installment, we consider some nutrition and lifestyle choices that can combat symptoms of aging. Perhaps with their help we can live up to the expectations of anti-aging specialist Ron Rosedale: “You can slow the rate of aging. There is some pretty good evidence that even in humans we still retain the capacity to control lifespan at least partially. We should be living to be 130 to 140 years old routinely.”
Exercise
Exercise is credited with prolonging life, even when only adopted in mid- or old age. Given that oxidation is strongly triggered by aerobic exercise, we’ll focus here on resistance training as the recommended mode of exercise.
One of the biggest anti-aging benefits of resistance training is its boosting of the metabolism. Muscle mass is a fuel guzzler, so much so that a decline in muscle tissue is largely responsible for a 2-5%-per-decade decrease in our resting metabolism.
By increasing muscle mass, resistance training therefore jacks up the metabolism in very short order. One 1994 study of men 74+ years found just three months of resistance training increased muscle strength by up to 21%. (Although not specified, one can assume that some credit goes to development of muscle tissue.)
Increases in muscle are important in light of the findings of UK researchers studying mice and aging. They discovered that the most metabolically active of the mice lived 36% longer than the least metabolically active, and suggest the discovery has relevance for humans, too.
At the very least, strength training reverses the reduction in muscle fiber size that accompanies aging and inactivity, and has been shown conclusively to increase insulin sensitivity. Many studies agree that resistance training is superior to aerobic exercise in improving insulin receptor sensitivity. It also lowers insulin levels.
Additional benefits of exercise include elevation of good HDL-C cholesterol (lowering the risk of heart disease), and possible resistance from age-related mental decline -- even possible protection against Alzheimer’s.
Carbohydrate Control
With excess carbohydrates spiking insulin levels – leading to cell division and insulin resistance – and their triggering of protein glycation, anti-aging provides yet another argument for carb moderation.
By 1999, the American Dietetic Association says, the average American was consuming about 158 pounds of added sugar per year. As Statistics Canada puts it, the average Canadian consumes about 23 teaspoons of added sugar every day – though that’s just from sugars, honey and maple syrup and doesn’t factor in all the other added sugars we get from corn sweeteners, fruit juices, etc.
It’s time that consumers get a little more “carb savvy” so we can make wiser choices, beginning with terminology. “Simple” and “complex” carbohydrates are antiquated, irrelevant terms – we speak today instead of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.
The Glycemic Index (GI) came first, measuring how specific food raises blood sugar levels. Numerical ratings are assigned on a scale of 1 to 100: the higher the number, the more quickly the conversion occurs. Depending on the index used, the 100 rating represents either white bread or glucose; in either case, recommendations are made to choose fewer high GI foods (those ranked 70 and higher) and eat predominantly low ones (55 or less) to keep blood sugar moderate and minimize storage of body fat.
Recently, discrepancies have been discovered between the anticipated and the actual insulin response to some foods. Carrots, for example, score 92 on the GI, yet a typical serving of carrots barely raises blood sugar. A similarly perplexing discovery was made with watermelon, classified as high with its GI rating of 72. And conversely, pasta (perceived in GI terms as a moderate 55) causes blood sugar levels to skyrocket.
The problem, it was discovered, lay in serving sizes. The GI based its tests on 50 grams of available (non-fibrous) carbs. However with foods like watermelon and carrots, a typical serving might contain only 6 grams of carbs, causing nowhere near the blood sugar conversion of the quantity studied.
This led to the development of the Glycemic Load (GL) system, which factors in serving size by taking the assigned GI number, dividing it by 100, and then multiplying it by the actual grams of carbs in a particular serving size. (You can calculate the GL of any serving size you eat based on this method.) Low GL foods rank at 10 or under, while high is considered 20 and higher. Under the new GL system, carrots are among the foods redeemed with a GL of 5.5, and a standard serving watermelon similarly reclassified at 4. Foods like pasta conversely fall out of favour with a GL of 27.5.
The goal, then, is to select mainly carbs with a low GL as they are less likely to raise insulin, and therefore less likely to trigger fat storage and the diseases of aging addressed in earlier sections of this article.
In addition to consciously choosing low GL carbs, we also need to become expert label interpreters, avoiding food containing hidden sugars. Watch out for the following forms of sugar: corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup (the daddy of all detrimental sugars), molasses, honey, fruit juice concentrate or fructose, sugar (ie brown, raw, or cane), dextrose, turbinado, amazake, sortitol, carob powder, sucrose, and maple syrup.
And when weighing the merits of a self-promoted “healthy options” meal, consider: one teaspoon of refined sugar equates to 4 grams. So a product that contains 16 grams of non-fibrous carbs per serving equals 4 teaspoons of sugar.
Antioxidants
As defenders against havoc-wreaking free radicals, it’s no surprise that optimum quantities of antioxidants can dramatically slow the aging process. Because the body’s production of antioxidants decreases over time (with the brain possibly being particularly vulnerable since it‘s relatively deficient in antioxidants to begin with), supplements are valuable. Use a variety of types for multiple levels of protection – antioxidants have unique properties but are synergistic when combined.
Antioxidants are plentiful in vegetables and fruits, such as antioxidant powerhouses garlic and blueberries. Antioxidant supplements include: beta carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, selenium, zinc, CoQ10, R-form Alpha Lipoic Acid, ginkgo biloba, and grape seed extract.
Anti-inflammatories
Given the influence of inflammation on so many diseases, adopting anti-inflammation strategies is strongly advised. Early intervention may both stop and reverse the cognitive decline associated with aging.
Anti-inflammatories include the following supplements: vitamins C, E, and D, resolvin-rich Omega-3 fish oil, GLAs (evening primrose, borage, and black currant oils), Curcumin, Holy Basil, Ashwaganda, Neem, Reiki Mushroom Extract, ginger, and zinc. Anti-inflammatory foods include vegetables such as kale, seaweed, and greens, and fruits such as coconut, blueberries, olives, avocado, papaya, and pineapple. But bear in mind avoiding excessive sugar is also recommended, be it from fruits or even grain-fed beef.
Calorie Restriction
Although somewhat controversial, calorie restriction to slow aging has many supporters. Historical data is cited, claiming a dramatic decrease in mortality from diseases such as cancer and Type 2 diabetes in areas of food shortage during the World Wars. Alternately, the calorie-restricted diet of the Japanese island of Okinawa is cited, where an atypical number of residents have passed the century mark.
The key to the success of calorie restriction, proponents hasten to emphasize, is to ensure you are getting sufficient nutrients and not simply starving yourself. They often advocate foods that are less calorie-dense but more filling (such as fiber-rich sources) and, to keep hunger at bay, have more volume. Furthermore, more protein may be needed, as doing so has been found to decrease the loss of muscle tissue and other bodily proteins.
Even among researchers who agree the benefits of Caloric Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON), there is much disagreement as to the reason. Some liken it to hibernation whereby the physical processes that cause wear and tear on the body are drastically reduced. In particular, one popular theory says metabolising fewer calories means a reduction in oxidative stress and therefore free radical production, which in turn minimizes cellular pollution. Another school of thought believes that in possibly reducing sugar intake, calorie restriction lowers insulin production and the resultant cell division that is linked to cancers.
As one cautionary note about calorie restrictions: some researchers found performance of athletes was improved by increasing daily caloric intake. The low-calorie diets in this Southern Illinois University School of Medicine study were found to be nutritionally deficient.
Sleep
Sleep deprivation afflicts 47 million Americans -- nearly a quarter of adults. The 2002 Sleep in America poll of American adults by the National Sleep Foundation discovered that 74% have a sleeping problem a few nights a week or more, 39% get less than 7 hours of sleep each weeknight, and 37% are so sleepy during the day that it interferes with daily activities.
Such sleep deprivation may accelerate or amplify age-related conditions. Consider the following study findings:
* Just a week of sleep deprivation alters hormone levels and the ability to metabolize carbs
* Sleep-deprived men have higher concentrations of cortisol at night which, as typically found in older people, may be involved in age-related insulin resistance and memory loss
* The blood sugar levels of these subjects took 40% longer to drop following a high-carb meal, compared to well-rested periods. And their secretion of and response to insulin plummeted 30%
So how much sleep is needed? Researchers agree that most of us would thrive on 9 hours of sleep. And for those of us who have amassed a sleep debt thanks to the rigors of shifts, long working hours, and stressful city life, researchers believe spending longer than 8 hours in bed can repay the debt, restoring the body’s chemical balances.
Exercise. Carbohydrate control. Antioxidants. Anti-inflammatories. Calorie restriction. Sleep. Cancel your chemical peels, throw away your sheep placenta capsules, and buy a holiday instead of a face-lift. Look instead to these natural concepts for the true Fountain of Youth.
Anna Kukhta specialises in peri-menopausal lifestyle and fitness training. She is located in London, England, and is contactable through Bernhardt@Amarantos-Fitness.com She is presently completing her level 2 PICP certification.
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