Staying Fit, Healthy and Strong for the Rest of Your Life

To optimize fitness for life, there are 6 key areas that should be attended to on a consistent, life-long basis. We can slack our attention for brief periods without much consequence, but get back on track quickly and the results are better.

On the Senior Fitness.com website these 6 topics are The 6 Critical Keys to Dynamic Senior Living. Each of these categories has a significant bulk of knowledge to be understood to get the best results, but here I try to break it down into some simple strategies that, if applied simplistically without a lot of study, will produce highly rewarding lifetime benefits.

These 6 topics are listed sequentially in the order found on the Senior Fitness website. These are: ANTI-AGING, EXERCISE, NUTRITION, REST/RECOVERY & RELAXATION, SUPPLEMENTS, and THINKING & ATTITUDE. Let’s take up the first of these in this article – Anti-Aging: Strategies for optimal aging. The other 5 topics will follow in subsequent articles:

ANTI-AGING- Slowing the processes involved in aging, and delaying their consequences. This topic argues that there are practical lifestyle choices that lead to longer, fuller healthier life. There is a developing anti-aging technology based on scientific investigation of the aging processes in humans. We are building an understanding of how the body ages, what speeds it up and what slows it down. We now understand the aging process at the cellular level, and every day this understanding gets better. A growing body of medical practitioners is specializing in this field of Anti-aging Medicine, and it makes sense at this time to seek them out as our physicians of choice. You can find these specialists listed at these sites: http://www.worldhealth.net/pages/directory/ and http://www.lef.org/Health-Wellness/InnovativeDoctors/. These are search pages where you can find one near you.

Strategy: Make it a primary interest to understand the causes of aging and what can be done to slow the process while avoiding its greatest hazards; make it a hobby.

The primary mechanisms of aging are:

OXIDATIVE DAMAGE - damage by ‘free radicals’ at the molecular level. Free radicals are charged ions or molecules that have the potential to grab or forcibly donate an electron. They are created in many metabolic interactions in the body, and are produced by immune cells to create inflammation in order to damage invading organisms. The body creates numerous antioxidants to control the potential damage these free radicals can create. Free radicals are defused in multi-step chains of reactions, involving many different antioxidants. Particularly critical are our mitochondria - the energy plants of each cell. They are bathed in an environment of free radicals resulting from their own operation, and depend on locally generated antioxidants to prevent DNA damage. The most important of these are glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase. We also get a wide variety of antioxidants from food, particularly fruits and vegetables, but also from animal sources. When antioxidant levels decline, either endogenous production or dietary intake levels, free radical damage accelerates and health generally declines – aging is faster. Taking vitami
C and E are helpful, but not sufficient.

Strategy: Eat a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic; take a broad-spectrum antioxidant supplement; take supplements that increase endogenous antioxidant production. (More in our discussion of Supplements.)

GLYCATION - bonding of sugars to proteins (or fats) that stiffens tissues and destroys their function. Elevated blood sugar is the enemy of aging well. Chronically elevated insulin is highly pro-inflammatory.

Strategy: Keep fasting blood sugar levels well below 100 mg/dl. Eat smaller meals spaced 5-6 hours apart and no snacks between meals (drink water when you feel hunger); eat nothing after dinner, go to bed on an empty stomach; get off grain-based and starchy food "products" which raise blood sugar and insulin; eliminate sugar-based drinks and sodas; forget desserts and sweets most of the time. (More in our discussion of Nutrition.)

INFLAMMATION - a repair process that becomes more prominent, damaging and indiscriminate as we age. The root cause of increasing inflammation with age is elevated Nuclear Factor Kappa-Beta (NFKB), a protein that acts as a switch to turn inflammation on and off in the body. Scientists describe NFkB as a “smoke sensor” that detects dangerous threats like free radicals and infectious agents. In response to these threats, NFkB “turns on” the genes that produce inflammation. As we age, NFkB expression in the body increases, provoking widespread chronic inflammation and setting the stage for diseases ranging from atherosclerosis and diabetes to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Strategy: Eat foods that are rich in anti-inflammatory components, thereby lowering NFKB and inflammation, such as; omega-3 fatty acids, phytoestrogens, curcumin, garlic, licorice, ginger, rosemary, grapes/red wine and pomegranate. Keep insulin levels low by eating only low glycemic foods. (More in the discussions of Nutrition and Supplements.)

SENESCENCE - human cells stop dividing after about 50 divisions due to loss of our chromosome’s telomere length; this shortening with every cell division appears to set our maximum lifespan limit at somewhere near 120 years. All of the aging mechanisms mentioned above drive cells toward senescence and shorten their lifespan, so adhering to the strategies above will help. The only known practice to promote significant increase in longevity is caloric restriction. The most important single life-habit to form is eating modestly! But, recent studies have demonstrated that Resveratrol, Vitamin D and Quercitin all turn on the same genes associated with longevity that are activated by caloric restriction.

Strategy: Eating; same rules as under Glycation. Supplement with resveratrol (>150 mg/day), quercetin (>1000 daily), take vitami
D (1000-10,000 IU/day) year-round unless you work in the sun regularly. (Have your blood levels measured – supplement to get into the 60-90 ng/ml range.)

Slowing the aging process is accomplished by doing things that inhibit the damage from these aging mechanisms or slow the rate at which the damage is done. In some cases there is hope that specific types of damage can actually be reversed, and we could, in fact, grow younger in some respects.

Specific genes and their expression are evident in long-lived individuals, and nutrition, exercise, sleep and supplementation dramatically control the activation of these genes. It is in our power to add as much as 30% (current estimates) to our healthy life span, and delay the onset of the degenerative illnesses associated with aging. Consider how much money that amounts to if you were able to work only an extra 5 years before retiring. This is a venture (an adventure to some of us) worth pursuing!

Next time I will lay out useful strategies for optimal aging with regard to NUTRITION and EATING CORRECTLY. It is here that the most abuse is heaped on our bodies by ignorance and imprudence.
Good Living - Frank