My mom and dad – they like to say they’re in the fourth quarter, and still going strong!
In the last 10 years we have seen some of the most incredible, transformational strides in understanding the biochemical “drivers” of aging, and in our understanding of how to slow down the aging process. We don’t know his or her name yet, but the first person who will reach 150 years old is alive today!
Here’s just one of many amazing discoveries in reversing cellular aging: scientist Dr. Mike West recently forecasted that he is on track to completely solve the aging problem within 25 years! Say what? Why aren’t we hearing about this stuff? Dr. West’s optimism is based on his success today in taking an ordinary cell from any human (e.g. a skin cell) and converting that cell to a stem cell that can be turned into almost any type of human tissue. He has already done this with over 120 human tissue types, including heart, lung, liver, kidney, and cornea!
This is amazing news! The bad news is regulating agencies like the FDA are slow to embrace and approve ground-breaking approaches like stem cell medicine. Fortunately, some countries like Japan have recently deregulated stem cell medicine to make these innovative therapies available to those who need them urgently.
But maybe you don’t want to wait 10 years or more to start rejuvenating your mind and body, and slowing down the aging process. What can you do now? Not the fad stuff, but what the latest studies tells us today. Here a few anti-aging steps to consider now, according to one of the true thought leaders in this area, Patrick Cox, author of “The Methuselah Effect”, which I highly recommend if you want to go deeper into the latest science in anti-aging.
Step 1 – Get Your Java Jive On
What if I told you that despite what you’ve heard, coffee is actually a health food – one of the primary sources of anti-oxidants in the American diet, and one of the best things you can put in your grocery cart? Dr. Mark A. Smith, PhD, director of Basic Science Research at University Memory and Aging Center and editor-in-chief of “Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease”, wrote that studies showed an inverse association between moderate amounts of caffeine and Parkinson’s disease, dementia, type-2 diabetes, liver, and heart disease. Just keep in mind some people can drink a lot of coffee, and some can’t – you have to listen to your body if you are caffeine sensitive.
Step 2 – Let the Sunshine (Vitamin D) In
I know. For decades we’ve been told to stay out of the sun at all costs. What is slowly emerging, though, is recent research that most of us in North America are seriously deficient in Vitamin D. Simply put, you can cut your risk from most major diseases by 50 to 80 percent just by getting enough vitamin D. Dr. Michael Holick is a dermatologist (!), and the researcher most responsible for this radical change in thinking, calling vitamin D deficiency a “silent epidemic”. He recommends moderate sunshine or vitamin D3 supplementation if you don’t happen to live in southern California or south Florida.
Step 3 – Support Your “Off Switches” for Aging
Within each cell of your body, you have an army of mitochondria communicating with each other through NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). As we age the communication of that “army” deteriorates in a big way. According to Patrick Cox, “a growing number of scientists – including more than a half-dozen Nobel Prize winners – believe that boosting NAD+ levels will restore the efficient interaction of each mitochondrion with the rest of the cell…which could lead to significantly extended health spans.” “NAD replacement is one of the most exciting things happening in the biology of aging,” says Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. FDA approval in human trials is likely years away, and as Patrick Cox (now age 67) says in his book, “at my age I may not have time for completely compelling evidence, so I take these (NAD+) compounds (Nicotinamide Riboside, Pterostilbene, oxaloacetate (OAA), ubiquinol (CoQ10), acetyl-L-carnitine), I’m tool old to wait for perfect information.” I’m also personally taking my cue from Patrick Cox and the many scientists who are also taking these supplements now to support their bodies at the cellular level.
I highly recommend you do your own research in this area. I think you’ll be as shocked as I was at how much more we know today than even a few years ago in this whole area of slowing down the aging process.
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