The science behind anti-aging
Time passes, and we grow older – it happens to all of us, and we can’t stop it or slow it down, but in the future, we might be able to reduce some of the undesirable effects that come with aging.
It seems that if our body isn’t busy growing, it’s busy deteriorating, and it’s that latter stage that most of us are understandably unhappy about. While it’s true that each generation of human beings (at least in the prosperous West) is on average living longer than the last, the harsh realities of getting older are still with us. We don’t look as good, we can’t physically do all the things we used to be able to, and we’re more susceptible to illness and disease. Falls and knocks that we once shrugged off can break our brittle bones in later life, and infections that we used to get over in a matter of days can now prove life threatening.
Is anti-aging scientific?
To some extent, concerns with “anti-aging” are often seen as vanity. It’s seen as an obsession with looking young rather than staying healthy. Critics of the anti-aging movement say that we should embrace old age as being just another stage in life, rather than waste our energy on futile attempts to stay looking young. Remaining active and making the most of later life is a better idea than spending money on supposed miracle skin creams and food supplements.
That is fair enough, but it obscures the fact that anti-aging, or longevity research, is also a serious branch of science with worthwhile and respectable objectives. Aubrey de Grey, one of the founding fathers of contemporary anti-aging research, has called for aging to be classified as a disease, and he’s not alone. Many scientists argue that aging is not a natural process but the result of “garbage materials” that can’t be broken down by the body’s cells. According to this theory, aging is something that can be cured.
Unfortunately, that viewpoint is not widely held enough for sufficient funding to be made available. Even though aging can be an upsetting process that affects all of us, we’ve been conditioned to accept it as a fact of life that cannot be changed. Nevertheless, significant research is going ahead, and potentially life-changing discoveries are being made. Anti Aging Ninjas has some tips and products to help slow and reduce the effects of aging if you’re interested.
Repairing the damage
Aubrey de Grey is a co-founder of the SENS Research Foundation, dedicated to researching and beating age-related diseases and, ultimately, conquering the degenerative aging process permanently. The Foundation conducts research at its California headquarters, and funds work at universities around the world. It aims to repair the damage caused to our bodies by aging, and so prevent or minimize the onset of age-related illness.
As we age, the muscles around our joints weaken, our kidneys work less effectively, and our immune system runs down, leaving us vulnerable to infections; they can include life-threatening diseases like cancer. Tissue damage builds up in our bodies as part of the everyday process of living over the years. By the time we are in our forties or fifties this damage is noticeable, and we no longer function as well as we once did. Gradually our skin becomes thinner, our muscles weaken, and our eyesight deteriorates. We’re more susceptible to disease, and our brains don’t seem to work as quickly as they used to.
Effective drugs
Mikhail Blagosklonny is one of the most prominent scientists currently studying the aging process and in particular its links to cancer. The editor-in-chief of the journals Aging, Cell Cycle and Oncotarget, Blagosklonny is an advocate of using rapamycin, a widely-used anti-cancer drug, to combat aging. That is based on his researches into the role that TOR signaling plays in both cancer and aging.
While drugs like Statins can help tackle the symptoms of aging, rejuvenation biotechnologies attempt to reverse the aging process on a cellular level using processes like stem cell and tissue engineering. Last year, researchers at the University of New South Wales identified a critical step in the way our cells repair damaged DNA- a process that is active throughout our lives, but which deteriorates with age. By identifying the key role played by the naturally occurring metabolic NAD+, they theorized that adding a NAD+ precursor or booster called NMN could halt this decline and allow cellular repair to continue into later life. If trials on human volunteers are successful, they believe they could have a valid anti-aging drug on the market within five years.
Active immune systems
At King’s College in London, a study based on a group of 125 long-distance cyclists has suggested that vigorous exercise could prevent our immune systems from declining in old age. Riders in their eighties were found to have immune systems typical of people in their twenties. The elderly cyclists also didn’t exhibit the loss of muscle mass or increase in body fat that usually occurs with age. As well as protecting them from infections and disease, their improved immune systems also meant they weren’t susceptible to conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.
Currently, however, the best methods of combating aging available remain those we all know about: eating well, sleeping well and exercising, while avoiding smoking, stress and excessive alcohol. Sunscreen is a must, but a basic moisturizer is as effective as more expensive skin creams with their claims to be “scientifically proven.” Anti-aging science is a real thing, but it isn’t available over the counter just yet- at any price.
