Longevity Breakthroughs You Can Do Now. More breakthroughs are on the way!!
Hi everyone, and happy new year!! It is snowing here now in Northern Virginia, this day of 3 January 2022. This blog is very important in many ways, to help you defeat virus by increasing your immune system and to help increase how long you live (lifespan). But also, it is to help you simply live healthier, pain free lives without drugs. The blog is long, but believe me, I have eliminated tons of material to bring you vital information.
If you have read my book (available on Amazon:( https://smile.amazon.com/Breaking-Free-Regain-Clarity-Brilliance/dp/1944913637/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LGRIHWSX1AM4&keywords=bob+arbetter&qid=1641658689&sprefix=bob+arbetter%2Caps%2C43&sr=8-1) , “Breaking Free” , you will know I talk about 4 levels of health. The 4th level has to do with the current state of anti-aging science. I also include tests and results I am achieving by doing some of these protocols myself. You will have to read my book to see those exact protocols, tests and results because it is too much to repeat here. So, I want to outline the landscape of what you can do now to not only improve your healthspan but also your lifespan. As always, you can keep up with my blogs at Conscioushealthclub.com. For this blog, I am conflicted. I want to get you the information but I don’t want to explain all the biochemistry. That would be another book, and blogs are supposed to be short, so what to do? I am faced with asking you to just accept that you may not know what all these below pathways and compounds/body chemicals are, but that you can take away the overall message. That message is, we are at a turning point on the science of life extension. There are things you can do to increase your lifespan (and as a side effect, increase your healthspan), based on the latest science. And some of those things are outlined here. There are many more but I had to keep this article at a half way decent length.
Is increasing human lifespan just theoretical? Is there proof we can do this? Well, sort of. We know that lifestyle choices can reduce disease and increase lifespan. But that is not just what I am talking about. I am talking about living with great health beyond 110 and maybe beyond 120. We have proof in animal models because they have short life spans and we can quickly see the results of different protocols, extending their lives way beyond their normal lifespans, sometimes two and three times longer!. Dr Sinclair at Harvard has even managed to restore sight to blind mice by some of his age-reversing treatments. But in humans, all we can do is measure age biomarkers right now as evidence that we can halt or reverse biological age. And there are a lot of advancements these days in the ability to measure age biomarkers like Telomere Length and Epigenetic Patterns (see my book for detailed descriptions of these age markers). Real quickly, a telomere is the end cap on our DNA, keeping our DNA healthy. Epigenetic markers are tags attached to our DNA, regulating whether the DNA is turned on or turned off. So, with these and many other biomarkers (see the company “InsideTracker” for more biomarkers we can measure), we can see “proof” our biological age is the same, worse or better than our chronological age. Is this proof we can live longer? In a sense. For example, the average lifespan these days for Hawaii is 81.3. For West Virginia, it is 74.7. For Japan, it is 84, while our genetic potential is around 120. So, if you want to extend our lives to our genetic potential, we have to ask ourselves, what is killing us by around 80? Well, cardiovascular issues, virus and other pathogens and cancer are right up there on the top of the list these days. So by having younger biomarkers, can we delay or prevent the onset of these terrible diseases and other life-ending diseases? Probably, yes! And just by having those younger biomarkers, we can enjoy our senior years in better health, increasing our quality of life, whether we actually live longer on not.
But, the fact of the matter is, we are programmed to die. It is built into every single cell of our body. That programming is a very complex subject so you will have to read my book to delve into more details. And I don’t think you want my philosophy on why we are programmed to pass on, as is all life on the planet. But Dr Sinclair believes the biological reason we age, and why we become susceptible to all kinds of disease and eventually die, is because our DNA slowly starts to unwind more than it normally does, looses its identity, gets confused, and then causes havoc in our systems. And he believes that unwinding is caused by the slow deterioration of chemical tagging patterns on our DNA, the science called epigenetics. He identifies three biological causes of that deterioration of tagging patterns as: 1) Lack of control from enzymes called Sirtuins 2) the over expression of a growth pathway called MTOR and 3) the under expression of an enzyme called AMPK. My outline below covers these pathways and what you can do about them to keep you alive longer and healthier. And if you have read my book, you will know I have been searching for an unifying theory of all disease, instead of a wack-a-mole approach from medicine trying to treat diseases and symptoms as they arise. So if Sinclair is correct, we may finally have that unifying cause of all disease: the loss of cellular identity due to the slow unwinding and over exposure of DNA over time.
Can we really extend our lives through these treatments? Well, we have proven we can extend lives of various short-lived life forms beyond their programming, so it should be possible to do it for us as well. And after all, if some current animals on the planet are programmed to live for hundreds of years, then why can’t we?
Anyways, experts in the field like Sinclair at Harvard, say billions of dollars are being poured into this field, helping us to reach life escape velocity! Meaning, if we can just live a few more years, new discoveries will keep us alive just a few more years until more discoveries are made, keeping us alive a few more years, until more discoveries are made, and on and on it goes, allowing indefinite life extension. He and others say we are about 12 years away from that point, for those who wish to take advantage of these discoveries and act on them. This includes discoveries in how human thinking and mind-body connections have profound influence on our health and lifespan as well, things like meditation and lowered stress. I want to cover those here but a blog is supposed to be short, so you will have to read my book about those psychological influences over our health.
In order to be healthy for another 12 years and start the age reversal or slowing process now, there are things you can do based on current knowledge and discoveries. But should you want to do some of these life extending protocols, you should probably start with the basics for good health: good sleep, proper exercise, organic foods, minimal processed food, no gluten, no sugar or processed grain flours or processed oils, vitamin/mineral /fermented food/fiber supplementation, and detox strategies (see my book for details and many more basics for good health).
Here are the things in outline form you can do now to begin age halting/slowing and even possibly achieving age reversal based on not only Dr Sinclair’s theories but other experts in aging as well. Some of those are already covered just by doing the basics, like good sleep and proper exercise. All of the compounds (with a star following the word) in the outline are available on-line through various supplement products. This is technical but I will try and explain as I go using the outline below as your guide and then wording below the outline to amplify each item. For those who do not understand the technical part, please read my book or just look at the supplement/lifestyle part of this outline and words below and add some of these practices/supplements to your daily routine. Or, every time you see a term you want to know more about, go to Wikipedia and look it up. Or, click on the references I provided. Again, I try and explain some of these terms and basic concepts below the outline.
OUTLINE – see Clarification Section below outline to help understand the outline
1) Proper Epigenetic Expression and Gene Repair.
A. Sirtuin activation (https://www.nature.com/articles/nrm.2016.93)
o NAD+ stimulation
§ AMPK Activation
· Resveratrol*
· Curcumin*
· Calorie Restriction
· Metformin/Berberine*
· Exercise
· Other AMPK activators (genostemma*, hesperidin, etc…see Life Extension products for AMPK activators)
§ Direct NAD*, NMR*, NMN* supplementation
B. Hormonal Influence on Epigenetic Tagging (https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008601)
· DHEA*
· Growth Hormone* (Can be stimulated through exercise and fasting instead of using Growth Harmone)
2) MTOR signaling – stimulates growth and energy use. Over stimulation not good for longevity.( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6611156/)
o To mitigate or lower MTOR, Lower or cycle protein consumption
3) Telomere Length.
o Increase Telomerase Activation (an enzyme that lengthens telomeres)
§ TA-65* activates Telomerase which lengthens telomeres ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045570/)
4) Immune function
A. Immune Rejuvenators
§ Omega 3*
§ Pro Resolvins (available in Big Bold Health Omega 3 Fish Oil)*
§ Various compounds/natural chemicals
· Quercitin^, HMB*, Diocmin*, hesperidin*, luteolin*, rutin*, 2-HOBA*, sodium copper chlorophylin*
B. Cellular Senesence Reducers (things that remove harmful old and dying cells)
§ Fisetin*, Theaflavins*, Apigenin*, Quercetin*
C. Metabolic Health (influences the health of the immune system)
5) Autophagy Activation- self cleaning at the cellular level.
o Removal of Cellular Waist, non-functional or old cellular machinery and harmful junk protein
§ Calorie Restriction
§ Exercise
§ Fasting
§ Foods that promote autophagy: For example, resveratrol* is a common autophagy inducer found in grape skins and nuts. Other polyphenols include quercetin*, green tea catechins*, and curcumin*. (https://blog.insidetracker.com/autophagy-know-before-starting-fast)
6) ALSO – There are links between Telomere Length and Epigenetic Patterns
- Epigentic conditions (over methylation (a tag on your DNA)) has been shown to influence telomere length. For example, the more the methylation tags, the shorter the telomeres (not good) so anything you can do to keep your epigenetic tags in balance (see number 1 above) would be good influence on telomere length. (https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190902/DNA-methylation-closely-linked-to-telomere-length.aspx)
Added Clarification for the Outline Above
1) Every cell has DNA right? Well, sitting on that DNA are tags that either turn off or turn on different portions of our DNA. Those tags are called epigenetic tags. It is very important to keep your DNA tags in proper balance. A group of enzymes called Sirtuins do exactly that plus they help repair DNA damage as well and other critical functions in the body and have been linked to aging and longevity. Sirtuins are dependent on a chemical called NAD+ produced in your cells. NAD+ declines as we age so one thing we can do to defeat aging is keep our NAD+ at youthful levels and there are several ways to do this. One way is to activate something called AMPK. This is an enzyme and acts as a nutritional sensor in the body that is sensitive to energy in the form of glucose. So, when glucose levels go down, AMPK causes the cell to generate more NAD+. See the outline above for supplements and activities that activate AMPK.
Another way to increase NAD+ levels is through taking NAD+ directly or taking some of the building blocks that your body uses to make NAD+, like NMN or NMR. There are plenty of products out there now that sell some or all of these natural compounds. Dr Sinclair at Harvard takes NMN, but I am a little concerned with this approach because too much NAD+ has been associated with promoting cancer, and we don’t really know the proper dosing for each age group yet. So I go the other route and increase AMPK through natural supplements like genostemma and berberine and fasting through restricted eating windows.
You can also improve your epigenetics through hormone supplementation, especially DHEA and growth hormone, which both decline as you age. I personally do not recommend growth hormone because you can overdo it and end up promoting cancer. So instead, I use exercise and fasting together to stimulate growth hormone production.
2) mTOR is a pathway that leads to growth of the body, taking it out of survival mode. But it is survival mode that increases longevity, forcing the body to turn on survival pathways that normally lie dormant. Again, these survival pathways lead to longer lifespans. Proteins stimulate mTOR. So it is a good idea to limit your protein intake and not overdo it. Western diets tend to be way too high in protein. A good amount would be like wild caught Salmon two or three times a week, a typical diet of many long lived people around the world. Salmon is also high in omega 3s, helping to reduce inflammation, improve immune function and lower disease.
3) Telomeres are the end caps on your DNA strands. They get shorter each time your cell divides. When they get too short, your DNA becomes damaged and the cell does not function well and eventually dies, causing organ and other failures in your body. You can boost your telomere length with a natural product called TA-65. It is expensive but lasts a long time depending on the dose you are taking. You can test your telomere length as a baseline and then start taking TA-65 and see how you do. Then retest after a year or so. That is something I am doing now and will publish my results in my book. Keep in mind that too long telomeres and too short telomeres are damaging to the body. Studies so far have indicated that TA-65 seems to have ability to lengthen short telomeres but at the same time, not make your telomeres too long.
4) A strong and balanced immune system can help you live a lot longer. There are certain natural chemicals that can rejuvenate your old immune system, according to Dr Jeff Bland of Big Bold Health, a true pioneer in natural health. See above outline for those particular compounds.
On cellular scenesense, many of our cells get old and quit functioning well. But they are still alive and become toxic to the body, secreting inflammatory chemicals which are very harmful. This is called scenesense. There are certain compounds known as senolytics to reduce scenesense and encourage cellular death when they are no longer functional. Getting rid of old cells is key to reducing inflammation and improving immune function. These are listed in the outline.
Concerning metabolic health and the immune system, there is a strong connection between the immune system and our energy production system. This statement, quoted from Dr Paul Saladino sums it up, “One of the classic changes that we see associated with insulin resistance, obesity and metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, obesity, high blood sugars and high blood fat imbalance) is over activation of the innate immune system (our natural ability to kill pathogens without developing antibodies), with decreasing activity in the adaptive immune system (our ability to develop antibodies that are adapted to the specific pathogen).” He also sums up a NHANES study from 2009 to 2016, which reveal 87.8 percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy, based on five parameters. This was 6 years ago, so now, it is probably over 90 percent. This would explain much of the tragic suffering and loss of life from Covid and all the variability in severity of COVID we are seeing in each individual. The five criteria for metabolic health are; 1) waist circumference of less than 102 or 88 centimeters for men and women respectively, a fasting glucose of less than 100 milligrams per deciliter, hemoglobin A1c of less than 5.7, a systolic blood pressure less than 120, a diastolic blood pressure less than 80, and triglycerides less than 150 and HDL greater than 40 for men and 50 for women. So the bottom line is, if we increase our metabolic health and get our levels within these parameters, it will vastly improve our immune system and its ability to fight infections and cancer.
5) Autophagy is our ability to go into cellular self-cleaning. Fasting or lack nutrients forces our cells to switch this self-cleaning on, destroying old and non-functional proteins and poorly functioning cellular organs, making room for new and better functioning systems when we re-feed. Our bodies are built to self-renew, but that works best only if we clear out the old stuff first, then bring in the new. See the outline for those compounds and practices that turn on autophagy.
6) These five things are not all separate and distinct from each other. Everything in the body is linked and in careful balance. So, for example, number 1, epigenetics, can influence number three. Studies have shown that over-tagged DNA can result in shortened telomeres, not a good thing for longevity. So it is important to realize that by fixing some of these issues, you can improve others as well.
Wow, I know this is a fire hose with a ton of knowledge in a very short time frame. I hope you got something from it and that in the interest of brevity, I did not lose everyone. This science of longevity is just in the very beginning stages, and I did not even dive into the effects of stress and the mind-body possibilities to increase lifespan. As always, you can reach out to me to increase your understanding and for health coaching. Just send me an email at justbob3@verizon.net. But I do charge very reasonable rates for my time. Or check out the many interviews of Dr Sinclair on You Tube, including his new podcast, "Lifespan." Or check out Dr Park at Rechargebiomedical.com and his new book, “The Telomere Miracle.”
Take care and have a wonderful new year!!