Category Archives: Healthy Aging

Nitric Oxide

Posted on by

Many people think that taking nitric oxide supplements will enhance blood flow in the body to improve performance in sports, promote healing, enhance heart health, and provide many other potential benefits.

To reduce inflammation or improve your digestion, sleep quality, immunity, memory, and behavior, you need to know about nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is an essential molecule required for overall health. As a vasodilator, nitric oxide signals the blood vessels to relax, allowing them to expand.

Nitric oxide is most known for its role in heart health as it is a potent vasodilator and regulator of blood pressure, making your blood vessels supple and flexible, which allows them to withstand pressure changes.

What is Nitric Oxide?

Nitric oxide is a gaseous molecule synthesized from the amino acid L-arginine with molecular oxygen by synthases, neuronal (nNOS), endothelial (eNOS), and inducible (iNOS).

Nitric oxide performs crucial roles in vascular and neuronal signal transduction, smooth muscle contractility, bioenergetics, platelet adhesion and aggregation, immunity, and cell death regulation.

Benefits of Nitric Oxide:

Research shows that Nitric oxide has blood-flow-enhancing effects and supports healthy delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles during exercise.

There may be benefits of Nitric oxide supplements for sexual enhancement and erectile dysfunction. Studies imply that some men can use Nitric oxide as a natural way to aid with erectile issues and maintain a healthy sexual experience.

Nitric oxide is produced by the endothelial cells lining the arteries; however, Nitric Oxide levels can naturally decrease as you age.

As you age, your body slows down and produces less of almost everything than it did in your younger years.

Additionally, many unknowingly use antibacterial mouthwash or acid blockers to cut down the acid in their stomach. Both of these products destroy the good bacteria in your mouth and your gut. You need these bacteria to convert certain nutrients in your body into Nitric Oxide.

Regular physical exercise is a great way to enable and empower our body’s function. It helps distribute much-needed life-giving oxygen and healthy nutrients to the rest of the body. However, exercising 24/7 isn’t reasonably achievable for the everyday person.

You can boost naturally Nitric oxide levels in your body. A diet of foods such as spinach, beets, celery, arugula lettuce, iceberg lettuce, carrots, parsley, cabbage, radishes, collard greens, etc., have small amounts of nitric oxide. Changes in diet can improve Nitric oxide levels.

VO2 Max

Posted on by

VO2 max is the single best indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness.

When it comes to measuring fitness and longevity, there is one number cardiovascular experts believe rule them all: VO2 max. VO2 max — or your oxygen uptake — shows how much oxygen your body absorbs and uses while working out. V is for volume, O2 is for oxygen and max is for maximum. Many health experts consider it the single best indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness, and research has found it correlates to longevity as well.

A person’s maximal oxygen consumption, also known as VO2 max—a measurement of how well the body takes in and uses oxygen while exercising at a high intensity—is a useful statistic to gauge fitness and cardiovascular health. A higher VO2 max score means the heart and lungs are transporting more oxygen-rich blood to the muscles, increasing energy production and maximizing athletic performance.

The most accurate VO2 max tests are done in a laboratory where you are hooked up to a mask that measures oxygen consumption as you exercise. VO2 max is measured in milliliters of oxygen a minute per kilogram of body weight. The more oxygen you burn, the fitter you are.

Activity level Average VO2 max
Sedentary 27-30 mL/kg/min
Active 33.0-36.9 mL/kg/min
Very active ≤ 77 mL/kg/min

Source:  Cleveland Clinic.

If you are on a treadmill, you are told to walk or run faster and faster until your oxygen consumption stops rising. If you go beyond this point, you will increasingly be using anaerobic energy—which doesn’t burn oxygen—and you will have trouble sustaining it for long periods.

References:

  1. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-vo2-max-and-how-to-calculate-it/
  2. https://www.barrons.com/articles/vo2-max-test-increase-fitness-age-128c53cd

Apple cider vinegar can lower blood sugar

Posted on by

Registered dietitian Carol Johnston, a professor of nutrition and an associate dean in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, has been studying the effects of acetic acid, the main component of vinegar, on diabetic blood glucose levels, since 2004.

“If I was to show that vinegar slows progression to diabetes, then I would need hundreds of people and millions of dollars to do the studies, because diabetes has a lot of causes, including genetics,” Johnston said.

But studies do show acetic acid can be used as one tool in helping people lower blood sugar. A 2019 randomized clinical trial found “a 10 point decrease in fasting glucose concentrations,” Johnston said. “They used two ‘spoons’ of vinegar in a glass of water twice a day.”

In Johnston’s research, the people who benefited most from the use of vinegar were insulin-resistant, a condition called prediabetes. “In those with prediabetes, it was too good to be true,” she said. “It fell a good bit and stayed that way. It may be this is the group that could benefit the most.”

It’s not just apple cider – the antiglycemic response can be induced by any sort of vinegar: red and white wine vinegars, pomegranate vinegar or even white distilled vinegar.

“Basically, what acetic acid is doing is blocking the absorption of starch,” Johnston said. “If my study subjects eat a starch and add vinegar, blood glucose will go down. But if they drink sugar water and add vinegar, nothing happens. So if you’re having bacon and eggs, don’t bother. It only helps if you are consuming a starch.”

“If you’re taking a diabetes drug, the vinegar could amplify the effects of your meds,” she warned, “and your doctor might want to adjust your dosage.” Studies show the vinegar can reduce blood pressure, triglycerides and total cholesterol in rodents fed a high-fat, cholesterol-rich diet. But full-blown studies have not been conducted in humans.

Freeman, who serves on the American College of Cardiology’s prevention board, said there could be some benefit because of its antioxidant properties, like other heart-healthy fruits and vegetables, such as broccoli and blueberries.

Lifestyle Changes to Diet, Sleep, and Exercise—Paired with interventions Like Relaxation Exercises Could Reverse the Aging Process

Posted on by

A group of mature women lowered their biological age by an average of 5 years in just 8 weeks by lifestyle change consisting of exercise, healthy diet and adequate sleep. 

In the United States, dix in ten adults have at least one chronic disease and four in ten adults have two or more [1]. These diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and they put a significant burden on the U.S. healthcare system as well as the society at large [2].

Aging has been identified as a common driver of chronic diseases and an important target for extending Americans’ healthspan [3]. Life expectancy for Americans has increased dramatically, although not all of the years gained are healthy. It has been estimated that if we improve Americans’ collective healthspan by just one year the calculated savings are worth $38 trillion dollars, and if by 10 years those savings jump to $367 trillion dollars [4].

Biological age clocks, based on DNA methylation marks, have become important surrogate markers to assess the effectiveness of interventions at reducing biological age, with the expectation that biological age reductions will compress morbidity and extend mortality [5, 6].

Lifestyle changes to diet, sleep, and exercise—paired with interventions like relaxation exercises and supplements—could reverse the aging process, according to new research.

Six women between the ages of 46 and 65 underwent an eight-week program that included alterations to diet, sleep, and exercise. They were also given relaxation guidance, probiotic and phytonutrient supplements, and nutritional coaching.

Blood tests showed a reduction in biological age of up to 11 years in five of the six women, with the average participant experiencing a 4.6-year decrease, according to the study, published in March in the journal Aging.

References:

  1. About chronic disease. Center for Disease Control. 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/index.htm.
  2. Woolf SH, Schoomaker H. Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the United States, 1959-2017. JAMA. 2019; 322:1996–2016. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.16932[PubMed]
  3. Kennedy BK, Berger SL, Brunet A, Campisi J, Cuervo AM, Epel ES, Franceschi C, Lithgow GJ, Morimoto RI, Pessin JE, Rando TA, Richardson A, Schadt EE, et al. Geroscience: linking aging to chronic disease. Cell. 2014; 159:709–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.10.039[PubMed]
  4. Scott AJ, Ellison M, Sinclair DA. The economic value of targeting aging. Nat Aging. 2021; 1:616–23. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00080-0
  5. Bergsma T, Rogaeva E. DNA Methylation Clocks and Their Predictive Capacity for Aging Phenotypes and Healthspan. Neurosci Insights. 2020; 15:2633105520942221. https://doi.org/10.1177/2633105520942221[PubMed]
  6. Belsky DW, Caspi A, Corcoran DL, Sugden K, Poulton R, Arseneault L, Baccarelli A, Chamarti K, Gao X, Hannon E, Harrington HL, Houts R, Kothari M, et al. DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation biomarker of the pace of aging. Elife. 2022; 11:e73420. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73420 [PubMed]
  7. https://fortune.com/well/2023/05/17/how-to-lower-biological-age-lifestyle-changes-diet-exercise-relaxation-probiotics/
  8. https://www.aging-us.com/article/204602/text

Autophagy

Posted on by

Autophagy is your body’s rejuvenation process that can be turned on by fasting.

Autophagy is our body’s natural recycling process, a system our bodies have used for centuries to survive. It is our body’s way of renewing itself. It involves the breakdown of old, damaged cells and renews them into healthier versions of themselves.

Over time, our cells grow old and become more susceptible to damage, which leads to oxidative stress in the body. This occurs when the body is exposed to harmful substances in the environment called free radicals, which can increase the risk of disease and accelerate aging.

Autophagy’s sole purpose in life is to reverse this negative process as much as possible. It is your friend, and is a protective mechanism to preserve the health of your cells and your entire body.

During autophagy, cells identified as being damaged are broken down, destroyed, and parts of them are reused to generate healthy, more high-functioning cells.

This process needs to occur frequently and long enough to achieve its intended benefits. Fortunately, there are ways to induce autophagy more regularly to support healthy aging and longevity.[1] One of the best ways is through fasting.

Autophagy Fasting Benefits

There are multiple autophagy benefits to health, and fasting is one way to help you achieve these benefits more often.[2] This is the case with both intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting methods.

Denying your cells of nutrients when fasting gives your body (and liver) a break from digestion and allows it to focus on cell renewal.

It then begins to locate the damaged cells that need to go, recreating them to become stronger.

Here are a few possible autophagy benefits associated with fasting:[4]

  • Decreases oxidative stress that leads to early aging.
  • Destroys damaged cells that can cause disease.
  • Bolsters the removal of toxins from the body.
  • Improves hormonal balance.
  • Decreases inflammation.
  • Boosts skin health by increasing collagen production.
  • Supports proper nerve communication and function, helping your body work more efficiently.
  • Promotes the conversion of your food and nutrients into needed energy.

When it comes to your own autophagy fasting timeline and method, it’s important to know yourself and weigh out the pros and cons of starting an autophagy diet plan like fasting.

How to Induce Autophagy By Fasting

Here are a few tips and best practices if you want to start fasting to stimulate autophagy.

Fast for at least 24 hours – While the exact fasting schedule to stimulate autophagy is not yet set in stone, your body needs some time to prepare for autophagy. While some experts say it’s possible to induce autophagy after fasting for 14–18 hours, most research points to at least 24 hours to begin to see a notifiable autophagy effect. For this reason, at least a 24-hour fast with is generally recommended to stimulate autophagy.[5]

Consider extended fasting – It’s possible that more extended fasts of at least 24–48 hours may lead to even bigger autophagic activity. However, this is not easy or necessarily safe for many people to follow.[6] Extended fasting can be especially dangerous for those who take insulin or other medications to manage blood sugar, as this can result in hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Add certain foods to speed up the process – There are a few foods you can try to help support the autophagy process during your eating windows. This includes coffee, green tea, turmeric, and polyphenols called ellagitannins and ellagic acid that promote health.[7] These polyphenols break down into Urolithin A

There are other effective (and safe!) ways to induce autophagy that don’t involve drastically changing your diet or eating schedule.

Calorie Restriction

A continuous calorie restriction can provide the same autophagy fasting benefits by “starving” your cells of calories on a more regular basis. You don’t need to go super low on calories to achieve autophagy – just reducing by 10-40% of your maintenance calorie needs can be effective.[8]

To achieve this safely and effectively through this method, it’s best to work with a registered dietitian for guidance.

Exercise

If you need a little extra push to exercise more, let the healthy-aging benefits of autophagy get you going on those unmotivated days. Physical activity has been shown to induce autophagy in muscles, especially after higher intensity exercise like interval training or running.[9]

However, even more prolonged, moderate-intensity exercise like walking produces these same autophagy benefits – you may just have to do it for longer.

Autophagy is your body’s way of self-preserving to delay the aging process, optimize health, and protect you from disease. You hold the tools to induce it more often through your daily habits like fasting, calorie restriction, and exercise.

References:

  1. Nakamura S, Yoshimori T. Autophagy and Longevity. Mol Cells. 2018 Jan 31;41(1):65-72. doi: 10.14348/molcells.2018.2333. Epub 2018 Jan 23. PMID: 29370695; PMCID: PMC5792715.
  2. https://www.timelinenutrition.com/blog/autophagy-and-fasting-unleash-the-power-for-optimal-health

13 Habits Linked to a Long Life

Posted on by

13 Habits Linked to a Long Life (Backed by Science) from Healthline.com

Eating a nutritious diet and exercising regularly may increase your life expectancy. Other factors, like overeating and drinking more than a moderate level of alcohol, may reduce your risk of certain diseases.

Magnesium

Posted on by

Magnesium helps your body function properly, especially as it pertains to your muscular system, bones, and nervous system.

Magnesium matters.

  • 7 out of 10 Americans are below the Dietary Reference Intake for Magnesium, according to a USDA Agricultural Research Report
  • Sufficient magnesium intake is important in helping to maintain the function of the heart, muscles, and nervous system, support learning and memory performance in aging adults,  absorb and utilize potassium and calcium properly
  • Magnesium is also critical for athletes’ endurance in order to help maintain electrolyte and energy levels.
  • Adults with certain health concerns or who are taking medication may need magnesium supplementation. Magnesium can be found in foods such as green and leafy vegetables, halibut, nuts, such as almonds, and sunflower seeds.

Magnesium is a mineral that’s essential for making proteins and promotes normal nerve cell communication, muscle contraction, and a normal heart rhythm.

It’s estimated that up to 70 percent to 90 percent of the population are magnesium deficient, according to some findings.

This means that the majority of people living in industrialized nations, even many who think they eat a mostly “balanced diet,” are missing out on the many benefits of magnesium. These include its ability to help manage pain, decrease digestive issues and support quality sleep.

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and assists with more than 300 bodily reactions that occur constantly. About 50% of magnesium is found in bones, and the other half is divided among cells that make up your tissues and organs.*

A mere 1% of the magnesium in your body circulates in the bloodstream, but that small fraction doesn’t accurately convey magnesium’s importance there, as the body makes maintaining blood magnesium levels a high priority.*

Magnesium is important because it assists in the movement of calcium and potassium across cell membranes, magnesium plays a mighty role in promoting normal nerve cell communication, muscle contraction, and a normal heart rhythm. Magnesium also helps to maintain the strength of cell membranes and bones. Diets that provide recommended levels of magnesium are considered beneficial for bone health.*

Magnesium is an essential mineral that’s very important for many aspects of health, since it’s involved in hundreds of bodily functions, including:

  • Blood pressure regulation
  • Protein synthesis
  • Energy production
  • Blood sugar control
  • Digestive processes like moving stools through the intestine
  • Regulation of heartbeat rhythms
  • Neurotransmitter functions, including those involved in sleep and mood stabilization
  • Balance of nitric oxide in the body
  • Growth and development in babies and children
  • Functions of nerves, muscles and tissue
  • Production of stomach acid

Source: https://www.centrum.com/learn/vitamins-minerals/magnesium/

Positive Beliefs About Aging are Good for Memory Recovery

Posted on by

From WebMD.com

Older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are more likely to recover their function if they feel good about aging, compared to those who have negative emotions about it, a new study from the Yale School of Public Health says.

MCI is a common form of memory loss. Positive beliefs about aging give older people a 30% better chance of recovering normal thinking.

“Researchers also found that these positive beliefs also enabled participants to recover their cognition up to two years earlier than those with negative age beliefs,” Neuroscience News reported. “This cognitive recovery advantage was found regardless of baseline MCI severity.”

More than 1,700 people over age 65 participated in the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open.

“In previous experimental studies with older persons, positive age beliefs reduced stress caused by cognitive challenges, increased self-confidence about cognition, and improved cognitive performance,” study authors wrote. “We therefore hypothesized that older persons with positive age beliefs would be more likely to recover from MCI and would do so sooner compared with individuals with negative age beliefs.”

“Older persons in the positive age-belief group who started the study with normal cognition were less likely to develop MCI over the next 12 years than those in the negative age-belief group, regardless of their baseline age and physical health,” Neuroscience News reported.

“Considering that positive age beliefs can be strengthened, our findings suggest that age-belief interventions at individual and societal levels could increase the number of people who experience cognitive recovery,” the study said.

References:

  1. Jay Croft, “Positive Beliefs About Aging are Good for Memory Recovery”, WebMD.com, April 13, 2023. https://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20230413/positive-beliefs-about-aging-are-good-for-memory-recovery

Exercise as Medicine: Just Get Moving!

Posted on by

You can come up with a million reasons for not being physically active.

Roughly 3.2 million people die each year because of physical inactivity, according to WebMD. Regular exercise — aerobics, resistance, stretching and balance — especially among older adults, is critical to good health.

Healthspan is more important than lifespan. On average, people live up to 20% of our lives unhealthy. ~ Institute for Public Health

But it’s important to know that stillness or lack of exercise is bad for your longevity and healthspan.  “Healthspan” can be defined as the period of one’s life that one is healthy, according to the Institute for Public Health. However, being “healthy” means being free from serious disease. A disease is considered to be serious if it is a leading cause of death.

Caring about extending the well period of one’s life should be intuitive – if one is past their healthspan, it means they are chronically sick, often with a degenerating condition. Therefore, most people would agree that staying within their healthspan is desirable.

To extend a person’s healthspan, first healthcare professionals must be able to measure it.  Once they can measure it, then they can improve it.

Unlike the average lifespan, which is now 79.3 years in the US, healthcare professionals don’t have a statistic to mark the end of the average healthspan. To address this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed an indicator, HALE – healthy life expectancy.

To improve healthspan, treatments are required, but treatments don’t necessarily mean drugs. First, there are many commonalities around lifestyle that could delay the onset of most, if not all, of the serious diseases. It might seem like common sense, but maintaining a healthy plant-based diet with regular exercise and without smoking and drinking alcohol and nurturing strong social relationships are the surest ways to promote one’s healthspan and limit the onset of most diseases.

Food, Exercise and Social Connections as Medicine to improve Healthspan.

Resistance:

  1. https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/ss/slideshow-truth-about-exercise-aging
  2. https://publichealth.wustl.edu/heatlhspan-is-more-important-than-lifespan-so-why-dont-more-people-know-about-it/
  3. http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.HALEXREGv

Healthy Aging: Nicotinamide Riboside

Posted on by

Blog Post at a Glance

  • The trace nutrient nicotinamide riboside (NR), a precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and a form of vitamin B3, may help slow brain aging
  • NR may help to boost levels of NAD+, which typically declines in the brain with age, leading to metabolic and cellular dysfunction
  • The NAD+ precursor niacinamide is also beneficial, but it’s not widely promoted because it costs much less than other NAD+ precursors, including NR
  • Since NAD+ declines with age, boosting it has been described as a fountain of youth for extended lifespan and increased resilience to disease

Nicotinamide Riboside (B3) is often celebrated as a “fountain of youth” and has been linked to many health benefits, including better endurance, improved cardiovascular health, cognitive enhancement, and anti-aging support.

Nicotinamide riboside is naturally produced in our bodies. It’s a chemical compound which acts as a precursor to vitamin B3.

For a long time, nobody really knew about nicotinamide riboside. Its mechanisms were not well-understood and, at first glance, it didn’t look like it profoundly affected the body in any way.

Over the past decade, a number of studies have been performed on nicotinamide riboside, radically changing the way scientists think and feel about this chemical compound.

Nicotinamide riboside has been linked to a number of surprising and powerful benefits. Early research on the chemical has been noteworthy.

Established scientist from Harvard and Cornell University have had much to say about this breakthrough anti-aging fighter that is making 55 year old individuals feel like they are 35 in the gym again.

That research, performed by Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, showed that each mouse’s cell age decreased from 2 years to 6 months after being given molecules of Nicotinamide Riboside. In other words, mice that were 2 years old had the cells of 6 month old mice after being administered Nicotinamide Riboside.

So not only does Nicotinamide Riboside reduce the effects of aging, it actually appears to turn back time and make the cells function like they did when they were younger.

One recent nicotinamide riboside study concluded that taking nicotinamide riboside as an oral supplement, “resulted in a remarkable induction of mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism, with an increase in mitochondrial mass.”

Mitochondria is directly linked to aging. As our bodies age, our mitochondrial production – and functionality – declines. This leads to a wide range of degenerative diseases and ultimately makes us look and feel older.

By promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, nicotinamide riboside may be able to “kickstart” the body’s anti-aging processes in a way that no other chemical compound can. That means you look, feel, and think younger.

Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) acts as a highly effective NAD+ booster, but it also works as a vitamin B3 (niacin) supplement.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a key coenzyme found in all living cells. It is a dinucleotide, which means that it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphate groups. One nucleotide contains an adenine base, and the other contains nicotinamide.

NAD+ is essential for life, one of the most versatile molecules in the body, and an important area of focus for aging research.

Since NAD+ declines with age, boosting it has been described as a fountain of youth for extended lifespan and increased resilience to disease.

In 2020, James Clement, author of “The Switch: Ignite Your Metabolism With Intermittent Fasting, Protein Cycling, and Keto,” said NAD+ may be depleted by 50% by the time you’re 60 (compared to in your 20s or 30s), and when you’re 70 you may only have 10% of the amount you did when you were younger.

“And then at 80, there’s almost none,” he said, adding that this will seriously impair your body’s ability to repair broken DNA. “You can see how this huge build-up of damaged DNA in every cell of your body is potentially one of the driving forces of these morbidities that you see with aging, heart disease, cancer [and] Alzheimer’s …“

Nicotinamide riboside is one of the most effective NAD+ precursors to support nucleus and mitochondrial health. That means it boosts cellular energy and reduces the effects of aging by enhancing cellular communication throughout the body and mind.

References:

  1. https://supplementpolice.com/niagen/
  2. https://supplementpolice.com/nicotinamide-riboside/
  3. https://drjosephmercola.com/could-this-vitamin-slow-brain-aging-and-ward-off-alzheimers/