The Aging Process

Knowledge is Power

Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.......Robert Newton Anthony

You Can Influence the Way you Age

Anyone who has been to an ex-students' meeting some 30 years after graduation will notice that some of their peers look almost as they used to, while others will have aged almost beyond recognition. We all age at different rates, depending on our genes, our environment and how we look after our bodies. While we cannot do much about our genes, the good news is that we can influence the aging process and how it affects us.

Knowing how and why your body changes, and what you can do to slow this process down, can extend your life by many years and keep you looking and feeling in top form. This knowledge can also help you age healthily and make the necessary life-style changes to avoid heart problems or strokes and stop developing such conditions as diabetes, high blood pressure and eye disease.

Just changing your diet and exercising regularlycan dramatically impact the way you age and keep you younger for longer.

A BIT OF FUN - From 31 to 48 in less than two minutes

The Aging Process Explained in Brief

Biologists have come up with a variety of different theories to explain aging but, at the end of the day, it seems that our genes largely determine this process.

The life cycle of human cells are determined by strings of genetic material (DNA) called telomeres, which are found at the ends of chhromosomes. The telomere shortens each time a cell divides, leading to aging and eventually the death of the cell, once the telomere becomes too short to sustain life. Scientists are currently studying an enyzm called Telomerase, which is believed to stop or slow down this process and could be used to prevent or treat cancer, as well as to slow down the aging process.

The environment also appears to have an effect on aging. After experimenting with mice as well as monkeys, it seems that low calorie diets could slow the aging process by lowering the rate at which tissue-damaging substances, called free radicals, are produced in the body. Therefore, scientists believe that antioxidant drugs could protect against the aging effects of free radicals and slow down aging considerably. Many therapists also believe that the human growth hormone, melatonin and testosterone can also prevent aging. However, these hormones have not yet been subject to adequate testing. Therefore, it could be dangerous for patients to take them until their efficacy has been medically proven, and scientists have been able to ensure that they do not have any undesirable side-effects.

Some age-related changes are visible, for example frown or laugh lines, grey or white hair, middle age spread, those stubborn rolls of flesh round the midsection. But there are other changes, such as loss of bone tissue, clogged blood vessels, for example, which might go unnoticed until they start having serious consequences. Just because you can’t see these changes doesn't mean they aren't happening. This is why it is a good idea to have periodic health checks, even if you feel perfectly healthy.

As this site develops, I hope to bring you the latest scientific developments and knowledge, so that you can make choices on how you intend to age, and which anti-aging strategies to adopt.

Sources:

The Free Encyclopedia
L. Hayflick, How and Why We Age (1994); publications of the National Institute on Aging.
The Columbia Encyclopaedia, Sixth Edition Highbeam ResearchPhoto: Highbeam Research
Video: Danxhanna, YouTube

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