Terpenes, hormones, intestinal microbiota, and even plain water are used
Scientists have been looking for the elixir of youth for centuries, although today everyone understands that for some kind of magic pill that will help immediately everyone, there is no hope. You can prolong life by taking away from diseases the years that they take from people. MK learned about the latest advances in anti-aging medicine.
Disputes among scientists about whether aging is considered a natural process or a pathology have not subsided for many years. But no one doubts that for each person it proceeds individually. Its speed is influenced by heredity, diseases, environmental factors, the level of medical care, lifestyle. And yet there are some general laws that help stop the aging process.
Any living being is programmed to age. Therefore, over the years, the body accumulates cellular breakdowns, which complicates the resistance to negative environmental factors.
And yet, a number of scientists are confident that the wear and tear of the body occurs faster than its real capabilities. Today it is often said that human potential is calculated on average for 120 years of life. At the same time, after 50-60 years, the so-called “diseases of old age” develop (cardiovascular, diabetes mellitus, respiratory system diseases, cancer, osteoporosis), which are the cause of 75% of deaths in the world. To control their course, and ideally to cure them completely, is one of the main tasks of modern science.
Today, scientists believe that if one learns to avoid “cellular breakdowns” and uses resources rationally, one can significantly extend human age.< /p>
One of the most popular theories of aging today is inflammatory, its author is the immunologist Claudio Franceschi. Its essence is that the development of diseases of old age is provoked by chronic inflammatory processes that cause stress, metabolic disorders, and so on.
The great physiologist Ilya Mechnikov believed that the basis of aging is the decay products of bacteria inhabiting the human body. Therefore, research in the field of the microbiome today is given great attention all over the world.
Based on theories, various hypotheses are being built on how to increase life expectancy. And some progress has already been made.
Aging and diseases of old age are only 25% determined by genetics. It is easy to calculate that the lion's share depends on the way of life and the possibilities of medicine.
Stress, insomnia, malnutrition, physical inactivity … All this does not add either youth or health. But this can and should be fought.
Who knows what is doing everything possible for healthy longevity, he will live 78-80 years, says the assistant of the Department of Therapy and Preventive Medicine of the Moscow State Medical University. Evdokimova Ekaterina Gubernatorova.
Thus, the Americans have formulated 8 basic rules of a healthy lifestyle. They include proper nutrition, physical activity, avoidance of alcohol, adherence to the daily routine, regular check-ups, smoking cessation, good hygiene and sound healthy sleep.
“Studies show that only one in three controls half of these factors between the ages of 20 and 40, and only one in ten do so in the older age group.
Meanwhile, everyone knows that malnutrition leads to excess weight, which is one of the main risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes mellitus shortens life by 6 years, and if such a patient has suffered a vascular accident, then by 12 years. Weight control and avoidance of alcohol will give pluses in life expectancy even with serious illnesses, ”says Gubernatorova, adding that 62% of the population in Russia suffer from overweight, and 99% of them will die from conditions associated with the same obesity, cardio -vascular diseases, diabetes and oncology.
In general, everything is in your hands. Eat right, lose weight, do not abuse — and be healthy, live long! And of course keep moving.
Recent studies have shown that regular moderate exercise stimulates the process of autophagy — the self-purification of body cells from various waste products, including toxins. This allows cells to regenerate and stimulates natural rejuvenation processes.
Breaking «into the bone» is not necessary: autophagy is triggered by simple loads such as walking for half an hour a day. At the same time, physical activity contributes to building new neural connections in the brain, which reduces the risk of dementia.
Scientists have already discovered tens of thousands of geroprotectors — natural substances that help slow down the aging process. For example, peptides are closely studied. And recently, terpenes have also entered the arena — substances that are rich in essential oils of fruits, vegetables, spices, but especially conifers.
For example, there are more than 300 terpenes in Siberian fir, which allows it to survive in conditions «risk farming» and achieve life expectancy as much as several thousand years. Methuselah pine in California lives 4800 years.
Terpenes are believed to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties, protect DNA from damage, and improve metabolism.
Studies show that terpenes are able to protect not only plant cells, but also animal cells, including humans. For example, a two-hour walk in a coniferous forest increases the number of immune cells in the body by 40%, and if you stay in the forest for a couple of days, the number of immune cells will double, and you will feel the effect for another month.
Recently, Russian scientists conducted a study that showed that with the help of terpenes it is possible to reduce the biological age of a person. The results are published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
The study was conducted in scientific centers and institutes in Moscow, Tambov and Nizhny Novgorod on the basis of a structural subdivision of the Russian Gerontological Research and Clinical Center of the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University. People aged 40-65 years without a history of chronic diseases who received terpenes in addition to the diet showed a statistically significant improvement in vascular elasticity (arterial indexes of biological age decreased by 2.5 years compared to baseline).
Scientists note that vascular changes are one of the most important biomarkers of aging. Recall that it is associated with functional changes in blood vessels, including an increase in arterial stiffness, which is the main cause of arterial hypertension.
The progression of atherosclerosis is one of the most important prognostic risk factors for the cardiovascular system. With age, the walls of blood vessels become more rigid, the functions of the endothelium decrease, which occurs most often against the background of arterial hypertension or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, maintaining vascular health is one of the major steps towards increasing life expectancy.
By the way, scientists from China recently conducted a study in this direction. They studied the possibility of gene therapy in mice with progeria (a disease that leads to accelerated aging). And they proved not only that changes in the functioning of the vascular endothelium are one of the main triggers for systemic aging of the body, but also that this process can be reversed with the help of gene therapy.
Mice were injected with a drug that targets the vascular endothelium — and as a result, they achieved a mitigation of the manifestations of aging and almost doubled the life expectancy of rodents.
“We have shown that vascular endothelial dysfunction is the main trigger of systemic aging, a risk factor for age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart failure and osteoporosis. Molecules that affect the vascular endothelium may be good candidates for the treatment of age-related diseases, and not only cardiovascular. The results of gene therapy also show great clinical potential in both progeria and anti-aging,” the authors conclude.
Other biomarkers of aging are also being studied. Among them are cell telomere length, DNA methylation, accumulation of free radicals, oxidative stress parameters, protein glycation.
One of the most promising is the level of chronic inflammation in the body, which is controlled by the level of C-reactive protein. It is believed that if inflammation is present for a long time, the risk of aging and the development of many diseases, including cancer, increases.
Recently, American scientists quite by accident in the course of one of the studies received the first clinically proven human rejuvenation. During the year, male volunteers took a cocktail of three drugs. As a result, regeneration of thymus tissue (an organ of the immune system, which is otherwise called the thymus gland), rejuvenation of the immune system was achieved, and, what especially surprised the researchers, rejuvenation of the body by 2.5 years at the epigenetic level was recorded!
In fact, a company at the University of California was initially tasked with testing the safety of using growth hormone to regenerate thymus tissue, which degrades with age as it turns into adipose tissue. After about 63 years, irreversible changes begin to occur in this organ, which, among other things, are responsible for the formation of diseases of old age, including cancer.
The preservation of thymus functions is observed in centenarians. Previously, experiments on animals, as well as on HIV-infected people, demonstrated that growth hormone acts on the thymus and restores the population of immune cells in the body.
We decided to test the hypothesis on healthy men 51-60 years old who received growth hormone in combination with two antidiabetic drugs, including metformin, which prevented a decrease in insulin sensitivity. As a result, scientists have received clinically proven human rejuvenation.
It was expressed, first of all, in blood tests — the rejuvenation of the immune system is evidenced by a decrease in the number of aging cells, an increase in the ratio of lymphocytes to monocytes, as well as an increase in the number of T-lymphocytes (immune cell populations approached values typical for a young organism). Not only that: all participants in the study registered regeneration of the thymus: adipose tissue decreased in volume!
For the first time in a small clinical study, experts have reversed the aging of the body. The authors themselves say that they expected the maximum that the biological clock would stop, but they certainly did not expect that it would go back.
The first reports on the role of intestinal bacteria inhabiting our body appeared in 1998; Today, there are more than 10 thousand studies of human intestinal microflora alone. In 2007, American studies were published on the association of the microbiota with obesity, in 2010 — with diabetes. Therefore, today scientists are talking about the importance of functional nutrition: with it, you can lower cholesterol levels, correct the composition of the intestinal microbiome and slow down aging.
Recently, Dutch scientists found that the composition of the intestinal microflora inevitably changes with aging: this is can cause cognitive impairment, dementia, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. It has already been proven that immunity, metabolism and even behavior strongly depend on the composition of the human microbiota. And this composition has changed a lot over the years.
So, scientists have found that in people of age, the concentration of anaerobic bacteria (bifidobacteria), as well as bacteria with anti-inflammatory properties, decreases. But at the same time, a colony of enterobacteria, including E. coli, is growing.
Along the way, in people of the “golden age”, immunity decreases, and chronic systemic inflammation also increases. There is even inflammation associated with aging, which is called inflammaging. It was it that became the subject of research by Dutch scientists in connection with age-related changes in the microbiota. True, they conducted their experiments on rodents: they transplanted the microbiota of young and old mice into sterile mice, and then studied their immune cells. Bottom line: a range of bacteria from aged rodents led to inflammation in the guts of sterile mice.
But the conclusion is encouraging: there is hope that the secret to healthy aging lies in a healthy microbiota that can be achieved… In general, all the same proper nutrition and possibly additional intake of probiotics and prebiotics.
And finally, the easiest way to live long is to drink more. But not just anything, but clean drinking water, which doctors call for from all irons. Scientific explanation? Please!
American scientists conducted an observational analysis based on medical information of more than 15 thousand people: for a quarter of a century they voluntarily participated in the atherosclerosis risk study (ARIC) in the United States.
It should be noted that the content of sodium ions in the body is also one of the important indicators of aging. For example, its increased content in cells has been found to lead to changes that lead to accelerated aging, in particular inflammation and blood clotting, DNA damage, protein oxidation, and increased energy expenditure due to the need to produce water through the oxidation of organic substances.< /p>
Water deficiency is the most obvious cause of increased sodium concentration in the body. Experiments on mice have previously shown that if rodents are constantly limited in water, their health deteriorates and life expectancy decreases.
Therefore, the Americans decided to test whether an increase in the amount of fluid they drink leads to a slowdown in the aging process, and at the same time to evaluate how the level of sodium in the blood is associated with biological aging.
Volunteer subjects were regularly measured the level of sodium in the blood and assessed the degree of aging based on 15 biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels in the blood, etc.), which made it possible to assess the state of the cardiovascular, respiratory, immune and excretory systems and the level metabolism.
Conclusion: the higher the level of sodium in the blood, the faster the participants in the experiment aged. Above 142 mmol/L (normal is 135–146 mmol/L), the likelihood of being older than your chronological age increased by 50%, and the risk of developing diseases such as heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and changes in peripheral arteries increased by 40% . Sodium levels above 144 mmol/l increased the risk of premature death by 21%.
On the other hand, a low level of this trace element indicated a low risk of developing diseases. Reducing sodium levels is quite simple — increase your fluid intake to at least 1.5 liters per day. A familiar recommendation that has now played with new colors. Well, at the same time you need to reduce salt intake…
. The number of studies on the topic of slowing down the aging process is growing every day. Which, we hope, brings closer the day when 120 years will not be the limit.