Forever young, part II

Do you want to prevent premature aging and postpone for as long as possible today’s chronic diseases? Then you may try to modify your diet.  Max Lugevere’s YouTube channel is mostly dedicated to this topic. 

Max has also a website with more information on the topic.
 
Here are some of his YouTube videos:
 
Preventing Alzheimer's disease with FOOD

12 Easy and Powerful Holiday Health Hacks 

By watching some of these presentations, I learned that I should eliminate the carbohydrates from my breakfast. Why? Because carbohydrates spike up the insulin levels. Insulin, combined with the daily highest levels of cortisol (these are the levels when we wake up), “re-distributes” the weight from muscle to fat. I am still thinking how to reconcile this advice with my carbohydrate-rich breakfast!
 
For all of us, who want to be “forever” young and die in a nearly perfect condition from a painless cause, here is what Max recommends: Can We Reverse Aging?  The brief presentation is a good message, except for the statement that we can lengthen our telomeres, and therefore, reverse the aging process. In fact, the only thing we can accomplish in our normal cells is to not accelerate the telomere shortening (and therefore, speed up the aging process). 

Forget about telomere lengthening! Only cancer cells lengthen their telomeres.  But then, there is so much in common between the process of “keeping forever young” and cancer development! Think about it. Cancer cells are immortal; in the labs, we still grow cancer cells from individuals long dead.

By the way, if you are still unclear about what the telomeres are, I have previously written on this topic:

“Our genes are made of DNA, and this DNA forms the chromosomes in the cells ... Each of our chromosomes is protected at both ends with sequences called telomeres. As our cells duplicate (divide), the telomeres shorten. Shortening of the telomeres is equivalent to aging …, once the telomeres are of critical length, our cells stop dividing (this period is called senescence). However, changes (mutations) in a few genes may allow the cells to continue dividing. During such divisions, the chromosomes without their protective telomeres are subject to damage. The loss of chromosomal integrity may lead to the birth of cells with abnormal growth, and eventually, to cancer.”

Only our adult stem cells (which are normal cells), have an enzyme called telomerase. When functional, this enzyme counteracts to a certain extent the telomere shortening. All other normal cells seem to lack even this enzyme, therefore, the telomere length in such cells is not maintained.

There are certain conditions that may diminish the enzyme’s activity, and therefore, speed up the aging process. For instance, stress hormones slow down the activity of telomerase, making it more ineffective in preventing the telomere shortening. 

The fact that psychological stress shortens the telomeres faster than expected for a particular age was demonstrated with two groups of mothers: mothers of healthy children (low-stress group) and mothers of children with chronic illnesses (high-stress group). The study established that compared to the low-stress group, the high-stress group of mothers exhibited shortening of the telomeres that was equivalent to 9 – 17 additional years of age. Therefore, high stress may bring people closer to the catastrophic event when the chromosome integrity is endangered. 

Anyway, no normal cells can increase the length of its telomeres. At least, it has not been reported yet.

 To learn more about longevity, watch the lecture of Peter Attia, Reverse engineered approach to human longevity. 

Dr. Attia is taking a more reasonable approach to the dietary recommendations. When talking about healthy diets, he discusses the specific outcomes (biomarkers) we should aim at. He does not harp on us about any specific diets.

From all the confusing messages about diet/health I have heard, I could extract two conclusions:

1. If you already enjoy a healthy, balanced diet and your biomarkers are at the expected levels (see Attia’s talk), just go on with your current diet. If, however, you find it difficult to change your SAD (standard American diet), then try to limit your calorie intake or go on intermittent fasting (e.g., eat for eight hours a day and fast for 16 hours).

2. Do resistance training. I found this video. Probably, I may try the exercises soon.

By the way, the shortest description of a healthy diet is this: "Eat only the food that you great-grandma would have recognized as food". Well, this would exclude the majority of any supermarket offerings. And yes, it means that you need to start cooking.

TIME INTELLIGENCE

In cancer, normal cells are hijacked by mutations. In our everyday life, we are hijacked by an unhealthy lifestyle and strenuous working conditions. Frequently, the result is a shorter life of poor quality. 

Have you heard about the blue zones? These are places in the world where people live the longest and are less affected by chronic diseases of the Western world (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer). One of these blue zones is the Greek island of Icaria, where according to Dan Buettner, longevity could be explained by eight “secrets”: wild greens in the diet, herbal teas, low sense of time urgency (very few people wear watches), daily naps, mountain living that imposes a daily physical effort, strong sense of community, goat milk, and a diet that is a variation of the Mediterranean diet. 

ICARIA

Except for the quirky greens and goat milk, the rest is something that all of us could try to incorporate in our lives. However, the madness called career and the necessity to provide for our dependents impose a toll on our time, and therefore, on our health.

Why am I mentioning time? Because to enjoy our family, to be part of the community, to take daily naps, and to take the liberty to not wear a watch, depends on how much time we have and the priorities we have. 

Frequently, the main choice is this between working to support our family or being with our family. I know that some will disagree: some of you are convinced that you love your family, and this is the reason to spend long hours away from it, at work. However, years from now, when you and your family look back, what exactly will be left to remember? Long days at work for you, and long hours of loneliness for your children? These poignant memories may also include a lump of negative emotions, with which the job stamped your everyday life. 

Many days I have caught myself going home boiling with anger and frustration from work. It is rare to have time to set up a family dinner with love and attention that bonds my family over a healthy dish. Guilty as charged…my dinners may satisfy hunger, but evade the ultimate purpose of bringing my family together in a mindful closure of the day.

In addition to our fast-paced jobs, there are other insults that disrupt our individual and family life. Our children’s’ schools and extracurricular activities are the biggest culprits. During a class in Social Studies, my daughter and her classmates were asked to raise a hand if they had regular family dinners. Out of 20 children, only three raised their hands; I am proud to report that my daughter was one of the three children. The reasons for skipping dinner were different, but frequently the children stated that mom did not cook or the family could not get together because everyone had commitments. Extracurricular activities were the most frequent reason. In the “skip our family dinner” scenarios the dinner was frequently replaced by a “grab from fast food places.” 

The realization that family dinners are disappearing is not novel. I personally struggle with putting dinner together after nine hours away from home. My only solution is the freezer that keeps portions of my weekend cooking efforts: a few soups, the occasional baked chicken, fish or beans. Even on weekends it is a struggle to fit all the required activities: cooking, cleaning, food shopping for next week, and taking care of numerous meaningless tasks that devour our time.The pace of life is imposed by us, our culture and our personality.

It seems that today, health and happier life depend on our ability to free the days from activities that do not matter. If I may re-phrase Kurt Vonnegut, this would be my daily payer “God grant me serenity to accept the time spent working to bring bread on the table, courage to invest in the meaningful work and purge the meaningless activities that clutter the daily life, and wisdom to always tell the difference.” 

Achieving this “time intelligence” will help me in slowing down. Considering that the pace of life is imposed also by the society, achieving my goal would depend upon similar behavioral and psychological changes in everyone around me.


Actionable

Can you oppose the never-ending rush? It is time to slow down – Dalai Lama said, “Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.” Would you enjoy looking back and re-living your everyday stress and the breathless dash through a life hijacked by unhealthy habits and meaningless work? Would you enjoy your wrecked by diseases body and soul? Would you enjoy witnessing your children succeed in their career and yet, becoming as miserable as you? It is time to become TIME INTELLIGENT. Maybe you could start the change with a family dinner?