Steps to Turn Back the Clock on Aging

At our longevity practice, we’re often asked what strategies we employ to slow the aging process. It’s a great question. You may not realize this, but there is a massive amount of research being done on the science of longevity that is making it clear that aging is indeed a treatable condition.

So, the question is, what exactly is aging?

Decades ago, when a patient received a diagnosis of cancer, it was usually something that was discovered later in the game, and the medical advice given to patients included telling them to get their affairs in order. We now clearly know that cancer is a disease process that is often preventable and largely treatable. We’ve come a long way in what we thought about cancer and what we can do about it today.

A similar thing is happening in the quest for longevity. But to achieve longevity, it’s important to understand what aging really is.

It’s so simple a question that we don’t really stop to think about what it means. Somehow, we think it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re supposed to get older and sicker and weaker.

But what if aging is something completely different? And that aging and the symptoms associated with it are really more like a disease that is the result of cumulative unhealed damage to your DNA?

You may not realize this, but DNA damage occurs before we’re even born – it actually starts in the womb. This DNA damage accelerates over our lifetime, damaging cells, then tissues, then organs, then organ systems, until the entire system fails.

You may not realize your DNA is being damaged, but what you do see are symptoms of it. One of the earliest signs is gray hair, the result of DNA that can no longer repair itself. Examples of other symptoms are joints getting achy, vision getting foggy, energy levels decreasing, or mental clarity becoming less sharp. And at the other end of the spectrum, hearts, brains, and kidneys begin to fail.

However, we are at a point now that we can change this story.

If the largest part of aging is due to unhealed DNA damage, then your choices make a massive impact on how you age. Your choices can either break your DNA faster or stimulate its repair. What’s vital to know is that aging is not inevitable, and that we actually have a lot more control over it than you might think.

The quest for longevity has included mythical potions and fountains of youth to extend lifespan, and we don’t have anything like that ... yet. But if you make great choices now, you may live long enough to see this come to fruition.

So, what are the kinds of choices that either extend lifespan or shorten it? At our anti-aging practice, we’re tactical about slowing down the disease of aging. The basic gist is that we need to do more of the things that are helpful, that repair our bodies most of the time, and less of the things that cause harm. We approach it from four levels.

Level 1

Your daily food and lifestyle choices are the foundation for the other three levels – modifying these are the low-hanging fruit that produce the majority of the benefit. It’s vital to get this part right, as it’s the basis for longevity. However, if you get this part wrong, the other three levels are pretty much useless.

As far as diet goes, eat nutrient-dense whole foods closest to their source. Focus on plant-based foods. Eat plenty of protein. Avoid processed sugars and foods.

The next step is adding in a little fasting. Going hungry causes autophagy, the Greek word for self-eating, and this is how the body clears out poorly functioning cells and senescent cells and replaces those with new, highly functioning ones. This process doesn’t happen unless you give the body a rest from constantly processing food.

Smoking will age you faster than anything else, so don’t do that, even if you do it once in a while.

Alcohol will also age you, so limit your intake to 1-2 times a week or don’t drink it at all.

Now let’s talk about the lifestyle factors that either decrease inflammation or cause it.

Movement is essential. So, if you get a break, go outside and take a walk. A few times a week, get a few hard workouts – preferably HIIT alternating with weight training – as this will give you the best results.

Sleep is how you regenerate and recover from the day – so get seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep every night. If you think you’re one of those people who do well on four to five hours of sleep, you may want to reconsider. A recent study showed that people who only get five hours or less of sleep each night showed signs of being 5.1 years older, based on biological age, than their chronological age.

And get a handle on psychological stress. There are few things more inflammatory than high levels of cortisol, our fight-or-flight hormone. There’s an oft-used expression that stress will kill you – and it actually will. Sustained high cortisol levels will disrupt every hormone in your body and cause massive damage to your tissues. So, meditate, or do some yoga, some deep breathing – there are about a hundred things you can do to help curb high cortisol levels.

Once the diet and lifestyle factors are optimized, we take the science of longevity to the next level.

Level 2

This is where biohacking comes into play. You may have heard of this term in regard to Silicon Valley execs who started this movement – also referred to as do it yourself biology – where the goal is to “hack” your body and biochemistry to improve symptoms and reduce inflammation. Biohacking targets specific mechanisms of cellular aging.

And there’s real science backing up many of these biohacks. Making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes do make small improvements in your health and well-being. Level 2 is all about learning how your body works and smart supplementation.

The supplement industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, so you need to do this right. You have to have some basic understanding of biochemistry. First, get your micronutrient levels tested. Going to the store and guessing what you may be low in is obsolete as we have the technology to check what your numbers are – and based on that, do some smart supplementation.

When you know what you need, it is essential that you research the company where you buy your supplements – where it sources its raw materials; how reproducible its content of the actual vitamin/micronutrient is when sent to an outside lab to test; if there are fillers in the supplements. Those are important questions. Quality is extraordinarily important.

There are also specific supplements in the anti-aging world that help to decrease markers of aging, but these are secondary to making sure your body has the building blocks for the requisite biochemical reactions that need to take place.

Level 3

This involves working with longevity specialists such as myself. This is the future of medicine, and where we are headed.

It’s about doing a deep dive into the genome. Genes can tell you what diseases you’re at risk for, but they will also be able to tell you what your ideal type of diet and workout plan is. And in order to know how you’re doing; this is where biomarker testing comes in. These are blood tests that tell you how healthy you are and how quickly you are aging.

Level 4

The cutting edge of longevity research. Some of these are experimental and found in specialty labs. The heavy hitters include stem cells, peptides, and senolytics. Some of these are experimental; however, these are becoming more mainstream. You might have heard of peptides as they’re very popular in anti-aging medicine – these are short chains of amino acids that can help build muscle, boost fat and weight loss, and help with muscle recovery.

And don’t forget about the power of the mind. How does your own mindset and your own beliefs affect the picture of your health and longevity? Do you think there’s nothing you can do? Do you not have the interest or motivation to do some of those things? If you do, and need personalized help as to what to do, how to do it, we help our clients with this. And if you weren’t motivated, hopefully you are a little more after reading this!

The bottom line is that you can improve your chances of aging more slowly. You also know what to expect if you make no changes at all. Wellness is the active pursuit of good health, not just something that happens to you, so when you do nothing or barely anything, don’t expect amazing results.

If you take away only one thing from this article, please know that you have control of your choices. You also have the ability to access the tools and information that you need to live as many healthy years as you choose.