Have you been curious as to why some of us age more quickly than others? If there are different rates of aging, shouldn’t we know what the causes are so we can put the brakes on? It turns out science knows a lot about how to slow down aging.
This series of blog posts follows the information presented in an excellent book, The Longevity Solution: Rediscovering Centuries-Old Secrets to a Healthy, Long Life by Dr. James DiNicolantonio and Dr. Jason Fung. Here are some of my notes:
Science is exploring a number of theories of aging. One of the newer ideas suggests a tug-of-war between growth and longevity. Could there be some fundamental trade-off between growth and longevity? The larger and faster an organism grows, the faster it ages.
Growth vs Longevity
If you think in terms of cellular energy, it makes sense that cells have to conserve energy for reproduction. Conversely, when it isn’t reproducing, it has energy available to repair and restore.
When you compare life spans within the same species such as mice, and in dogs, smaller animals (the ones with less growth live longer. Women on average are smaller than men and live longer. Among men, shorter men live longer. Comparing across species, however, larger animals live longer. Elephants live longer than mice.
The same physiological mechanisms that drive growth also drive aging. Aging is simply the continuation of the same growth program. It is driven by the same growth factors and nutrients. (if you rev a car’s engine, it will reach high speeds very quickly but continuing to do so it will cause burnout quicker.) Short-term performance versus longevity. All the theories of aging point to this essential trade-off.
During youth we need to grow. In middle age, this high growth program may cause premature aging and it would be beneficial to slow down growth. Because the foods we eat play a large role in this programming, we can make deliberate adjustments to our diet to preserve our life span as well as our “health span.”
Hormesis: Slow Down Aging
In last week’s post on Understanding Theories of Aging, I mentioned a process called hormesis. This is what happens when you give an organism a dose of stress (a poison, or damage to muscle tissue). The animal responds by adapting to overcome the stress. A tear to muscle fiber makes the muscle repair itself by growing more muscle. It turns out that hormesis involved in making an organism grow to become stronger and live longer.
Example: when you deprive an organism of calories, it adapts. It repairs. It can live longer. This is what happens in calorie restriction. Deprive an organism of 30 percent of its calories, it lives 30 percent longer.
It turns out calorie restriction is one of the only known processes that ensures longevity. Before you go on an extreme diet, however, be aware that your diet must provide optimal nutrition.
Don’t worry if you find this impossible to do. Humans don’t easily sustain a diet that’s lacking 30 percent of normal calories. There are now alternative methods to get the longevity benefits such as fasting and intermittent fasting.
I’ll continue on this subject in my next post.
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