Wait, We Can Slow Down the Aging Process?
Controlling aging by focusing on our cells.
The major risk factor for heart disease is AGING. The older we get the higher our risk is. The same can be said for other diseases like stroke, cancer and dementia, for example. The older we get the increased risk we have of getting these diseases as well. Therefore, can’t we also say that the aging process is a disease in itself which we can prevent and treat?
First, let’s understand what actually happens as we age, then we can understand how to effect prevention and treatment- like we approach any disease. The aging process, as author David Sinclair explains in his fascinating new book, Lifespan: Why We Age And Why We Don’t Have To, is quite simply a loss of cell information. Cells actually lose the instructions on how to behave and express themselves. In the same way that genetic information is stored as DNA, epigenetic information (how genetic information is expressed without changing the DNA CODE) is stored in a structure called Chromatin. Chromatin are strands of DNA wound around a protein scaffold known as histones. Chromatin allow the DNA molecules to be either turned on or turned off. This information is crucial to understanding the aging process as it is this specific cellular communication that gets altered as we age. The coil of DNA in chromatin will loosen as we get older and cellular transmission of information and instructions are compromised. So, for example, if heart tissue cells are not adequately receiving their DNA instructions on how to rejuvenate and be as elastic as they were meant to be, they will not function properly and lead to heart disease over time. Conversely, if heart cells are instructed through undisturbed epigenetic pathways, they will continue to perform as they were meant to.
If we can control the epigenetic pathway for normal cellular instruction (protecting the integrity of the chromatin coils) then we can control the aging process. How can we do this?
Here’s two significant ways.
Caloric restriction without nutritional compromise allows the tissue to thrive not just survive. Signaling proteins which improve the tightening of chromatin coils are turned on under healthy caloric restriction environments. I see an example of this in my sunroom where I care for and tend many house plants. People often comment, what’s my green thumb trick? I “starve” them of water and food, forcing my plants to thrive and bloom regularly. Prolon is a fasting mimicking diet that promotes health, energy and longevity. It is a well-researched caloric restrictive dietary program that we recommend and makes people feel great.
The role of oxygen inside the body can be manipulated through the use of HyperBaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) by increasing the amount of oxygen delivered to all cells and tissues. In so doing, increased oxygen will increase the activity of enzymes that control longevity in the epigenetic pathway - keeping those chromatin coils intact! This promotes anti-aging or prevention of aging. Therefore, HBOT can increase all aspects of aging: function, memory, focus, concentration, metabolism, improve repair from injury or disease and promote the regeneration of new blood vessels, new tissue and stem cell mobilization.
The Stram Center utilizes a whole body approach to your health, affecting all disease states that come with aging. We utilize nutrition, exercise and stress reduction as well as hyperbaric oxygen therapy to impact the aging process so that lifespan is more about health span- the number of quality years of life versus the number of years alone. Who wants to live to a 100 if the last 20 are spent being sick? I don’t, and you shouldn’t either. Join us in the medical redirection: treating aging as a disease not an inevitable fact of living.
