As human beings, we are all strapped into the great conveyor belt of time, forever pushing us toward older age and our ultimate end.
I realize this sounds pretty “doom and gloom,” but aging does not have to be something we fear and resist desperately.
Remember:
- This happens to all of us, no one has made it out alive yet.
- The way humans age can vary greatly, so don’t feel as though you are guaranteed to have some slow, painful decline.
Many patients I speak with at NutriChem age very gracefully and claim their 40s and beyond were their favourite years. There’s also a growing movement of hardcore anti-aging, self-experimenters and biohackers that you can find all over social media. Some of them are pretty kooky or simply trying to sell you the next trendy supplement. Still, a select few have the financial backing and scientific discipline to explore more legitimate biochemical areas that are likely to impact human beings’ anti-aging knowledge and abilities truly. Some smart scientists and “tech bros” out there seem to truly believe that the average human lifespan could push to 150+ years during this century.
Chronological Age vs. Biological Age
I am a clinical pharmacist who works with anti-aging daily. I see 60-year-old patients who look like they’re 40, and 42-year-old patients who look 55. When we talk about aging, we need to differentiate chronological age from biological age.
- Chronological Age: Number of years alive since birth
- Biological Age: Age of your cells (can differ significantly from your chronological age)
Biological age, which is aging all the way down at the cellular level, can be measured using DNA, epigenetics (which genes have been turned on or off throughout your life), and various other biomarkers. In other words, your chronological age is how many years you have lived, whereas biological age is how many years you likely have left to live.
When we say, “Wow, they have aged so well!” we often refer to someone who seems to have a much younger biological age relative to their chronological age.
The Science Behind Cellular Aging
Biological aging can be analyzed at various levels of molecular depth. Way down at the deepest biochemical level, the level of DNA and the cell, there are several key factors associated with cellular aging that have been established in modern medical literature. Based on the current research, the main factors in aging are the following:
1. DNA Damage & Repair: Genetics, Epigenetics, and Lifestyle
Genetics:
Your genetics, coded in DNA sequences, provide the entire blueprint for proper protein production in every cell of your body. The proteins produced from DNA control all major cellular functions and maintain normal repair of tissues like muscle and skin, for example. Over time, irreversible errors in your DNA coding, known as mutations, start accumulating. This leads to errors in protein synthesis, resulting in suboptimal cellular functioning, protein production, and hormone synthesis. This is why we see muscle tissue decline and skin lose its elasticity (a.k.a. “wrinkles”) as people age.
A 75-year-old has accumulated too many DNA errors over time to produce proteins as well as a 20-year-old. Some populations simply have better genetics for DNA maintenance and repair over their lifespan, so they accumulate fewer critical DNA errors and “age well” seemingly without effort. Simply put, aging is the accumulation of errors in your DNA, progressive deviations from your original human blueprint in place at birth.
Epigenetics:
Although it may be true that some people have built-in genetic advantages to prevent DNA errors and the resulting aging, there is a key X-factor in this: epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to how your environment and behaviours interact with your genes, turning some genes on and others off based on your individual biochemical exposures.
So even if you have the best genetics in the world for DNA repair and “aging well”, but you constantly introduce chemical insults to your DNA – let’s say you drink like a pirate, smoke like a chimney, eat only processed foods, sleep poorly, and never exercise; your DNA repair systems can only do so much! These epigenetic factors will still lead to the accumulation of DNA mutations, and you will still age significantly faster despite your genetic luck. Epigenetics can override favourable or unfavourable genetics.
Lifestyle:
Hence, genetics and epigenetics highlight the importance of lifestyle in aging: Lifestyle and behavioural factors are the major influencers of ultimate DNA damage and error production. Your lifestyle determines the level of DNA damage and the epigenetic pattern of genes that are turned on/off, which express protein synthesis.
Lifestyle also determines one’s levels of inflammation. Many of us think of the word inflammation and think that it is strictly a bad thing, but inflammation is a very important trauma response process that your body uses to repair tissue. When your tissue undergoes an injury, your body’s immune system moves into the area of damage. It sets up a biochemical reconstruction site that is hot, inflamed, and painful to prevent further injury and signal alarm bells that there is a problem here that needs to be fixed. Over time, as the tissue heals, the inflammation usually comes down, the pain and heat subside, and the process resolves. This is normal, healthy, acute inflammation.
However, if this process goes awry, chronic inflammation can persist for months or even years in some people. Chronic inflammation over longer periods of time can lead to overactivity of the immune system to the point where one can even develop autoimmunity. Autoimmunity is when the body’s immune system is so overactivated for so long that it goes haywire and starts to attack itself. Chronic inflammation and autoimmune conditions can damage DNA and cells as well, leading to more rapid aging.
2. Cellular Damage
This brings us to our next biggest player in aging beyond DNA Damage: cellular damage. Cellular damage does not necessarily impact our DNA blueprint, but instead damages other critical components of our cells. Namely, the most impactful forms of cellular damage that age us are:
- Oxidative damage to cellular membranes
- Oxidative damage to our mitochondria, aka “The Powerhouse” of the cell.
These forms of damage can wreak havoc on our metabolism and result in more rapid aging.
The most common form of damage to cell membranes and mitochondria occurs via oxidation by chemicals called oxidative free radicals. We all generate a small baseline amount of oxidative free radicals all the time since oxygen is required for all humans’ cellular metabolism. We are oxygen metabolizers, but oxygen is very electronegative and loves to oxidize other molecules by ripping electrons away from them. This oxidation damages biochemicals, and we have natural antioxidants that our body can produce endogenously to reduce this damage to our cells from oxygen molecules.
However, just like with DNA repair, our cellular repair mechanisms can only do so much and can become overwhelmed.
Some of the top producers of cellular oxygen molecules are things we know are bad for us:
- Smoking
- Drinking alcohol to excess
- Using illicit drugs
- Sleeping poorly
- Being too sedentary
- Not managing stress
To combat oxidative damage to our cells, we can consume extra antioxidants, which help mop up reactive oxygen species produced by unhealthy activities.
3. Telomere Shortening
Another big area you will find connected to aging is telomeres. Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of our chromosomes that act as protective “caps” to prevent DNA damage when cells replicate and divide into new cells over time. As our cells copy themselves through time, these protective caps become slightly shorter and less able to prevent DNA damage. Eventually, telomeres can become so short that cells can no longer divide successfully, the cells malfunction and die, and we age as a result.
We can look at telomere length as a pretty accurate measure of cellular aging. The shorter the telomeres, the more we have aged biologically, and shorter telomeres are not just associated with aging. They are heavily associated with many medical conditions as well, such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disorders. Telomere shortening is just a special form of DNA damage that is highly associated specifically with the cellular malfunctioning that produces aging specifically.
While aging is inevitable, how we age is not. By understanding the science behind cellular aging and taking steps to support our DNA, reduce cellular damage, and protect our telomeres, we can influence our biological age and improve not just our lifespan but our health span, too.
If you or a loved one are interested in a discussion on anti-aging, NutriChem Clinic is the best resource in the City of Ottawa! We are experts in anti-aging treatments, bio-identical hormones, digestive health, and natural health supplementation. We have almost 40 years of experience helping Ottawa citizens age gracefully and feel good regardless of age.
