Overview of aging

This page is a very basic overview of the processes that are associated with aging and the work that is being conducted to remedy this debilitating and terminal condition.

Let me begin by discussing antioxidants such as vitamins C and E. Now early studies of these vitamins were vry promising. They transpired to be quite affective at retarding aging in vitro, but proved to be inafective in vivo. The reasons for this are quite straightforward.

1) Your body naturaly produces anti-oxidants of its own and if you take in extra anti-oxidants, then your body simply produces less itself.

2) In vitro it is very easy to get the anti-oxidants straight to the cells. When taken orally however, anti-oxidants have the bodies filtration system and blood stream to deal with. This means that a lot of the substances that we orally take into our systems are either stored, broken down or simply expelled from the body.

Macro anti-oxidants such as vitamins C and E help to mop up free radicals in the blood stream and even to an extent in the organs of the body. However the real damage to DNA occurs in the cells themselves.

Now our cells produce there own internal high energy anti-oxidants, such as glutathione and superoxide dismutase (low levels of which have been associated with dieseases such as Parkinson's). These molecules mop up free radicals within the cells and thus are highly important in preventing DNA damage. Unfortunately the genes that code for such high energy anti-oxidants can become damaged themselves with age. When these genes and the genes that produce the DNA repair enzymes become damaged, then the cell itself becomes far more prone to free radical damage. This gradual process results eventually in cell senility.

The anti-aging research that is currently being conducted can be grouped into a few general categories.

1) Gene manipulation. The manipulation of certain genes. Switching some genes off and switching others on has been found in organisms such as the Nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans to greatly increase their life expectancy. These organisms only live for a few weeks anyway, so it is quite a quick process to modify their gene expression and to wait to see if this increases their longevity. Note that it does seem that the genes that play a role in aging for the Nematode are also present in mammals.

2) Selective breeding. In the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster, which again has a relatively short life span, the longevity of certain strains has been extended by selectively breeding the more long-lived flies. Over several generations this results in flies with a greatly extended life span. These flies can then be examined to determine what gene and chromosomal differences there are between them and their shorter lived cousins.

3) General dietry research. Caloric restriction together with an abundance of nutrients and proteins etc in the diet, results in certian changes in gene expression. This causes the cells to switch to a kind of lean burn. This results in a more efficient metabolic process. It seems that this process may have evolved as a means to allow an organism to survive periods when food resources are low.
A great deal of research has been conducted with laboratory mice using caloric restriction. Resulting in mice that live almost twice as long as there cousins. The most important thing heere though is that these calorie restricted mice do not only live longer, but are also healthy and vibrant for much of that extra lifespan.

I personnaly am looking forward to the results of the experiments in calorie restriction that are currently being conducted in Simians. IF IT WORKS WITH THEM, THEN IT WILL VERY PROBABLY WORK WITH US.
Of course the idea isn't to calorically restrict us all. It is to find out what sequences of genes are activated in this process and then to develop methods of artificially stimulating the relevant gene sequences.

The area of anti-aging or Gerontology is developing rapidly and will very probably result in therapy's and treatments that will result in a restardation of the aging process in humans. I could go on. Here I have only briefly covered a few general areas of the field. So Enjoy the rest of the site. In it I have tried to cover as much of this vast field as possible - but if you have any thoughts or feelings of your own that you would like to contribute to this site, then please feel free to place them in one of the Why We Age Forums

Articles

  • What is Gerontology

    I think it might be worth defining on this site (just so there is no confusion) what exactly the science of Gerontology is.

    The subject known as Gerontology is the study of the process of aging throughout the lifespan of an individual. This multi-disciplinary subject analyses a variety of aspects of aging, including the physical, mental and social changes in individuals as they grow older. Professionals from a variety of diverse, but interconnected fields are known collectively as gerontologists.

    Gerontology covers such varied subjects as the effects of our aging population on society, including the financial effects of pensions, health insurance and retirement planning. How society itself views the elderly is also encompassed in this field.

    Gerontology distinguishes itself from geriatrics, the branch of medicine that studies the diseases of the old.

    12:18 10 October 2007
  • Research into Aging

    There are several other ways that are being looked into that may offer may anti-aging/life extension benefits that have not been mentioned as yet. IGF-1 has shown to be extraordinarily effective in reversing the aging process (up to 10X more effective than HGH). Resveratrol (found in red grape skins and hence red wine) has shown much promise in many studies; to the extent that several MIT researches doing one of the studies started supplimenting with it. Folate and B12 taken daily over a few months has been shown to drastically reduce the damage/mutation that can occur to DNA.

    With regard to calorie restriction Many studies suggest that it is not infact the calorie restriction as previously thought but rather maintaining low insulin levels, which happens to be a by product. So it is as much about what you eat as how much you eat. You could still each 3000 calories a day as long as they were from foods that didnt spike your insulin levels and mess with your insulin sensetivity ie not eating many simple carbohydrates etc

    There is also the energetic side of body or life force or call it what you will that when boosted has been shown to reverse chronic illness and aging with no form of supplements etc. Most of the centurian populations like the hunza etc incorporated some sort of meditation or practice that maintained their life force either knowingly or otherwise along with a good diet, exercise, sun etc and low stress.

    On a final note the human body is so remarkable and truely an amazing creation and we are still only so limited in our understanding of it and how it really works that rather than mess with it and start trying to fix or add this or that or think we can make part of it better we should instead address the cause of most of these problems. We drive ourselves and our bodies into the ground eat rubbish etc and program ourselve with mindless entertainment and wonder why we are falling apart and expect to be able to take a few pills and make it all better.

    We are creating and living in a society that is becoming void of any real sustanance whether it be nutritional, emotional or intellecutal. I am not pretending that i have all the answers but i know that if we keep heading in this direction i wouldnt want to live forever even if it were possible. What you do with your life is probably more important than how long it is. In any case given the right environment the body will flourish and the fact that it is still doing as well as it is despite what it is now subjected to is nothing more than a testement to how great it actually is.

    Rhonda Watson

    12:07 17 September 2007

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