The Keys to Aging Gracefully – Look good and feel great!

As we get older, we tend to notice a loss of; lean muscle, strength, bone mass and our once vital energy potential, all the while experiencing body fat increases, wrinkling of the skin, various mood changes and a declining immunity—oh joy! New scientific research is shedding light on why we age, and how we may be able to slow the process.

Protect your DNA

There are numerous theories explaining the aging process, however, most of these theories eventually come to the same conclusion – aging is a process of accumulated damage to our genetic blueprint – our DNA. If the DNA in one of your cells was to unwind to its fullest potential, it would stretch over one meter in length, which is why it tightly fits into compact units or – DNA packages – called chromosomes.

Over the last few years, longevity researchers have focused their attention to the caps on the ends of these chromosomes – called telomeres. Every time our cells divide, the telomere gets a little shorter until cellular division comes to a halt. Once a cell has run its full potential of cellular divisions, it is referred to as a senescent cell (an old cell).

Since aging is a process of the body becoming unable to repair accumulated damage, longevity researchers believe that cellular senescence may be one of the key causes of aging, with telomere damage leading the way. Research presented in a 2001 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society indicated that telomere shortening is directly associated with accumulated DNA damage and cellular aging.

According to one of the pioneers of cellular senescence research, Dr. Judith Campisi, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, senescent cells don’t die once they stop dividing, but instead hang around emitting harmful proteins to neighboring cells, eventually leading to cellular malfunction. Research presented in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology in 2001 showed that cells with dysfunctional telomeres could contribute to cancer and aging, as telomeres are essential for maintaining the integrity and stability of our genes.

It is widely known that as we age, we often become more insulin resistant. Researchers have always known that insulin resistance and accumulated body fat can predispose people to cardiovascular disease and a shorter lifespan. The mechanisms behind this have not been as easily understood—perhaps until now. Research published in the journal Circulation, showed that increased insulin resistance along with a higher body fat content results in greater telomere shortening over time. This study is the first to show tangible evidence that insulin resistance and excess body fat leads to premature aging.³ Balanced blood sugar can lead to greater fat loss, more energy and a longer life.

Who say’s you can’t turn back the clock?

Aside from the fact we accumulate damage to our DNA, much of this DNA damage seems to occur in the biochemical power plants within our cells called mitochondria. Since mitochondria are responsible for turning food into energy, they are not only essential to life, but to our continual ability to produce energy. According to Dr. Tarnopolsky, director of the neuromuscular and neurometabolic clinic at McMaster University in Canada, “The reason we get weaker, thinner and have less endurance as we age is that there are fewer genes making mitochondria.”

Loss of muscle tissue and strength is a hallmark of the aging process itself, and one of the most important reasons to embark on a weight-resistance program—especially as we get older. Adequate protein intake is paramount to the success of any weight bearing program designed to maintain or increase lean muscle. A High Alpha Whey Protein may be used as 2 of the 5 suggested smaller meals that make up a well balanced eating plan.

According to a new study appearing in the journal Public Library of Science, 25 healthy seniors (average age 70) who exercised with light weights for only two-hours a week over a six month period of time, were able to improve their muscle strength by a whopping 50 per cent. The amazing part about this study is that the gene expression profile (genetic fingerprint) of the seniors ended up looking like those of a 20-30 year old by the end of the study.

A little help along the way

Aside from the usual healthy weight-loss advise: follow a sensible low-glycemic diet, exercise, get plenty of sleep, etc., supplementation with a natural compound called carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) has shown promise when it comes to the health of your genes and their telomeres.

Research in 2004 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that when carnosine was added to a human cell culture, the cells showed much slower telomere shortening and a greatly extended lifespan.⁶ Other research indicates that carnosine may be one of the greatest longevity nutrients ever discovered. Daily suggested dosages for carnosine: 50-250mg/day (the one-a-day natural antioxidant, Ultimate Longevity with Carnosine contains 125 mg per capsule).

Start Your Anti-Aging program today!

Low-calorie diets – detrimental to long-term fat loss?

Protein is the primary building block for muscle. While carbohydrates and fat can provide the energy necessary to create muscle, only dietary protein supplies the body with the actual building materials, in the form of 22 amino acids. To build muscle, therefore, you must consume high-quality protein at regular intervals throughout the day.

And muscle is a primary agent of fat loss. Muscle tissue is the body’s key metabolic engine, and is responsible to a large extent for regulating metabolic rate. In other words, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, and the greater your ability to burn calories, even at rest.

An extreme example illustrates muscle’s calorie-burning role in the body. We all have certain images from television or the newspapers burned into our minds: those of starving people from famine-stricken countries. These severely malnourished people look nearly skeletal. But they don’t look this way because of a loss of body fat. Rather, their appearance is the result of a severe depletion of muscle. The last thing a body without a constant food source needs is the enhanced ability to burn calories that muscle provides. During times of famine, therefore, the body devises ways to conserve every calorie it can, and one calorie-conservation method is to break down muscle and use it for energy – literally eating it away. In fact, a starving body will often choose to break down muscle for energy before it will raid its fat stores.

In North America, thankfully, most of us have not experienced famine. Our problem is the opposite one – with a constant supply of food, much of it in the form of high-glycemic carbohydrates, obesity has become a serious health problem (not just in the industrialized world, but also in developing countries), one so vast that the World Health Organization has identified it as a serious threat. Ironically, over-fat people often try to lose weight by depriving themselves of calories, on so-called “starvation diets” that mimic famine by subjecting the body to extremely little food in order to lose weight. Instead of losing fat, however, extreme dieters lose muscle – and therefore one of their key allies in fat loss. While they may lose weight in the short term, they don’t lose fat. Extremely low-calorie diets, therefore, are incredibly detrimental to long-term fat loss.

If you’re fortunate enough to live in a land of plenty, where you have access to a constant supply of nutritious food, then consuming adequate amounts of high-quality protein is one of the best things you can do for your health. It’s also one of your best strategies for long-term fat loss

Estrogen mimickers – The feminine side of Life

Aside from insulin, estrogen mimickers–also referred to as xenoestrogens–may also play a large roll (no pun intended) in how much fat you carry and how high your risk for hormonally related cancers are. Xenoestrogens come from a large group (tens of thousands) of foreign compounds derived from synthetic materials like pesticides, plastics, body creams, detergents, food supplies and our environment.

Xenoestrogens have the ability to disrupt our natural hormonal systems, creating hormonal havoc which can possibly lead to conditions that affect both men (andropause–male menopause, weight gain–especially in the abdominal area–and increased prostate cancer risk), and women (uterine fibroids, uterine cancer, ovarian cysts, perimenopause, PMS, menopause, weight gain–especially in the abdominal area–and increased breast cancer risk). The problem is that the majority of these xenoestrogens are fat soluble, which means they have a greater potential of becoming lodged within our fat cells, and once there, they are very difficult to get rid of.

When it comes to your metabolism, xenoestrogens are known to cause a disruption in the way your body metabolizes important biochemicals that deal with stress, moods, cravings and sleep. Research presented in the American Journal of Physiology indicates that xenoestrogens have the potential to create an enhanced environment for our bodies to store fat all the while making it extremely difficult to lose it.

An Inconvenient Truth – the solution is your internal environment

The good news is, through diet, exercise, and proven nutrient supplementation, both women and men can alter the way natural estrogens, xenoestrogens and their co-activators react with the various cells of the body, ultimately decreasing

their cancer risk and fat storing ability. In other words, with the right nutrients you can actually turn the right switches on and keep the wrong ones off!

Cruciferous extracts have been documented to help reduce the risk of various cancers, including breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. One interesting fact is that cruciferous vegetable intake in China is more than three times that of North America, which may account for China’s extremely low rate of breast and prostate cancers.

The most important of these research-proven cancer-fighting nutrients can be found in cruciferous extracts of broccoli sprouts, sulforaphane and Indole-3-carbinol (I3C). I3C however seems to be the most powerful of the three, as it has the ability to create beneficial estrogens in the body, all the while blocking the undesirable estrogenic messages to the body.

A solution to the external and internal pollution

Following are a few proven ways in which you can take maximum potential of your natural fat burning ability and in the process greatly reduce your risk of disease–especially cancer. Here are a few tips to help:

• Avoid high glycemic foods–especially processed grains (white flour)
• Supplement with (high alpha) whey protein isolates once or twice a day – Ultimate High Alpha Protein or ISO Energy Protein )
• Supplement with natural–preferably organic fibre formulas – FibreLean approximately 15 minutes prior to each meal
• Supplement with cruciferous vegetable extracts that contain I3C, broccoli sprouts and sulforaphane (all of which can be found in gender specific formulas – Her Energy and Male Energy
• Get adequate sleep as researchers have found a link between insufficient sleep, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance
• Take a long walk after dinner as this will help to clear excess sugars from your bloodstream