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Only 10 to 30% of our longevity is controlled by genetics, and our everyday choices decide the rest.
Digital Desk: While growing older is unavoidable, do you realize how well you're ageing? We can all gaze in the mirror, but what about underneath the hood, where it truly matters?
"The concept is that degradation isn't merely a product of chronological time," explains Dr Morgan Levine, an assistant professor of pathology at Yale University and the writer of the new book True Age. "It's not your age that's causing it; these biological changes that our bodies go through," she explains.
Unfortunately, most of us are unaware of how well our bodies hold until something goes wrong and we're confronted with an unpleasant diagnosis. But, according to recent advances in the science of ageing, there are now new ways to track the ageing process and perhaps turn back the clock.
According to research, only 10 to 30% of our longevity is controlled by genetics; our everyday choices decide the rest.
Hopefully, thanks to a new test created by Levine at her Yale laboratory, it will become easier shortly. It's as simple as sending a saliva tube to a lab, where your "epigenetic code" will be analyzed to determine your biological age.
Our epigenetic code is a set of instructions buried deep within our DNA that alters how our DNA works. "I refer to it as the cell's 'operating system,'" explains Levine.
But how does the exam operate in practice? It's based on a process called DNA methylation, according to Levine. These chemical tags bind to our DNA molecules and can turn on or off genes that lead to good or bad health. They don't change the DNA sequence, but they can turn on or off genes that lead to good or bad health.
Levine credits a leap in technology and our consequent capacity to measure millions of variables "even within a single cell" for the test, which is only one of several recent improvements in anti-ageing therapy. Her test is already available in the United States for $299 through Elysium Health. At the same time, Elysium does not ship to the United Kingdom; other labs offer similar technologies as TruDiagnostic do.
The TruDiagnostic test costs $499 (about £400). Levine thinks that such tests will be offered for as little as $10 in the future (she does not profit from sales herself).
Fortunately, for those of us who don't have hundreds of pounds to spend on a health test, Levine has created a biological age calculator that anyone can use for free by inputting nine different blood test results, including red and white blood cell counts (CBC) and other substances that indicate the health of our organs.
Levine's ultimate goal is to increase our "healthspan," or the number of years we may anticipate to live disease-free. "Ageing study or longevity research is frequently misinterpreted as implying that we desire to live for hundreds of years," she explains.
How long might we live in the future if we follow her advice and research advances? "Right now, the upper limit is 120 years," she explains, "but there are undoubtedly some who believe we will live much longer."
Here are four-time turning methods that you need to follow:
1| Choose a Plant-based diet plan
Perform HIIT (high-intensity interval training) exercises. Because of the influence of IGF-1, a molecule involved in growth, protein has an ageing effect on the body.
In a study of 3,000 Americans conducted at the University of Sydney, Levine and Dr Valter Longo discovered that a high protein diet containing 20% of calories from protein was linked to a 74% greater risk of dying young as compared to individuals who consumed less than 10% of calories from protein.
2| Go on a three-day fast three times a year
According to research conducted by Levine and Longo, three cycles of fasting, consisting of eating only 4,500 calories over five days, were found to reduce biological age, with subjects appearing 2.5 years younger. After many fasting cycles, fasted subjects revealed "younger immune profiles."
"It's what we call a 'hormetic' effect," says Levine, "where there's a small stressor and your body responds and improves." "Fasting appears to ready the body for repair and maintenance, similar to exercise."
When the researchers looked at the long-term effects of fast mimicking diets (FMD), they found that 20 years of FMD might buy people an extra five years of life, as well as a 50% reduction in heart disease risk, a 30% reduction in cancer risk, and a 75% reduction in diabetes risk.
FMD is usually performed once a month or once or twice a year. Each FMD cycle has 4,500 calories, with the first day being 1,000 calories and the second day being 700 calories.
Cut off meat and lower your protein intake to 10% by focusing on veggie and bean soups. Other fasting techniques, such as time-restricted eating, can also help reduce biological age.
3| Perform HIIT (high-intensity interval training) exercises
According to Levine, the brief, intense shocks of HIIT training are optimal for turning back the clock. According to a Mayo Clinic study from 2017, three months of HIIT training was enough to enhance fitness and insulin sensitivity significantly. "You press for five or seven minutes, then recuperate for one or two minutes," Levine explains.
The objective is to go all out and give it your all, aiming for a 90 per cent effort. It all boils down to "hormesis," The body is shocked, then adjusts and improves. "Muscle fibres thicken and densify again, mitochondria become more efficient at creating usable energy, and inflammatory processes are reduced," Levine explains. GPLD1, a protein-coding gene that increases
4| Always go for a good quality sleep
Cerebral fluid (CSF) sweeps over our brain tissue in waves at night, wiping out dead cells, according to researchers from Boston and Harvard Universities. Scientists believe this could have ramifications for Alzheimer's disease, which is linked to the formation of "amyloid-beta plaques."
The normal reduction of NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a protein that protects against oxidative stress and helps brain cells age well, maybe cause restless sleep. NAD also appears to be important to our circadian clock.
Fasting and exercise appear to be the best ways to boost NAD levels; however, supplements are also available. According to studies, the ideal amount of sleep is roughly seven hours. Less than five hours and more than eight reduce lifespan, with ten being the most dangerous.
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