The natural foods industry is deep into the anti-aging business, and it\u2019s all based on two lies\u2014one about pesticides and toxins, the other about anti-oxidants. \u00a0Neither toxins nor oxidation are the reason that we get old, and we can\u2019t live longer by eating less toxins or more anti-oxidants. \u00a0In fact, toxins in small quantities stimulate the body\u2019s longevity pathways, and anti-oxidants can nullify the very real anti-aging benefits of exercise.<\/p>\n
People who are fanatical about clean air and organic food don\u2019t live to extraordinary ages. \u00a0Animals raised in a super-clean, toxin- and pathogen-free environment actually die earlier<\/i> than animals raised with bugs and dirt.<\/p>\n
Anti-oxidants have been tried in animal experiments and human studies, and they don\u2019t extend life. \u00a0In a definitive study<\/a>, 29,000 Finnish men were given anti-oxidant vitamins in the 1990s, until the experiment was called off for ethical reasons. \u00a0It turned out people taking the vitamins were dying at a higher rate than the placebo group.<\/p>\n \u201cNatural anti-aging\u201d is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. \u00a0There are plenty of good reasons to eat organic. \u00a0Support more sustainable farming practices. \u00a0The vegetables taste better. \u00a0There\u2019s more nutritional value and it might even be healthier, especially for young people. \u00a0But natural foods are not part of the recipe for a longer life.<\/p>\n In fact, there is plenty you can do to slow down aging and improve your odds for a long life, but the best practices aren\u2019t particularly \u201cnatural\u201d. \u00a0Weight loss, fasting and short bursts of vigorous, all-out exercise are high on the list. \u00a0There are also some hormones and two prescription drugs* (long out of patent) that seem to work. \u00a0The easiest thing you can do to improve your odds is to take tiny doses of aspirin and mega-doses of vitamin D. (Much more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n What aging really is<\/b><\/p>\n Aging is not about the body wearing out, and it\u2019s not about accumulating \u00a0toxins. \u00a0Aging is something our bodies are doing to themselves. \u00a0All the stuff that goes wrong as we get older is no accident, and it\u2019s not a failure of the body. \u00a0Aging is suicide on a schedule, programmed into our genes.<\/p>\n These aren\u2019t failures of the body. \u00a0They\u2019re mutiny. \u00a0We can\u2019t fix these problems by supporting the body with a natural diet. \u00a0Instead, we have to trick the body into doing something it wasn\u2019t designed to do. \u00a0That\u2019s the very opposite of \u201cnatural\u201d.<\/p>\n The reason that medical progress in the diseases of old age has been so slow is that the researchers are all working with the wrong model. \u00a0They are stuck in the paradigm of the 20th century, when \u201cnatural medicine\u201d was so successful. \u00a0The idea was to work with the body, to enhance the body\u2019s natural defenses, \u00a0to help the body heal itself rather than to engineer fixes from the outside.<\/p>\n This worked really well for trauma and for infectious disease and all the diseases that young people get. \u00a0But it won\u2019t work for the diseases associated with aging, because the body itself is the enemy. \u00a0The body is programmed to self-destruct\u2014that\u2019s the very essence of aging. \u00a0We can\u2019t fix it by coddling or helping or restoring the body, because the body is divided against itself. \u00a0We can\u2019t oppose aging with \u201cnatural medicine\u201d because aging itself is natural, designed into our life plan.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Why don\u2019t anti-oxidants work?<\/b><\/p>\n Every cell in the body generates the energy it needs in hundreds of tiny factories called \u201cmitochondria\u201d. \u00a0And it\u2019s true that they generate toxic waste, in the form of ROS, Reactive Oxygen Species aka Free Radicals. \u00a0The ROS can attack the body\u2019s sensitive biomolecules and make them dysfunctional. \u00a0This much is true, and it has been the basis of one of the oldest and most popular theories, the Free Radical Theory of Aging<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Free Radical Theory is more than fifty years old, and based on the theory, a substantial industry of anti-oxidant vitamins and supplements has grown up. \u00a0If damage from oxidation was the problem, then anti-oxidants should be the solution. \u00a0It was a plausible theory when it first came out, but we\u2019ve known for twenty years now that anti-oxidants don\u2019t work. \u00a0The only reason this news hasn\u2019t reached the public is that it is bad for sales. \u00a0What is more, we now understand why <\/i>they don\u2019t work. \u00a0It turns out that the damage caused by free radicals is completely avoidable, and it occurs when the body dials down its own native anti-oxidant system. \u00a0The body has its own anti-oxidants, perfectly adequate to quench the free radicals and keep the damage to levels at which it doesn\u2019t accumulate at all. \u00a0Some of these molecules are glutathione<\/a>, ubiquinone (aka CoQ10<\/a>), and SOD=superoxide dismutase<\/a>. \u00a0But they are all held back, so we have less of them in old age. \u00a0Our defenses against oxidation are crippled by design, and that\u2019s why oxidative damge tends to accumulate.<\/p>\n The deeper reason why anti-oxidants do more harm than good is that the body uses free radicals as a signal that switches on active repair and rebuilding. \u00a0Every time you exercise, you generate copious free radicals, and they signal the body to repair damage, and rebuild muscle and bone better-than-new. \u00a0Free radicals also signal the body to keep insulin sensitivity high, steering away from diabetes. \u00a0When we take anti-oxidants, we interfere with this system, and that\u2019s why anti-oxidants do more harm than good. \u00a0Anti-oxidants shut off the signal that tells the body to rebuild tissues and upgrade defenses.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Hormesis<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s an idea with enduring appeal, that the reason we age and die has to do with accumulating \u00a0toxins. \u00a0And modern life is toxin city\u2014pesticides, fertilizers, plastics, GMOs, and heavy metals. \u00a0But, once again, the idea has not panned out. \u00a0It is based on a faulty foundation, \u00a0a mistaken concept of aging and where it comes from.<\/p>\n Tiny doses of toxins may, in fact, be good for us. \u00a0Homeopaths have been telling us this for 200 years, but only in the last decade has hormesis<\/i> gained acceptance as a medical concept. \u00a0Confronted with a challenge, the body jumps to respond, and unexpectedly, the body over-reacts. \u00a0We are stronger and live longer in the face of hardships than if we live a protected life. \u00a0Dogs exposed to tiny doses of chloroform live longer than dogs that are fed a pure, toxin-free diet. \u00a0Rats raised in a germ-free environment don\u2019t live as long as rats who get an average dose of dirt and disease. \u00a0And so on…there is a whole literature of hormesis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Paleo diet<\/b><\/p>\n This is an idea based on a completely muddled understanding of aging. \u00a0But despite this, it happens that it\u2019s not a bad diet. \u00a0The Paleo Diet<\/a> is one of those ideas that works much better in practice than in theory.<\/p>\n Grains are mostly starch, and avoiding starch offers a substantial benefit. \u00a0Starch is turned instantly to sugar in the mouth, before it even reaches the stomach. \u00a0Less starch and sugar means less insulin, which slows the decline into insulin resistant \u201ctype II\u201d diabetes, which is one deep cause of aging. \u00a0Raw foods are a good idea precisely because they are difficult to digest. \u00a0Raw foods are absorbed slowly and incompletely. \u00a0For those of us who enjoy eating or who are addicted to food, raw foods may allow us to eat to satiety, because more of the food goes through us, and less is absorbed. \u00a0Raw foods are also less prone to cause a spike in blood sugar, triggering insulin release.<\/p>\n Just try getting fat on a raw food diet, and you\u2019ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n Less starch and more raw foods are the best things about the Paleo Diet. \u00a0The theory behind the Paleo Diet is something else again. \u00a0It\u2019s based on the idea that our body is evolved to work with the foods that were available while we were evolving, which was, for the most part, before agriculture, in hunter-gatherer societies. \u00a0You might be suspicious from the get-go when you realize that life expectancy in hunter-gatherer societies is under 40 years, even when the high rates of infant mortality are factored out. \u00a0If the paleo diet worked so well, we would expect to find some extraordinarily old people among native peoples in parts of South America<\/a> and Borneo<\/a> where they still live the lives of our ancestors 20,000 years ago.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n What works?<\/b><\/p>\n There is a lot you can do here and now to slow aging and improve your odds for continued good health. \u00a0I\u2019ve summarized what I know on the page AgingAdvice.org <\/a>(a non-commercial web page with no advertising). \u00a0If you adopt all these measures, it should buy you an extra decade of health. \u00a0Much of it is standard medical advice:<\/p>\n But there may be more effective and easier remedies available soon. \u00a0The future of anti-aging medicine is fast upon us.<\/p>\n The good news is that researchers are beginning to realize that aging is an inside job. \u00a0There are hormones and biochemical signals that tell the body to self-destruct. \u00a0Jamming a chemical signal is something that pharmaceutical companies know well how to do and it\u2019s much, much<\/i> easier than repairing a body full of random damage. \u00a0Some of the hormonal signals have been identified just in the last year or three: \u00a0Pro-aging (inflammatory) signals have names like NF\u03baB and TGF-\u03b2<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0Anti-aging signals include GDF11<\/a>, melatonin<\/a>, and the \u201clove hormone\u201d oxytocin<\/a>. \u00a0Researchers at Stanford are beginning this month<\/a> to test transfusions of blood plasma containing a hormone mix from young donors as a treatment for Alzheimer\u2019s Disease in the elderly.<\/p>\n Telomere regrowth is another area that has the potential to extend life dramatically, and even to roll back the years. \u00a0There are several companies now selling herbal supplements that can turn on telomerase modestly. \u00a0Researchers are hot on the heels of powerful telomerase activators<\/a> that might actually turn back the body\u2019s primary aging clock.<\/p>\n Look for tangible progress in anti-aging technologies in the near term.<\/p>\n ——————– <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n*\u00a0One is glucophage=metformin<\/a>; the other is deprenyl<\/a>=selegiline=eldapryl=emsam.<\/p>\n