The Lancet (Oncology) journal described a study whose results revealed
that improvements in diet, exercise, stress management, and social
support are associated with longer telomeres* (DNA-protein complexes at
the end of chromosomes which shorten with cellular aging).
The current study included 35 men with low-risk prostate cancer who had
elected to undergo active surveillance. Ten men participated in the
lifestyle intervention and 25 served as controls. Blood samples
collected from the subjects at the beginning of the study and after five
years were analyzed for peripheral-blood mononuclear cell telomere
length and telomerase levels.
The lifestyle program consisted
of a whole food diet, moderate exercise, stress management (yoga,
meditation and relaxation), and weekly support group sessions.
Men who engaged in the lifestyle program had telomeres that were 10%
longer on average at the end of the study, while the control group
experienced an average 3% decrease in length. Greater adherence to
lifestyle recommendations were found to be associated with a
corresponding increase in telomere length.
Reference:
The Lancet Oncology - 1 October 2013 ( Vol. 14, Issue 11, Pages 1112-1120 )
DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70366-8.
* http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hayflick-unlimited-part-1.html
Stress
is now being shown by science to be linked to the initiation and rapid
degeneration of many of the major diseases plaguing humanity today from
cardiovascular diseases, many cancers and certain dementias. However as
I’ve shown in previous articles* it’s not really the ‘stress’ that gets
you, rather it’s your response (and more usually ‘reaction’, there’s a
difference) to the stressor.
To help
you begin to remove yourself from the primitive immediate r-complex
reaction to stress that many of us display (much like our non-human
animal cousins), we can use mindfulness to develop a quiet mind. Far
from just minimising damage from stress reactivity, the new research
coming out surrounding mindfulness is demonstrating that it allows us to
begin to tap into the miraculous power of our genome, from abilities
such as enhanced creativity and vastly increased brain speed and power,
to physical performances that we currently only catch glimpses of from
our species absolute elite. You, your friends and your family all have
this potential, practicing a quiet mind is an essential component to
being able to harness it.
Here’s a great group of methods that
the amazing people at the University of California San Francisco
assembled (annotations are mine) to help you to begin developing a quiet
mind; all they ask you to do is regularly BREATHE:
(B)reathe -
Take deep breaths and be present in the moment. To help you remain in
the present simply focus on your breathing, notice how it feels, not
only the breath but also how it affects your entire body and mind.
(R)ealistic goals – One of the oddities of the Human psyche is our
over-confidence – ever notice how we are all the greatest driver in the
world? The same is true when dealing with, especially short-term, goals,
we are often overly confident in our ability to achieve them. There’s a
truism that goes ‘we overestimate how much we can do in a day, but we
greatly underestimate how much we can do in a year’. Set realistic
goals, make a plan and then achieve them. Success is a habit - create
success, often.
(E)veryday events – ‘Just my luck, it always
happens to me’. Always? I’m willing to bet (of the Gentlemen’s kind)
that whatever bad things have happened this year, you’ve probably had at
least 100 times as many days where it didn’t. Why don’t we celebrate
the fact that today, is actually a good day, for so many reasons?
(A)cts of kindness – The greatest gift is in the giving. In our
increasingly consumerist world we often feel that gifts have to be a
purchasable item. Yet with all of this ‘stuff’, people are less content
than ever. So I’m not sure the solution to happiness will be found in
more ‘stuff’. There are other things that we can give to each other
though – time, compliments, friendship…I’m sure you can think of many
others. We don’t elevate ourselves by pushing people down around us
relative to where we are; that only keeps us at the same level. Lift
people up around you and you’ll naturally be buoyed up by your
surroundings.
(T)urn negative events around – Even in our
darkest hours, if we look at it from the right perspective we can always
find a positive or useful outcome. Learn to become a seeker of these
silver linings, that’s where the growth is.
(H)umour – Humour
is Natures stress reliever. See the silliness in it all, especially our
artificially created social constructs. Be self-depreciating without
taking it to heart. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t take life too seriously,
nobody gets out alive anyway’.
(E)nd each day with gratitude –
As a culture we often end our days reflecting upon the events that
transpired and more often than not dwell upon what went wrong. Using the
same thought-pattern as in the ‘everyday events’, focus specifically on
what you are grateful for on this day. A little phrase that might help
you in this process ‘Appreciation over expectation’.
* http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-is-real.html
The findings of a study published today (12th November 2013) indicate
that the lower level of brown adipose tissue (BAT, or 'brown fat') found
in south Asians—who make up a fifth of the world's population— could
help explain why they have an exceptionally high susceptibility to
developing metabolic problems such as obesity and type II diabetes.
BAT
has been shown to have beneficial effects on glucose tolerance, lipid
metabolism, and body weight in pre-clinical studies. Unlike white fat
cells, which in-part store the body's surplus energy as fat, brown fat
cells in BAT can convert some of this energy into large amounts of heat,
thus dissipating the energy surplus rather than storing it. Estimates
suggest that fully activated BAT can contribute up to 20% of total
energy expenditure; for the average female in the UK that would be
equivalent to approximately 300 Kcal worth of fat per day. To put this
in perspective this is the same amount of fat that would be used during a
higher intensity aerobic class lasting 90-120 minutes (1 ½ - 2 hours).
Previous studies have shown that BAT activity is reduced in obese adults, thereby limiting this route of energy expenditure.
In this study, researchers from the Netherlands compared resting energy
expenditure and BAT volume and activity in 12 healthy lean south Asian
men (aged about 25 years) and 12 matched white Caucasian men after
exposure to cold using PET and CT scans – all subjects were Dutch
nationals. The effect of cold exposure on non-shivering thermogenesis
and plasma lipid levels was also measured.
The results
demonstrated a noticeable difference in resting energy expenditure
(REE). The REE was markedly lower (-32%) in south Asian participants
than in Caucasians, as was the volume of metabolically active BAT
(-34%).
The researchers concluded that the lower resting
energy expenditure, non-shivering thermogenesis, and BAT volumes in
south Asian populations might underlie their high susceptibility to
metabolic disturbances, such as obesity and type II diabetes. The
researchers further suggested that development of strategies to increase
BAT volume and activity might help prevent and treat these disorders.
In the HPC-UK Lean for Life program, increasing the amount and activity
of BAT is one of our primary aims. It requires a few steps to create
the specific environment to stimulate BAT production and activity, but
once it’s set up, it is very easy to maintain a low body-fat body with
very little effort and remain that way for life without the deprivation
or unnecessary amounts of exercise called for by more common approaches.
www.hpc-uk.net
Reference:
Leontine E H Bakker MD et al. Brown adipose tissue volume in healthy
lean south Asian adults compared with white Caucasians: a prospective,
case-controlled observational study. The Lancet Diabetes &
Endocrinology - 12 November 2013 DOI: 10.1016/S2213-8587(13)70156-6
Artwork by marcbourcier.deviantart.com/
The composition of your body (Lean Body Mass: Fat Mass) is a big
component of health from many perspectives. The amount of muscle you
carry is vital for multiple processes throughout the body; some we’re
only just beginning to recognise. One key function of muscle is to
assist the immune system; if you lose your muscle, you lose your body
defence system. Consequently the loss of
muscle opens up the body to a whole host of maladies from infection
through to cancer. This is one reason why the health of a person who has
aged typically degenerates into dysfunction and disease as the loss of
muscle allows excess oxidative stress and chronic inflammation to
pervade the entire body.
In addition to loss of muscle, which
alone is devastating, the accretion of excess body-fat is also very
damaging. Space only allows me to give one or two examples, so let’s
look at the lesser known consequences of being overweight - dementia. A
number of population-based longitudinal studies show that midlife
overweight (BMI* 25-29), and all obesity (BMI 30 and above), multiplies
the risk of dementia.
We know that diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, hypertension and metabolic syndrome are all intimately linked
to dementia, and high body-fat often co-presents with these
dysfunctions. However, there are a small population who do carry extra
body-fat but do not immediately display, on the surface, the usual
symptomatic alterations in health. But just because the usual markers of
disease are not as evident in a small population of overweight
individuals, doesn’t mean that there isn’t damage being done silently
under the radar.
The now famous Swedish Twin Study showed
conclusively, that overweight at midlife increases the risk of
Alzheimer’s, and vascular dementia, independent of diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases. Simply being overweight (BMI 25-29), without
any other apparent health problems, almost triples the risk of later
life dementia.
Part of the reason is the chronic inflammation
that accompanies excess body-fat; I’ve shown in previous articles how
chronic inflammation underlies almost all of the degenerative diseases
that plague humanity. But new studies are revealing how overweight and/
or poor diet triggers the degenerative changes in your brain that lead
to dementia.
I’ve explained before that our adipose (fat cells)
are not simple storehouses of fat, rather more and more we are
discovering that it is a neuro-endocrine organ that sends out multiple
hormonal signals to the body. One of these hormones is Leptin. Leptin is
intimately involved in your metabolism, but either through overweight
or poor nutrition and lifestyle it becomes dysfunctional. Being
overweight means that you have more fat cells that can secrete leptin,
so beyond a certain threshold (18% Body-fat in men and 22% Body-fat in
women) it becomes excessive and the system starts to break down. Recent
studies have revealed that leptin is vital to regulate beta-amyloid and
tau protein both of which are integral components of the changes in the
brains of those with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. If the leptin
system becomes dysfunctional, as it does in overweight individuals, it
cannot perform its regulatory role on beta-amyloid and tau, which then
allows brain degeneration to continue unabated.
Over at the
HPC-UK website there are a few calculators that can give you a bearing
on your level of body-fat (once you know this you can use it to reveal
your biological age in that regard too). As mentioned above if your
body-fat percentage is above 18% (men) or 22% (women) you may want to
consider taking steps to bring this down to below these levels.
You can find these calculators here http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html
*Although BMI has its faults, it is a simple test that is a fair
measure of overweight status in a relatively sedentary populace. More
active members of society (such as those who train regularly) ideally
would use more direct measurements of body-fatness such as skin-folds,
bio-electrical impedance or if accessible, the bod-pod or underwater
weighing.
Best selling author and Columnist for 'The New Yorker' Malcolm Gladwell
has, for the past few years, been forming an assault on one of USA’s
most heart held passions – Football. I say assault; really he is just
pointing out a fairly obvious issue with a fundamental feature of the
game; that feature being collisions, more precisely head collisions.
Malcolm Gladwell has been exploring
the link between the repetitive sub-concussive blows players experience
on the field during games and practice and Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy (CTE); a progressive neurological disorder. Malcolm
Gladwell is not ‘making’ this connection; he isn’t qualified in the
relevant areas. As a very popular journalist he is however in a very
powerful position to highlight what a body of research, which is
currently growing rapidly, is suggesting. That suggestion is that
repeated head trauma (even very slight trauma such as gently banging
your head against a brick wall) causes the brain to be injured which
results in the aforementioned umbrella term CTE.
CTE manifests
as a reduction in brain mass across a broad range of regions. As well as
atrophy (degeneration) of brain tissue due to neuronal loss, CTE also
presents as dysfunctional neurofibrally tangles formed by a defective
form of tau protein and as the accumulation of plaque formed by
beta-amyloid, both of which prevent the brain from communicating as the
neurons are unable to effectively relay information. If these sound
familiar, you’d be right, they are two of the changes that are present
in brains of those with Alzheimer’s.
Others with CTE have
symptoms of motor neuron disease symptoms which appear to mimic
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ((ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease)
and also Huntington’s disease. Progressive muscle weakness, balance and
gait problems are some of the earlier symptoms of individuals who had
verified CTE, so here we’re looking at overlaps with individuals who
develop Parkinson’s and similarly related degenerative diseases such as
progressive supra-nuclear palsy which is often misdiagnosed as
Parkinson’s.
As you can imagine damage to the brain not only
results in physical functional issues, but also cognitive, behavioural
and emotional changes too. These symptoms are diverse, including
depression, anxiety, aggression, memory, and executive function deficit
to name but a few. Which symptoms appear depends on which area of the
brain is most affected by the damage, although they often co-present in
various ratios due to the often global effect of the process.
Malcolm’s choice of football isn’t, I believe, because of a deep seated
hatred for the sport, but more because of the very obvious evidence of
head collisions, and in part because using football as the focal point
of the discussion will emotionally gain more attention due to the deep
love of the game in the U.S. He could have chosen any sport where
similar incidences of collisions and especially head trauma are an
integral part of the activity such as ice hockey and combat sports; in
fact CTE was previously known as dementia pugilistica, due to its
prevalence in those who participate in boxing. Combat outside of sport,
such as those serving in the armed forces are also at risk of CTE,
especially, but as we’ll see probably not the main reason (this will in
all likelihood hold true for the football players and other athletes
too), via blast injuries. In fact, you don’t have to be physically
insulted at all to initiate the process that is part of the CTE
condition, in which case even the less physically combative of us may
also be at risk.
If you receive a blow to the head, even one
that doesn’t seem particularly offensive such as heading a football
(soccer), your body will switch on specific genes to defend itself from
the stress. The switching on of these genes increases the production of
messenger signals called cytokines which initiate an inflammatory state
to deal with the damage caused by the physical trauma. The cytokines
then proceed to stimulate specialised cells in your brain called ‘Glia’
which have multiple roles in maintaining the function of the brain. One
of their roles is to produce nitric oxide, which is a vital chemical for
health especially of the brain as it is a necessary messenger for the
flow of transmissions through neurons. The problem is when levels of
nitric oxide become excessive such as when it is induced by stress
(physical, chemical or emotional), and the chronic inflammation that
accompanies this environment.
Although taking multiple (or even
a single hit to the head if it’s sufficiently hard enough) can create
this nitric oxide tsunami, there are other situations that cause this
too, and I think this is where the perfect storm that is contact sports
becomes problematic.
As mentioned above, there doesn’t need to
be a physical insult to cause an increased production of nitric oxide,
you can do it with a simple, and even unconscious, thought. Heightened
feelings such as rage or fear cause the brain to produce increased
levels of nitric oxide; the reason is fairly simple when you think about
it in the right context. During our evolutionary past, throughout the
lineage, right back to our distant reptilian forebears, our ancestors
had to develop processes that would allow them to survive in a much more
hostile environment than we do today. Nitric oxide was built into this
system to speed the signals in the brain when our ancestors needed to
fight or take flight, hmmm….just the kind of emotions and circumstances
that are heightened on the field of play and war.
We still have
the legacy of this design today which continues to serve us very well
in the right circumstances, such as when are in actual physical danger
or when we use this increased processing horsepower in sport. Problem is
most of us tap into the system on a daily basis, generally when we are
not even in immediate danger. As Spidey’s Uncle Ben (Parker) said ‘with
great power, comes great responsibility’, and the nitric oxide system is
very powerful, so we need to be very responsible in how we use it,
otherwise it will result in brain deterioration on an accelerated scale.
And that’s not even taking into account the even bigger problem caused
by excess glutamate, which is even more damaging, and like nitric oxide
is released by strong negative emotions.
I’ve shown in previous
articles* how your perception of the world governs to a large extent
your reality, so even if you don’t put yourself in harms way, those
amongst us who are quick to become annoyed, enraged or can’t let things
go, are simply hastening their own demise, as well as not enjoying the
little time they have here on Earth to boot. We're getting pretty good
at keeping bodies patched together, even after we've allowed them to
become diseased. Brains, not so much. If you'd like to maintain your
brain lifelong, you’d be wise to learn how to change that situation**.
http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-is-real.html
** There are ways to reduce the damage caused by the fall-out of excess
nitric oxide beyond limiting the amount of knocks you take to the head,
however I’m unable to give a blanket account of the methods used due to
the wide range of individual differences in, not only your brain
structure, but also your personal lifestyle dynamics and history; a
one-sized fits all approach is really a one-sized fits none.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body which has multiple
functions. Besides its own vital roles, the skin can also be used as a
loose marker for other non-directly related systems in the body.
Two of the most prevalent proteins in your skin are collagen and
elastin; collagen provides structural strength and integrity and is
supported by elastin, which as the name implies
provides the skin with its elastic properties. To give you an idea of
how these two proteins work in combination, think about a willow tree in
a strong wind; the willow tree has a remarkably resilient structure,
not because it is completely rigid, but because it bends and gives
enough to buffer the force of the wind. Your skin is similarly designed,
it has just enough rigidity to act as a physical barrier, but also the
elasticity to be physically deformed (to a certain extent) without
breaking.
These two proteins are very important in other areas
of your body too, such as the arteries that act as part of the transport
infrastructure for your blood. Your heart creates pressure to generate
the force needed to pump your blood around the body. To withstand this
pressure the blood vessels that supply the body with blood need to be
strong enough to resist this force, which is where collagen comes into
play. Just as important though is the need to be flexible, which is the
main role of elastin, so that you don’t spring a leak every-time the
pressure raises sufficiently high. Elastin also has a neat trick of
being involved in harnessing elastic strain energy which is part of a
genius solution called pressure wave propagation that Nature has hit on
to minimise the energy cost of being able to circulate your blood.
With poor lifestyle and average ageing these proteins are not
incorporated optimally in the arterial vessel structure and therefore
the system gradually becomes more and more dysfunctional. This will have
wide ranging consequences throughout the entire body and can be
manifest in many ways such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke or
arterial aneurysm, amongst others.
A really quick and simple
test that acts an adjunct to other markers is the skin elasticity test.
The test takes less than a minute, follow this link to the test
instructions and result calculator http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html
Many of you already know that death isn’t as a result of the passing of
years; there’s no mechanism for the passage of time to cause a person
to die. There’s no such thing as ‘dying of old age’. Death only occurs
by damage, dysfunction or disease. To the extent that you can prevent
these three factors, you are essentially immortal.
One way we can measure these
factors is through Biomarkers of Ageing. Biomarkers of ageing are
various measurements that can give you an idea as to the level of
degeneration of your body. In some we have sufficient data to be able to
determine a measure called ‘Biological Age’. As opposed to
‘Chronological Age’ (how long you’ve been here on Earth), biological age
is a measurement of the physical state of your body.
We all
know people who look after themselves very well by eating nutritious
food and exercising regularly who appear to be much younger than the
candles on their Birthday cake suggests. We also know those who eat
poorly, smoke, burn the midnight oil regularly and do not exercise who
look decades older than other people of their chronological age.
To be able to age well biologically, you need to know where you stand
presently. By knowing your health status you can then assess your
biological age compared to your chronological age. If your biological
age is higher than your chronological age, you should consider taking
remedial action fairly promptly to address the situation. Even if your
biological age is younger than your chronological age, you shouldn’t be
too complacent, but ensure you are maintaining good habits (or start
incorporating them if you haven’t already) to keep this score low. A
good age range to try to maintain or re-attain is somewhere under 35,
preferably 30.
I’ve put the first of a series of biological
calculators over at the HPC-UK website; the first one is based upon
blood pressure, a measure many of you will have probably had tested
recently. It’s an important one as heart disease is still the number one
cause of death in the UK.
I will try to put up calculators
for a battery of tests that can be taken easily at home or obtained from
your Doc’ or local chemist. Some tests do not have sufficient data to
be able to generate a biological age score, but I will make those tests
into a traffic light format so you will have an idea of whether the
score is good (Green); meh (Yellow); or maybe start dialling for an
ambulance (Red)…
The blood pressure calculator can be found here: http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html
