ACTH? Stress, Acquiesce or Fluoresce

As a physiologist when I see the letters ACTH, what comes to mind is Adreno-Cortico-Tropic Hormone. ACTH is a hormone thats principal function is to stimulate the production and release of Cortisol. You may have heard of Cortisol, it is sometimes referred to as the ‘Stress Hormone’. While having very important functions, too much or chronic stimulation of Cortisol has huge implications on your health. So let’s turn this puppy on its head and use the acronym for good affect and reducing our Cortisol levels to boot.

A: Acknowledge what is right. Notice positive events during the day. Too often we only focus on what goes wrong, and often allow this to become disproportionately important. Days or weeks later we usually laugh about these events, so why let them seem so serious at the time, it’s your choice. Celebrate little successes or everyday events all the time.

C: Create positive events or happiness in others. If there aren’t any positive events, make it happen. Random acts of kindness, they don’t cost anything. If you’re able help and give to others, do it, no matter how insignificant it may seem, it may not be to that person.

T: Turn it around. One of my closest friends lives by this credo. Negative events happen, that’s undeniable, but, even in the worst of situations, can you re-frame it? Take the negative event, and see if you can learn anything from it? Use it as a teaching experience or a springboard for action. Look for the silver lining to even the darkest cloud.

H: Honour your own strengths. We all have strengths, but we often aren’t very good at recognising our own worth. You are your strengths, be proud of them. We live in an extremely competitive world where negativity is used as leverage, so that’s what we tend to focus on. But once again it’s disproportionate, we are all generally doing the best we can, so give yourself a break and forget the minor mishaps or mistakes and appreciate your achievements, no matter how small.

Who Wants To Live Forever

Highlander (Queen); Who Wants To Live Forever 

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.  ~John Barrymore

In the previous article I showed that despite all the fanfare of increased lifespan, we actually haven’t made a lot of progress, if any at all. The perceived extended lifespan is pretty much due to a few factors, lack of a world war for recent generations (therefore not killing off horrific numbers of young people), huge investment in palliative  care, and earlier diagnosis of disease, leading to earlier use of the previous item in this trio.

Again with all the talk of ageing, I haven’t seen, correct me if I’m wrong, an accurate description of what ageing actually is in the popular media. Even in general discussion, I still hear from pretty much 99.99 % of all people that they think people can die of old age…

Let me state this very clearly, nobody has ever died of old age. The chronological passing of the illusion that we call time, has never caused anyone to die. We don’t even really have a concrete theory on what time is yet, let alone its influence on human life.

So what is ageing? Ageing is simply two things, disease and damage. When anybody dies it is simply that either disease and/ or damage have got to a point where it can’t be repaired or be endured by the organism.

So to stop ageing, we need to focus on two things, preventing the damage occurring in the first place, and if the damage has occurred repairing the damage. Simples.

To the extent that you achieve the above two points, you can, hypothetically, live indefinitely.

Don’t believe me? Nearly 15 years ago, scientists achieved this in a lab with a nematode (roundworm) called Caenorhabditis elegans.  I’ll get back to this in a moment.

You, yes you, are essentially an immortal anyway.  The germ cells that are in you, are the essentially the DNA from the very first primate, and is still going strong. These germ cells are what are used in sexual replication, and are the only cells that can undergo meiosis (essentially the combination of the DNA from Ovum and Sperm, it’s a little more complicated than that, but that will suffice here), as well as mitosis (normal cell division). Most of the other cells in your body that you are made of are called somatic cells, these can only undergo mitosis.

For these germ cells to essentially achieve immortality they need to pass on accurately their information encoded in the genes. To keep this information accurate, they need to guard its very precise sequence from any disruption. The germ cells have learned to do this very well, if they had not, you would not be here. So what does this have to do with worms?

Well, scientists looked at a few tricks that germ cells performed on maintaining their genetic meticulousness and applied it to the somatic cells in the aforementioned c. elegans. Guess what happened? Even with the limited knowledge we have of the techniques of the germ cells, the ones applied allowed a tripling of the roundworms lifespan. That would see a human living 200 years.

You can read a story about the research here http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/06/researchers-learn-how-mutations-extend-life-span/

So genetic engineering can allow vastly extended lifespan, although I wouldn’t advise undergoing the procedure, even when it becomes commercially available.  You can’t just manipulate a gene and expect it to have one outcome, your body is an interconnected system, it’d be like falling dominoes.

In the absence of genetic engineering, what can we do? Plenty.

Nature has dealt us a loaded hand; we’ve just forgotten to respect the game.  The game has a number of rules, of which I’ll focus on in upcoming articles, and as I promised I’ll point you in the right direction on how to tactically push the boundary but stay within the laws of the game.

I did say I would write about telomeres, but, as I was writing this, I thought that it deserved more than a cursory glance.  The science of telomeres is fascinating and as I’ll show in the next article(s), by following a few simple measures, we can, not only prevent them from shortening, but if already shortened, lengthen them again. As my man Russell Brand would say ‘’ ‘citing ‘’.

The Elixir of Life

"I hear a rumour...Jack Sparrow's in London, hell-bent to find the Fountain of Youth." ―Joshamee Gibbs. Pirates of the Caribbean IV ‘On Stranger Tides’.

Was he coming to see me? Maybe. Although had he crossed paths with Ponce De Leon on his voyage, he would’ve been pointed in the opposite direction.

Legend has it that (Juan) Ponce De Leon thought that the Fountain of Youth was in Florida, and that drinking from its waters would restore ones youth.

Had Jack stayed in the Caribbean and spoken to the locals, they may have saved Jackie the trouble of an arduous voyage. The indigenous people had a legend of a mythical land called Bimini flowing with waters that had similar curative properties.

In Ancient Hebrew and Arabic writings there is reference to what is commonly known as the Philosophers Stone but was given many alternate names throughout history. It was thought that ingestion of the Philosophers Stone would regenerate the body to its optimal state. Long after these stories, the 16^th Century became quite a hotbed of research into the Philososphers Stone, in fact, Sir Issac Newton seemed from all accounts more driven by this search than any other.

So, throughout Human history there are numerous stories of eternal youth, advanced age and even immortality. As a species, it seems, we’ve always been fascinated by longevity. But what is the real story of Human longevity?

If you were born in the UK back in the middle-ages, your average life expectancy would have been 35 years.  This is an average, so the large numbers of childhood deaths would skew the figure to the left.  But you would have been quite a rare individual to have made it to our version of ‘middle age’ in the middle-ages.

Fast forward 300 years to the 1900’s. For numerous reasons 20^th Century living endowed ‘older age’ on a larger percentage of the population. At this point the average life expectancy was 47 for gentlemen and 50 for ladies. So in a third of a Millennium, a literal blink of an eye in Human evolution, UK residents had ‘gained’ an additional 15 years. Still, 50, is not really ‘aged’, as we would consider it.

Skipping another century and a bit, where are we at in the UK in the 21^st century? The latest figures I have at hand are for the period 2007-09 which shows that life expectancy is 77.85 for us men, and 82.01 for the women. So in the last century, again due to many reasons, our life expectancy has risen once more by about 30 years.

Not bad.

However…

Life Expectancy is quite an ambiguous term. For example, we can keep people alive using machines for a substantial amount of time even with multiple organ failure. This would obviously increase lifespan, but I think you can see the glaringly obvious problem with that statistic. So, what to do?

Well, we do have a better measure called, surprisingly, Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE). There is also another similar measure called Disability Free Life Expectancy (DFLE), that has a slightly different criteria within its remit. We will stick to the HLE statistic here.

The HLE is a bit more telling. Especially when we look at the ‘at birth’ figures.

Although as we’ve seen, the LE figures have risen, the HLE figures haven’t quite kept pace, not by a long shot. The 2007 figure of HLE is 62.7 years for males and 64.4 years for females. This means that at around 60 years of age, our health has deteriorated so much that we are now considered unhealthy enough to be considered as having a disability or living in a diseased state. And this is for the last 15 years of your life.

To get to the stage where a condition is deemed a disability or disease state, doesn’t happen over night. That’s not the way disease works. For many diseases the incubation period is not measured in days, weeks, months and usually not in years either. For disease to take hold, your body would have been in a sub-disease state probably for 5-10 years or more. How often have you heard ‘I don’t understand it, he/ she was so healthy, then all of a sudden, they went downhill’. That’s what happens at the end stage, the progression of the disease is exponential. But the beginning stages are usually very slow and subtle, which is why they do not show up as symptoms or even in most regular medical checks.

It seems for all our advances in modern life in the last century, we’ve only seemed to have gained and extra 5-10 years of healthy life, and that’s probably due the fact that we haven’t had to contend with a World War (1, 2 and the 7 Year War) that our recent ancestors did.

So what to do?

Well, that’s the question isn’t it. What to do? As I’ve said in many of my articles, the general public’s source of scientific information is usually via today’s popular media. Unfortunately they are not very good at representing the state of our knowledge. If you rely on the TV or the newspapers, especially the red tops, to provide your information, you may want to seriously reconsider what you actually know. 

The current state of science, if adopted, could see a 30 year old body opening a lovely letter by the Queen (or King?) wishing them well in celebrating a century. That is, a Chronologically old person who is Biologically young.

But that situation is the capstone on the pyramid. For the capstone to be set in place, the foundations need to be strong, very strong.

How do we achieve this? First you need to identify the major risk factors for the most prevalent diseases. Once identified, you need to take steps to stop or reverse their progression, much easier to do when they are in the birthing stages.  So the time to begin an anti ageing lifestyle is now.

Sounds difficult? Not really. The biggest killer is still Circulatory disease, this combination accounts for about 33% of all deaths.  The second biggest cause of death is Cancer which comes in at 29%. Next is Respiratory disease which has a slightly lower percentage of 14%. All three of these disease states have very similar causes, so by addressing one aspect, you’ve reduced your chance of dying by 76% Not bad, huh?

What we need to do now is know how good, or bad, shape we are in and take steps to remedy the situation. What I’ll do over the next few months, is give you a brief overview of some of the most important measures for health. These are taken from the HPC-UK anti-ageing program, where I measure 35 (depending on the individual) different indices known as biomarkers of ageing.  Once you know your score, you can work out your Biological age for that measure and compare it to your Chronological age. The further it is above your own age, the more important it is to focus on bringing down that measure. I may even give a few hints on how to address the problem, although, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate, I can’t go into too much detail. I have to eat too.

HPC-UK Level 1 Fat Loss Program

An example of the results achieveable on the HPC-UK Level 1 Fat Loss Program.

As well as Body Composition changes (Lean Body Mass : Fat Mass), the Program analyses Posture and Structural Balance, which is then used to develop the individual training plan.

The client is also assessed for hormonal balance which influences Bodyfat Distribution Patterns. The analysis is used to formulate a nutritional and lifestyle plan to rebalance the system.

Thor'ing themselves out...

As predicted, the inevitable happened. Yes, the 'Thor (Smash) Workout', as of yesterday (3rd May 2011) exists. Open to all people wishing to pay $29.95 for the privilege of developing the body of a 'warrior'.

Reading the advertising blurb, it is 'designed' exactly as I suggested it would be.

Maybe I'll do the lottery this week =OP

Still Life

I suggested in the previous instalment of this series, that I would show you a way to incorporate Zen Buddhism or at least aspects of it into a 21^st century lifestyle.  First I need to give a brief introduction into the small part of Buddhism that you will need to adopt in order to allow you to grow.  I also need to demonstrate how the current Western culture may be holding you back in this regard too. Before I start, I am not that arrogant to presume that I can enlighten you in any manner whatsoever, all I am doing is giving an indication of some of the tools at our disposal so that we may begin to unlock the doors to our potential.

Zen Buddhism is split into two main philosophies, the Rinzai or Warrior Sect, and the Soto or Farmers Sect, although if you look into the history of Zen there are many more expressions. Both Sects train to reach a state they call Mushin, which sort of translates as ‘mind in no mind’. This is a state that is not exclusive to Zen Buddhists, in fact you may have seen it many, many times before, but not realised.  If you watch any top international sportsmen perform at their very best, they are likely to be in a state of Mushin.

To reach a mastery in any sport takes around 10-15 years of constant, concerted and very hard practice.  The very best have practiced their sport so much, that the movements, and strategies or tactics, become automatic or second nature.  That is, the sportsmen allow the movements to occur as needed without conscious hindrance. Conscious thought at this level, no matter how fast you believe you can think, becomes an anchor or serves as a handbrake.

Conscious thought not only serves as a handbrake in sports performance, but also in everyday life. However, 21^st Century living has got to a point where this busy mind is the norm, and we feel uncomfortable when we don’t keep our minds in this state. Don’t believe me? Many of you are reading this on Facebook, don’t get me wrong I think Facebook is a wonderful tool, but…how many people do you know who have to constantly check Facebook? It’s got to a point where people, especially since the advent of smart phones, check the updates every few minutes, even during meal times with loved ones. This is not limited to Facebook, but I wanted to give a current example of how we as a society crave external distractions in an attempt to fill the emptiness. It’s in the emptiness that the magic happens.

If you take my example above, of the sports champions, it is at moments of stillness in the mind that the awesome potential of humankind is realised, not during times of frantic occupation.  How many times have you been stumped for an answer to a question that you know, but for the life of you can’t recall from the recesses of your mind, but then later on that day or many days later, the answer pops into your mind? This is the same process. The busy-ness of your mind was preventing the connections to be made, as soon as you allowed the mind to be still, it did what it is more than capable of and provided the solution.

To begin to attain the ability to enter Mushin, we need to use a method that introduces the stillness that our current life lacks. At first you may need to create an artificial situation so that you can allow yourself to develop the idea.  I say ‘allow’ and not ‘try’ because entering a state of Mushin requires a passive approach, not one that you can make happen, no matter how hard you try. In fact, the harder you try, the further you will be from attainment.

The method we use to develop this state is meditation. You may feel a little foolish at first, as I said before we are not used to; in this culture at least, stillness. To begin with, you will probably need to set aside a regular time to practice, probably about 10-15 minutes at first, then a little longer as you develop. Although, you could split this into smaller segments of five minutes and practice a few times every day, this will help with the application of meditation later.

At first it will help to use a quiet, calm place, with little external noise or motion that may distract you, again, at later stages, the distractions will be part of the environment we will choose to utilise the state of Mushin. But to begin to learn, a peaceful, natural place helps.

A comfortable posture is helpful, so use something similar to the lotus pose from yoga, although you don’t have to cross your legs as far, as this may cause discomfort to your ankles and knees, an unnecessary distraction. In this pose you can close your eyes, to remove visual distractions, but as you get better, you may want to practice with eyes open. A good intermediate step is to use a candle and focus on the flickering flame.

Breathing is very important as it modulates your nervous system, I’ll write a separate piece on breathing, but for the time being simply allow your belly to swell when breathing in, and allow it to return to flat when breathing out.

You can also use a mantra to filter out distractions.  Some people use the word Aum (Om) as they are exhaling, you don’t have to, you could quite easily repeat a line from one of your favourite music tracks. It’s just a way of keeping your mind centred.

This artificial setup is the first step to utilising Zen in your daily life, so that growth may occur.  In the next article I’ll show you the steps to dropping the artificial cues above; so that we can incorporate and increase the frequency and duration of the time we spend in a state of Mushin. This, as explained above, is the key to physical and mental performance.  When you take the brakes off of your potential, you can see what your engine is really capable of. 禪

Free Your Mind, And The Rest Will Follow

In the previous article in this series, I explained how past learning affects your current ability to think and your future potential for growth.  I showed that your perception is based upon prior teaching and that you can be trapped in a limited viewpoint if you fail to free your mind.  I’m not talking about freeing your mind in the ‘new agey’ sense of the word, although it does tread a similar path.  It’s up to you where you think I’m coming from, people who know me certainly wouldn’t lump me in the same class as the crystal healing, pyramid hat wearing, Orgonite cloud busting fellows. But that doesn’t mean we should write off some of the practices, there is some hardcore science beneath, once we remove the fluffy wrapping.

When I’m referring to freeing your mind, I’m simply suggesting that we should allow ourselves minimise the effect of past experiences, especially the negative emotions such as fear. Fear and other negative emotions are so pervasive in society today, although you may not be aware how widespread, and deeply ingrained, in our daily lives it is. Unless you recognise these emotions, and take steps to counter them, you will be permanently restricted by these memories, which then limits your comprehension of the possible. If you can only comprehend a certain reality, that is the reality you will perceive and unfortunately restricted to living.

Consider the expression being ‘One with the Universe’.  The majority of people would think you as kooky if you uttered this down the pub, and being kooky in some establishments is not the best trait to put on display.  However, the kooky individual, although, now in fear of his life from the other rocket fuelled (alcohol) patrons, is absolutely right.  The mass populace, however, believe otherwise, due to their past programming, and cannot see (perceive) the understanding behind this phrase.

The current hypothesis (not a theory yet, theories are more concrete, although they do use the term theory in its name) is that everything in the universe is composed of vibrating strings of energy; this is known as String Theory.  That is, everything, from the biggest star, to the smallest atom, if you reduce it down to its constituent parts, is composed of the same vibrating strings. It’s the combination and quantity of these parts that create the different objects. 

The biggest illusion we trick ourselves into (and for good reason, it helps us navigate this world) is that we are separate from the Universe. We think that we are ‘in’ the Universe, yes you are, but you’re also made of the Universe.  In fact, you are constantly exchanging energy with the Universe.  The Universe flows through you.  You are a localised concentration of the vibrational energy of the Universe. Sounds mad? Read on.

Who are you? It’s a simple question, but the answer is a lot more intriguing. You may think you are the same Mary Smith or Bob Saunders you always have been, and always will be. Obviously you have changed, from a baby, to an infant, to an adolescent to a fully grown adult, but that’s not what I’m getting at.

Every seven or so years, every single molecule of your body has been replaced with new molecules.  I’m talking everything, from all of your bones and muscles down to your DNA.  Every seven years, there is a human we like to call Mary or Bob, who looks and sounds the same, maybe a little more wrinkled, but nothing in their body is the same as it was seven years ago. So who is Mary or Bob? Who are you?

You are the information that has been passed on from one version of ‘you’ to the next.  This opens up amazing possibilities, but I won’t get into that here. The information that is passed on can come in the form of a chemical such as calcium that the body has developed many uses for and will alter the expression of Bob or Mary usually in a good way. Or the information may come in another chemical form such as strychnine that would alter the expression of Bob or Mary in not such a good way, usually Death. Thoughts are also a form of information, that is passed on, not only from Bob to Bob, but as I’ll show in another article from Sue too, which also alters the expression of Bob.

Our task here is to realise that our potential for expression is governed by the inputs of various forms of information, be that for good or bad. We need a method for assisting our body to filter an excessive amount of negative memories, so that we are open to new possibilities.  Luckily for us, those crazy monks in orange suits have given a way of doing just that.  The method is Zen Buddhism.  In the next article I’ll show you how we can use Zen Buddhism to our advantage, and also incorporate it into a 21^st century life.