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Narrated by Beverley A. Crick
Roxy DillonUnabridged — 7 hours, 32 minutes
Narrated by Beverley A. Crick
Roxy DillonUnabridged — 7 hours, 32 minutes
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There is a lot of food for thought (both literally and figuratively) in this book…There is a world of need for having synergy between what happens in the body and the influence from what we put into it… [which] Roxy has touched upon in this very well thought out book.
"A zippy, informative, and intriguing approach to defying age."
"A zippy, informative, and intriguing approach to defying age." ---Booklist
"A zippy, informative, and intriguing approach to defying age."
"A zippy, informative, and intriguing approach to defying age." —Booklist
| BN ID: | 2940171274290 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 02/09/2016 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Bio-Young
ANTI-AGING MECHANISM: Longevity gene activation
USE: Increasing lifespan and energy
STARRING: Berries, green tea, garlic, ginseng, gotu kola
For centuries, nearly every culture has searched for a way to slow and even reverse the aging process. Greek writers pursued the Fountain of Youth as far back as the fifth century BCE. India still recognizes the ancient science of longevity called Ayurveda, which is believed to add years to your life by nourishing and detoxing the body. My favorite success story of all, however, is that of a Chinese herbalist named Li Ching-Yuen, who, according to some records, was born in 1677 and died 256 years later. Regardless of whether you believe Master Li’s story is myth, reality, or a little of both, you have to admit there’s a part of you that when you hear this thinks, “I’ll have what he’s having.”
Cut to the twenty-first century, and we’re just as focused on discovering the mechanisms that prevent and reverse aging as our global ancestors were. In fact, one of the most studied proteins in the past ten years that’s been found to aid the anti-aging process is called sirtuin, or silent information regulator. Sirtuins control the rate at which we age, and the length of our lifespan. They’ve been dubbed “longevity genes,” which is also why I thought it would be a great place to begin our anti-aging program. Stimulate your sirtuins, the thinking goes, and you’ll live longer and look younger.
One of the most studied sirtuins is called SIRT1. Among other sources, it’s found in garlic, Panax ginseng, and Polygonum multiflorum, an herb grown in China that research has shown demonstrates anti-aging properties that activate a variety of biological processes in the body. There has been some controversy recently regarding possible liver damage resulting from the internal use of Polygonum multiflorum, and for that reason I do not recommend that you use it.
But guess what? These three herbs were an integral part of Master Li’s regimen, switching on his SIRT1 when he used them! Even if he lived half the years that sources claim, it’s still an impressive number and one that supports the longevity-enhancing properties of herbs, in a time long before science showed us how.
In this chapter, I’d like to first explain how the body ages and reinforce the importance of addressing anti-aging solutions on cellular and hormonal levels. Then I’ll discuss the power of modern-day sirtuin activators that you can add to your daily routine to help you look and feel young.
Aging affects every part of your body—how you look, feel, and function. It affects your hair, face, and body in more ways than you probably realize. In Bio-Young, you will learn what Master Li seems to have known, too—that you can extend and even reverse your years using natural remedies. Some of the substances that do this are EGCG (found in green tea), turmeric, red grape juice, coffee, hawthorn, ginkgo, hops, fennel, fenugreek, red palm oil, as well as supplements like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), R-alpha-lipoic acid, ubiquinol and CoQ10, vitamins, minerals, and numerous other compounds that have the power to make a real impact on how long you live and how young you look. We will show you how to use these elements and others to improve cellular function and increase hormonal levels to stop and reverse deep changes, at every level of your body, right down to the bones.
We tend to think of aging as an effect on the skin—wrinkles, creases, and sags as far as the eye can see. But as you age, every layer of older skin is depleted and disorganized, from the outermost epidermis to the supporting muscle and the deepest fat layers. Topical preparations, particularly vitamin A derivatives and natural vitamin E, can repair and plump up the epidermis, the top layer of the skin, and make the surface look smoother and less wrinkled. This is very welcome, of course.
But aging does not stop at the upper skin layers. It profoundly depletes the deeper layers, leading to unmistakable signs that no makeup can disguise and only anti-aging at both the cellular and hormonal levels can repair. Not even cosmetic surgery can correct some of these consequences, like pallor due to the loss of capillaries or the loss of youthful lip, eye, complexion, and hair color due to the loss of pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. In Bio-Young you will learn how to repair even these seemingly irreversible changes by using safe, natural substances.
Although using natural substances can help make you look decades younger, please keep in mind that the exciting science that explains the mechanisms that underlie their actions is very young and fresh. The bulk of our knowledge about what happens as we age comes from studies that have appeared in the last ten years and have only been available, for the most part, in scientific journals.
To achieve true anti-aging, you must activate cellular mechanisms, plus biochemical and hormonal anti-aging pathways, and restore them to youthful functioning. So it’s important to understand how the combination of certain herbs, foods, and supplements can promote deep and long-lasting effects.
Why this approach? When you improve cellular function, every one of your cells operates better, and this yields great results. When you improve cellular function through natural means, you reverse your age in a real, biological sense. Your cells are younger, and you look younger.
But cellular improvement isn’t enough. Take the power of vitamin C. Applying this to your face as a serum can increase collagen levels there. Taking it internally will help rejuvenate mitochondrial function in your skin and heart. Cellular function acts on the level of every cell, improving energy production, repair, and clearing of cellular debris. All of these mechanisms become slower and less efficient as we age. Improved cellular function very effectively reverses this decline, making you biologically younger at the cellular level. This is visible on the outside! Because there are many changes that aging causes in your body, some are not corrected, or reversed, by only optimizing your cellular mechanisms. Think of it this way: a healthy thirty-year-old has great cellular function and hormones working at peak performance. So to look truly young past thirty, and to continue doing so, you must rejuvenate at cellular and hormonal levels. And since vitamin C can only increase the muscle and fat atrophy that shrivels our skin as we get older, we have to add hormones to the picture for deep, and highly visible, anti-aging results.
Varicose veins are a great example of an aging concern caused by cellular and hormonal factors and should be addressed that way, as well. With age, your leg muscles atrophy, skin thins, and your blood vessel walls become weaker. Hormonal factors play a part, since women, particularly during pregnancy, are more likely to develop this condition. So thickening the skin, strengthening the muscles, and increasing elastin in the blood vessel walls bring about great improvement. But how do we do this naturally? Bioflavonoids such as lemon peel and bilberry are very helpful, as they work on a cellular level by strengthening the blood vessel walls. But many people do not experience varicose vein relief with bioflavonoids alone—you must cure this at the hormonal level by increasing elastin directly in the vein through the use of dill seed essential oil. Because dill is estrogenic, it produces the beneficial effects of this hormone in your body and is known to tighten saggy areas, too.
As you will read in later chapters, dill seed essential oil is just one natural substance that has a positive estrogenic effect on the body, which can also protect you from certain cancers and heart disease. Raising your hormones with safe, natural means can lead to truly astonishing, visible results, because estrogen is a dominant hormone in a woman’s body. As we age, more and more effects of declining estrogen appear, including the decline of elastin, collagen, muscle, and fat. Even the sudden appearance of dry skin after age thirty is due to declining estrogen, which causes a decrease in ceramides and hyaluronic acid, substances responsible for keeping skin moist, supple, and hydrated.
It’s obvious that male hormones should be kept low when women are trying to restore their youthful, girly curves and glow. At the same time, raising your female hormones, particularly those in the estrogen family, will not lead to concerns about hormonally sensitive cancers. By using the safe methods outlined in Bio-Young, you can rest assured that your risk will not be increased.
However, some of the most well-known hormonally active and oft-suggested remedies can actually harm your hormone function. One of these remedies is soy, which has been touted as a cure-all for women of a certain age. The problem is that soy has been shown to lower certain estrogens and can produce detrimental effects, particularly when a woman has reached menopause. Soy also lowers thyroid function, leading to weight gain and a dramatic loss of energy.
Wild yam is another hormone-affecting herb known for producing contradictory effects in women. Wild yam, or Dioscorea villosa, is not related to the yams, or sweet potatoes, that you buy at the grocery store. Dioscorea villosa is thought to work by raising progesterone, though there is a good deal of controversy surrounding this idea, since it’s unclear how the human body could convert diosgenin, the compound found in wild yam, to progesterone.
The interesting thing is that any negative effects are entirely absent when other sources of diosgenin, such as fenugreek or sarsaparilla, are used instead of wild yam. Creams that contain pharmaceutical doses of estrogens, such as estradiol, have been shown to produce visible anti-aging effects in as little as one week. But most women are wary of using pharmaceutical estrogens, as some of the estrogen from the cream will be absorbed by the body, which may result in undesirable side effects like nausea, bloating, breast lumps, headaches, unusual vaginal bleeding, and increased blood clotting, which can lead to strokes. How amazing, then, that these results can be obtained using certain fragrant essential oils that act in a very similar way, but without any of the health concerns.
Finally, bio-identical hormones on the market also come with a degree of risk. Both the more commonly used hormonal replacement preparations and the newer, bio-identical hormones are manufactured in a laboratory and possess marked hormonal activity. Bio-identical hormones resemble the hormones found in your body more closely than the pharmaceutical ones regularly dispensed by doctors, but because they are equally powerful, they can also cause pronounced imbalances in the body that are negative. Supplying your body with hormones leads to reduced glandular function and gland atrophy, and this applies to all hormone-producing glands, including the ovaries and the testes.
All that said, when it comes to aging, natural substances are the way to go. They stimulate the beneficial processes that help you look and feel young, while preventing DNA damage and disease. The results can even surprise you in the best way.
The most remarkable example of this occurs in the treatment of blood pressure through natural means—and a stable blood pressure in many ways is essential to healthy aging. Panax ginseng, for example, has been shown to both raise and lower blood pressure, depending on the individual’s needs. In other words, if you take Panax ginseng and your blood pressure is too high, it can help lower it. If your blood pressure is too low, ginseng can help raise it. In each case, blood pressure will be normalized and brought into a normal, healthy range. This kind of effect can only be achieved if the mechanisms that led to the imbalance in blood pressure, whether high or low, are corrected. Drugs cannot do this, because their pharmaceutical actions are highly specific and unidirectional. They will either raise blood pressure, and do this in all people, at all times, or they will lower blood pressure, and, again, do this regardless of the starting blood pressure of the person who takes the drug, lowering it even if the person’s blood pressure is already too low, and resulting in dangerous side effects.
Another remedy for lowering blood pressure will have an effect both while you take it and after you’ve stopped the supplement. This is not the case with most pharmaceuticals. This plant is called hawthorn and has this effect, in part, by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). This mechanism is the basis of drugs used to lower blood pressure, the ACE inhibitors. But one of the unfortunate side effects of ACE inhibitor drugs is kidney damage, a side effect completely absent when using natural hawthorn. I should also mention that natural hawthorn clears your arteries, strengthens the heart muscle, offers antioxidant protection, and prevents your body’s tendency to lay down fat stores. Not bad for side effects, right?
Researchers estimate that there are more than one hundred fifty anti-aging pathways active in the human body. It is then necessary to focus on the most effective mechanisms that deliver the most visible results. It is important to remember that every natural substance has many actions, often influencing several anti-aging pathways at the same time, in various beneficial ways. Just as there are so many anti-aging pathways, so there are hundreds of natural substances that affect them. There isn’t one superfood or one herb that can do it all, no matter how effective it is.
Because nothing in your body occurs in isolation, activating life-enhancing sirtuins will help produce beneficial effects on many other anti-aging pathways. For example, in a lab model of breast cancer, resveratrol has been shown to activate SIRT1 and, at the same time, inhibit a protein called survivin, in this way preventing the growth of breast cancer cells. Inhibition or disruption of the survivin pathway suppresses tumor growth, so we see that stimulating SIRT1 produces a very beneficial effect on another pathway that plays a role in remaining youthful and disease-free.
Remember Master Li’s sirtuins—aka our “longevity genes,” which control the rate at which we age, and the length of our life span? A part of that anti-aging includes anti-cancer effects, brain protection, and younger skin and hair. Adding sirtuin activators to your healthy diet and beauty regimen also gives you the type of expanded lifespan that researchers have seen with landmark concepts like calorie restriction (CR), which was the first means ever found to prolong life across a variety of species, including rats, yeast, fish, mice, dogs, and even monkeys. That being said, there have been no human studies on calorie restriction, and there are a few reasons for that. First, it’s not possible to restrict human calorie intake for a reasonable length of time under experimental conditions, even though we have data concerning oxidative stress, metabolic rate, insulin sensitivity, endocrine and sympathetic nervous system function, and these point strongly to an anti-aging effect of calorie restriction in humans. In addition, we have “negative” data, that is, data from overfed, obese individuals, which show accelerated aging in all aspects of this process. Second, there are obvious ethical problems with restricting calories from infancy or childhood, or during adulthood, under experimental conditions for a significant length of time. Good thing sirtuins mimic the effects of calorie restriction without producing any negative effects at all!
So far, seven sirtuin proteins have been identified in the human body, each one with a slightly different mode of action. An easy way to activate your sirtuins every day is to choose foods from the following list. All of these contain compounds that can help stimulate your sirtuin longevity pathways.
Foods
Sirtuin-Activating Compounds
red grape juice
resveratrol
blueberries
resveratrol
cranberries
resveratrol
pomegranate juice
resveratrol
cocoa powder
resveratrol
tart cherry powder
resveratrol
green tea
epigallocatechin-3-gallate
turmeric
curcumin
onions, especially red
quercetin
apple juice
quercetin
tomato paste
chalcones
strawberries
fisetin
garlic
allicin
Eating these foods, drinking the juices, and using concentrated freeze-dried powders or other concentrated products will provide you with a much higher concentration of sirtuin-activating compounds than the fresh fruit or vegetable, and do wonders for how young you look, how great you feel, and how long you live. These complex plant sources have been shown to activate not only a variety of the magnificent seven sirtuins, but many of the other one hundred fifty anti-aging pathways so far discovered. This is the cellular function revolution at its best. By eating a variety of specially chosen, concentrated supplements, you can achieve a level of mitochondrial rejuvenation that truly helps to reverse the effects of aging.
I’d now like to focus on three sirtuin activators that pack a noticeable punch and illustrate the power of this naturally occurring science—resveratrol, green tea, and garlic. You can enjoy them naturally or consume them as supplements, as I suggest at the chapter’s end.
Resveratrol is a sirtuin-activating compound that’s found in red wine and may provide an explanation for what’s known as the “French paradox”—that is, the finding that the French, who eat a diet full of saturated fat, have surprisingly low levels of heart disease. Resveratrol, one of the most potent sirtuin activators discovered so far, is found in red wine. In March 2013, Harvard researchers found that resveratrol is capable of slowing aging. This has important implications for human longevity.
Resveratrol, or trans-3, 5, 4’-trihydroxystilbene, is an antioxidant found in the skin of many fruits, including blueberries, peanuts, and, when eaten with the thin, papery red skin, even rhubarb. It is particularly found in the red grape, and in the red wine made from these grapes. Levels of resveratrol in red wine vary according to grape type and country of origin. The highest levels are found in wines from cooler countries, with the highest being from Bordeaux, and lower levels found in red wines from California. The pinot noir grape produces the highest levels of resveratrol, but cabernet sauvignon from the cooler regions and Italian sangiovese are also very high in this compound.
Resveratrol activates the sirtuin anti-aging pathway. This pathway is a chain of biochemical reactions, which, when activated, actually slows down aging. This stimulation is complex and appears to require resveratrol in its natural state, with many cofactors intact—as it’s found in plants. It is far less active in its chemically purified form. What’s more, every one of your cells contains an energy-producing factory called a mitochondrion (plural, mitochondria), and optimal mitochondrial function is essential to long life, energy, and a youthful appearance—and sure enough, resveratrol stimulates the sirtuin that affects aging mitochondria.
But there is a big problem here: alcohol is aging. It damages your body on every level, from your liver, to your skin, to your brain. It’s wonderful to learn that resveratrol is found in the glass of red wine you might occasionally have to relax, but it’s not an everyday option. Nor can you safely indulge in large enough quantities if you want to achieve dramatic anti-aging effects. Fortunately, resveratrol is found in a whole range of other tasty, easily accessible foods and herbs, all of which are safe to eat every day in effective quantities that give you the anti-aging benefits of sirtuins.
Since sirtuins have such powerful and far-reaching anti-aging effects, and because resveratrol is so highly effective at activating these amazing enzymes, there is, as you would expect, an ongoing and feverish hunt for the most effective resveratrol-type drug. Scientists estimate that the effect of such a drug would be an increase in the normal, healthy human lifespan to one hundred fifty years!
And while sirtuin activators have become one of the hottest topics in cosmeceuticals, which are cosmetic products with biological ingredients so highly active they require a special category to themselves, purified resveratrol results have been disappointing. One of the problems with resveratrol is that it degrades very rapidly and is metabolized within half an hour or so, which gives it a very short time to act. But if you ingest it rather than apply it, you can start to reap the benefits of resveratrol at any age—even if you begin taking it at middle age and/or add it to a Western high-fat diet. So long as you add resveratrol-rich foods to your life every day, you should reap significant anti-aging benefits.
Green tea is another powerful sirtuin activator with multiple benefits. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a component of green tea, has been shown to lengthen telomeres—an essential part of human cells that affect how they age—in damaged heart cells. This is an extraordinary finding, since this process prevents cell death. EGCG also protects the skin from UVB- and UVA-induced sun damage and protects collagen from degradation by collagenase, an enzyme responsible for collagen breakdown. Levels of collagenase increase as we get older, leading to a loss of collagen, thinner skin, sagging, and wrinkles. What’s more, EGCG promotes hair growth in hair follicle cultures, depletes fat accumulation, and stimulates lipolysis in human adipocytes. In plain English, this means that the marvelous compound gets rid of fat from your fat cells, effectively and safely. It will help to improve your heart, boost your brain function, and smooth your skin. EGCG has been shown to prevent bone loss, ward off tooth decay, and protect against all kinds of cancer, including leukemia and melanoma.
And for aging purposes, here’s what’s truly impressive: compounds from green tea have been shown to stimulate the mitochondria, or energy cells, in your brain, skin, all over. They can stimulate cellular function and can help make every one of your cells young, and in doing so should expand your lifespan. On a hormonal level, green tea compounds decrease dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a form of testosterone known to increase with age in both men and women. DHT is responsible for many of the signs of old age women hate—thinning hair or baldness and unwanted facial hair.
Garlic, known unfairly as the stink bulb, is reputed for its ability to help fight infections, but this herb also activates SIRT1. This means it is a heart protector, energy giver, skin saver, and lifespan extender. One of its primary benefits is as an infection fighter. Steering free of infective illness is vital for a long lifespan. Your immune system declines with age unless you take steps to prevent this, and many people succumb to lung infections and flus that could have been prevented.
Gotu kola—known in Latin as Centella asiatica or Hydrocotyle asiatica—also activates SIRT1, and with no negative side effects. Gotu kola has been shown to protect the brain, increase collagen production, and strengthen hair follicles. For centuries, gotu kola extract was used topically for hair follicle stimulation, wound healing, and increasing collagen. When taken internally, it activates the sirtuin pathways, exhibiting powerful anti-aging potential for the whole body. It has been shown to be highly neuroprotective, preventing glutamate-induced neurotoxicity, which kills brain cells.
Gotu kola contains ursane triterpenes, complex organic molecules with anti-cancer effects that are also powerful stimulators of collagen synthesis, with or without vitamin C. The ursane triterpenes and many other remarkable compounds make gotu kola one of the most potent wound healers around, and one of the most effective anti-aging wrinkle treatments. It works if you take the powder internally, and it works if you apply it as a tea or extracted in an oil base. So you truly can look great, with smooth, firm skin, even at an age when others will be showing theirs.
Ursane and related compounds are also found in rosemary oil, which accounts for many of the plant’s extraordinary neuroprotective and anti-aging properties. You will meet rosemary in the next chapter, since it is the main ingredient of a powerful anti-aging potion called Queen of Hungary water. Here’s the bottom line: nature simplifies it for you by mixing up many powerful compounds in one plant, and by giving natural substances many varied, beneficial actions. So as you read about these compounds, please enjoy the fact that all you have to do is take gotu kola powder or use an anti-aging essential oil like rosemary, mixed into a cream, for all the mitochondrial stimulation, collagen synthesis, and anti-aging power you need!
The other Chinese herb I love for SIRT1 activation is called Panax ginseng, or Asian ginseng, and known in Chinese as ren shen, man root. It is one of the royal herbs in Chinese herbalism. Once considered so valuable that wars were fought over the right to the areas it grew in, ginseng does deserve its reputation. Among its many anti-aging properties, ginseng is a highly effective activator of SIRT1 in every cell of your body. In fact, this extraordinary root stimulates cellular function, and at the same time increases all hormones, particularly the sex hormones, which are so vital to looking young.
Please choose preparations based on ease of availability, cost, and personal preference. One is sufficient for treating this anti-aging mechanism, but two or more can speed improvements or improve a particularly neglected situation. Each one uses an ingredient discussed in this chapter. Enjoy!
Fruit sirtuin: Choose resveratrol-packed fruits from this chapter for daily use. Or you can use four to six teaspoons of a fruit powder added to smoothies and yogurts.
Gotu kola: Take four capsules a day.
Ginseng: Take two teaspoonfuls of the tincture or six capsules of the powdered herb daily.
Garlic: Use liberally in cooking, raw, and in salad dressings.
Yeast: Dissolve baking yeast in warm water and apply directly to your skin as a mask, but not around your eyes, since the skin here is sensitive and the yeast preparation is drying. I like to use coconut or red palm oil to moisturize the face afterward.
