But the truth is that a healthy immune system is a key component of total body health.

That’s because your immune system isn’t only your body’s first-line defense against this season’s germs. It is also vital for launching assaults on serious conditions, like cancer.

However, according to research from NYU Langone Health, there is something that can destroy that cancer-fighting ability.

And it all has to do with how well your blood is flowing…

Double the rate of tumor growth

Peripheral ischemia includes reduced blood flow to the lungs and legs. It typically follows peripheral artery disease and is a manifestation of worsening symptoms that impact blood flow. But that’s not all it does…

The scientists at NYU were able to prove that peripheral ischemia dramatically fueled cancer growth.

In fact, tumors in mice with restricted blood flow grew at double the rate seen in mice with normal flow.

Why? They found that restricted blood flow prematurely ages the bone marrow, where our immune cell warriors are produced.  

In other words, the researchers demonstrated that the immune system is the missing link between poor blood flow and the proliferation of cancer cells.

Increasing cancer-tolerance and decreasing tumor defense

According to scientists, when there is a threat to the body, such as cancer, the immune system typically ramps up inflammation to eliminate the danger and then eases back on the throttle to avoid damaging healthy tissue (think autoimmune issues).

However, when you suffer from circulation problems, the aging of your bone marrow reprograms stem cells to favor the production of “myeloid” immune cells (monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils) that dampen immune responses.

At the same time, these stem cells begin to decrease their production of lymphocyte-like T cells, which help mount strong antitumor responses.

Altogether, this shifts immune cells into a more cancer-tolerant state, weakening the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.

“Our results reveal a direct mechanism by which ischemia drives cancer growth, reprogramming stem cells in ways that resemble aging and promote immune tolerance,” says first author Alexandra Newman, PhD.

“These findings open the door to new strategies in cancer prevention and treatment, like earlier cancer screening for patients with peripheral artery disease and using inflammation-modulating therapies, to counter these effects.”

Increase blood flow to lower cancer risks

All of this means that if you want to cancer-proof your body, you have to start with supporting your blood vessels. Easy ways to do this include:

• Taking omega-3s – People with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have been shown to have lower levels of healthy omega-3s in their bodies, so taking a fish – or preferably krill oil – supplement could help. Omega-3s not only support better blood flow but also have potent anti-inflammatory effects.
• Getting help stretching – Passive stretching, with the help of a partner, can improve blood flow, blood vessel dilation and reduce stiffness.
• Eating beets – Beets are packed with heart-healthy nitrates, which boost the production of nitric oxide (NO) in the lining of your blood vessels, allowing them to dilate or widen. When this happens, your blood can flow more freely.

Additionally, because the scientists believe that inflammation-modulating therapies could be a key approach, be sure to take steps to reduce your overall body inflammation.

My favorite way to do this is by eating an anti-inflammatory diet that would include these foods:

• Tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Green leafy vegetables, like spinach, kale, and collard greens
• Nuts such as almonds and walnuts
• Fatty fish, which includes salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines
• Fruits such like oranges, strawberries, blueberries and cherries

Skip or strictly limit foods that increase inflammation in your body, such as processed meats, refined carbs, sodas, and packaged snacks.

Staying active is also a good idea, as exercise not only improves blood flow but also has anti-inflammatory effects on your white blood cells.

Sources:

Restricted Blood Flow Speeds Tumor Growth by Aging the Immune System – NYU Langone Health

Foods that fight inflammation – Harvard Health Publishing

An action plan to fight unhealthy inflammation – Harvard Health Publishing

The post Poor blood flow linked to supercharged tumor growth appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sounds perfect, right?

Not exactly.

What good is losing weight and looking trim if your memories are slowly being erased?

Take a look at the newest research on artificial sweeteners and what they do to your cognitive abilities…

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Artificial sweeteners steal your brain power

A large Brazilian study has found that the most common artificial sweeteners — those found in diet sodas, flavored waters, and processed snacks — are strongly associated with a decline in memory and loss of cognitive skills.

The study looked at seven low- and no-calorie sweeteners. You’ve probably seen some of these on your soda, chewing gum, or snack labels:

• aspartame
• saccharine
• acesulfame-K
• erythritol
• xylitol
• sorbitol
• tagatose

The study followed 12,772 adults for an average of eight years. At the start, participants completed questionnaires about what they ate and drank during the past year. They were then broken up into three groups based on the total amount of artificial sweeteners they’d consumed.

All participants were given cognitive tests at the start, middle, and end of the study to track memory, language, and thinking skills over time. These tests looked at things like verbal fluency, working memory, word recall, and processing speed.

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People who consumed the highest amount of these sweeteners showed a 62 percent faster decline in overall thinking and memory skills than those who consumed the lowest amount — the equivalent of 1.6 years of extra brain aging.

Just to give you some perspective, for aspartame, a common sweetener, the highest amount was equal to drinking just one can of soda per day!

Other findings:

• People under the age of 60 who consumed the highest amounts of sweeteners showed faster declines in verbal fluency and overall cognition.
• The link to faster cognitive decline was stronger in participants with diabetes than in those without diabetes.

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Alternatives to artificial sweeteners

This isn’t the first time the alarm has sounded about the impact of artificial sweeteners on cognition.

In 2017, a study at Boston University found that people who drank diet soda daily were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia when compared to those who did not.

In case you’re not already convinced to give up those diet sodas, here are some other scary things that artificial sweeteners can do to you:

• Xylitol (used in sugar-free chewing gum) and erythritol (found in sweeteners like Splenda) have been strongly associated with “sticky” blood that leads to stroke.
• The World Health Organization lists aspartame (found in everything from bread to hot cocoa to jam to vitamins) as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

Fortunately, there are healthier alternatives to sweetening your food and drink. And if you don’t overdo it, there’s no need to worry about the calories.

• Honey – known for its antioxidant and antibacterial properties
• Maple syrup – contains manganese and potassium, and has a lower glycemic index
• Coconut sugar – made from the sap of the coconut palm
• Stevia – a plant-based sweetener with no calories and no effect on blood sugar
• Monk fruit – a natural sweetener with a sweetness level 300 times higher than sugar, and no calories or carbohydrates

So if you’re looking to stay healthy by losing those extra pounds, make sure you don’t lose your mind power, too.

Sources:

Sweeteners in diet drinks may steal years from the brain — Science Daily

Association Between Consumption of Low- and No-Calorie Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline — Neurology

The post Why diet drinks can prematurely age your brain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Some of these differences can be attributed to physical size. But others can actually be indicators of your physical and mental well-being.

Here’s what your walk may say about your health….

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Walking at a slow pace

Unfortunately, if you’re naturally a slow walker, it could spell trouble for your health. In one study, researchers found that slow walkers at age 45 are more likely to show both accelerated signs of aging and decreased cognitive function. This is especially true when it came to their lungs, teeth and immune system.

If you find you’re walking slower than you used to, it could be another signal of cognitive trouble. Scientists say changes in the speed of your walk over time may be one way to predict Alzheimer’s disease or other memory problems. If Alzheimer’s is the cause, your walk will continue to slow as the disease progresses.

Veering left while walking

As strange as this may seem, veering to the right when you walk may actually be a sign of anxiety. When researchers tracked individuals’ movements as they walked blindfolded, they found the more stressed the participant felt, the farther to the left they strayed from a straight-ahead target. They theorized this could be because the right side of the brain is hard at work handling the individual’s doubts and worries instead of their balance.

A swaying walk

Rocking from side to side as you walk could mean you’ve suffered a mild brain injury. A blow to the head could cause temporary brain damage that causes you to sway while you walk. If you play contact sports, you’ll want to be especially aware of this particular change in your walk.

Limping

Limping while you walk could be because of an injury to your hip, leg, ankle or foot. But it could also signal a deeper underlying condition: osteoarthritis. If you favor one leg over the other, or if your legs seem to buckle occasionally when you walk, you could be suffering from this type of arthritis, which wears away your joints over time.

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High, slapping steps

When you walk, your gate should be smooth and even. If instead, it looks like you’re trying to climb an invisible staircase, this could signal foot drop, a condition that causes your toes to drag as you walk. With foot drop, you tend to step higher to make up for the dragging toes. This can affect one or both of your feet, though one foot is more common.

Foot drop indicates muscle weakness and may mean you’ve injured a nerve in your leg. Or it could be a sign or something more serious — a nerve, muscle, brain or spinal disorder like muscular dystrophy or multiple sclerosis.

A stiff, unsteady gait

Several specific weaknesses in the way you walk can also indicate multiple sclerosis. You could move with stiff, swinging steps with toes pointed inward. You might lose your balance more often. Your knees may cross when you walk, a phenomenon known as “scissoring.” Or you could lose feeling in your feet, making it difficult to tell where the floor or ground is and causing a hesitancy and irregularity in your gait.

Moving one side all at once

Moving one side of your body as a whole while you walk could signal a bad back. When someone has pulled a muscle or has a herniated disc in your lower back, they tend to turn the chest and shoulders in the same direction as the hips when walking to avoid twisting the back. So instead of the opposite hand and foot being ahead of you when you stride, your left arm will sway with your left leg and vice versa.

Dragging your feet

If you walk with slow, scraping steps, it could indicate Parkinson’s disease. Men over 60 are more likely to develop Parkinson’s and should let their doctor know if they walk this way. This type of foot-dragging walk is a sign your brain is having difficulty communicating with your leg muscles to get them to move. In fact, shuffling steps in a bent-over posture with little to no arm motion is often called the “Parkinson’s gait” because it’s so common with the disease.

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Plodding steps

If you have depression, it can manifest itself in the way you walk. Depressed people often appear to plod along with slow, short steps. This is usually temporary, and once the depression lifts your stride will become longer and your pace more brisk. It’s important to note that your mental state also affects the pace of your aging.

A fast walking pace

Now for some good news…

Walking at a fast clip may indicate a longer lifespan. Studies on people over the age of 65 revealed a naturally fast pace of walking tended to mean they would live longer.

In fact, one study indicated that walking at a brisk pace was associated with longer telomeres, the caps on the ends of your chromosomes that protect them from damage. That study found a fast walking pace to be the equivalent of turning your biological clock back 16 years.

Consult with your doctor

If you’re a fast walker, pat yourself on the back, but if you notice any of the other traits in how you walk, it’s important to see your doctor.

They can help you determine if a temporary injury causes them, or if they’re an indicator of an underlying health condition.

If you don’t have a condition, you may just need to improve your mobility. A physical therapist can help, and your doctor may advise that.

To avoid mobility problems with age, work at maintaining a strong and supple spine and strengthen your legs to keep moving.

Source:

1. What Does Your Walk Say About You? — WebMD

The post 12 conditions signaled by the way you walk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s why if you have any kind of cardiovascular or metabolic health issues, you’ve probably heard all the recommendations for keeping your diet as healthy as possible.

The effects of diet on brain health is also something we hear much about.

But according to researchers at Columbia University, much of the attention on nutrition within the scope of dementia research has focused on how specific nutrients affect the brain. Take omega-3s for example, or vitamin D.

That’s why they decided to test a hypothesis about another way diet may protect against dementia… by slowing down the body’s overall pace of biological aging.

And now we have the results that have been decades in the making.

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Diet, aging and dementia

Considering that previous research has suggested both diet (especially one high in ultra-processed foods) and dementia risk are linked with accelerated biological aging, it would certainly stack the evidence that the right diet is an integral strategy for avoiding dementia.

So with that in mind, research began…

It included analyzing data gathered from 1,644 participants in the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study, the Offspring Cohort. At study start, most of the participants averaged 60 years of age and were dementia-free.

Data collected from the group over several years and during 7 to 9 follow-up visits, included:

• Their long-term adherence to the Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet (MIND), which was assessed from 1991-2008.
• Their pace of biological aging was measured via blood DNA methylation data collected from 2005-2008, using the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock — which estimates the difference between a person’s chronological age and cellular aging as biological processes of aging occur.
• Physical examination, lifestyle-related questionnaires, blood sampling and (most importantly) neurocognitive testing.

Over 14 years of follow-up, 140 of the participants developed dementia. And valuable information was learned…

• They found that folks who most closely adhered to the MIND diet experienced slower aging — as measured by DunedinPACE.
• It also showed an association between slower aging and lower odds for dementia.

Specifically, they calculated that about 27% of the association between the diet and lowered dementia risk was probably due to slowed aging.

“Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention,” says first author Dr. Aline Thomas, a Columbia postdoc.

“However, a portion of the diet-dementia association remains unexplained,” Thomas says, adding that continued investigation of the brain-specific mechanisms is warranted.

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Keeping up with the MIND diet

So, what exactly is the MIND diet? MIND stands for Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. And like its name suggests, it’s basically a combination of elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets.

In the MIND diet, the focus is on these brain-healthy food groups:

• At least 3 servings a day of whole grains
• At least 6 servings a week of green leafy vegetables
• At least 1 serving a day of other vegetables
• At least 5 servings a week of nuts
• At least 4 meals a week of beans
• At least 2 servings of berries a week
• At least 2 meals a week of poultry
• At least 1 meal a week of fish
• Mainly olive oil if using added fat

The MIND diet also suggests avoiding or limiting foods that accelerate aging. The majority of them are ultra-processed foods, plentiful in the Western diet and previous research indicates they shorten telomers causing the cells in the body to age faster.

Now, you don’t have to eliminate all of them if you can’t, but for optimal health, eat as little of these as possible:

• Red meats
• Butter and margarine
• Cheese
• Pastries and sweets
• Fried or fast foods
• Less than 1 tablespoon a day of butter or stick margarine
• Less than 5 servings a week of sweets and pastries
• Less than 4 servings a week of red meat
• Less than 1 serving a week of whole-fat cheese and fried or fast foods.

Sources:

Study Shows a Healthy Diet is Linked with a Slower Pace of Aging, Reduced Dementia Risk — Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Diet, Pace of Biological Aging, and Risk of Dementia in the Framingham Heart Study — Annals of Neurology

Diet Review: MIND Diet — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The post The diet that slowed aging and reduced dementia risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Translation: moderate exercise on a regular basis can help a person stay healthy as they age. We’re talking about fast walking, running, swimming, cycling, dancing, hiking and squats — things that increase your heart and breathing rate.

Hippocrates also warned that if all parts of the body “are unused and left idle, they become liable to disease, defective growth and age quickly.”

Jump forward to the modern age and there is no shortage of research proving the incredibly far-reaching effects of exercise on our health.

In fact, in a review of the Health Benefits of Exercise, the authors state, “Overwhelming evidence exists that lifelong exercise is associated with a longer health span, delaying the onset of 40 chronic conditions/diseases.”

If you’re not taking exercise seriously, here’s what you could be in for…

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Major health concerns tied to lack of exercise

I’d like to highlight three areas in particular where the researchers find the lack of physical activity to have a significant impact. These won’t surprise you, but the full list we’ll get to later might.

Cardiovascular respiratory fitness, or CRF, is commonly measured by maximal oxygen uptake, VO2max. Research has reported that men who transitioned from having low to high CRF decreased their mortality risk by 50% over an 8-year period, whereas men who transitioned from having high to low CRF increased their mortality risk by 50%. Low CRF is also well established as an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes. In fact, experts would argue that CRF may be the most significant factor for health, and exercise or lack of it has a major impact on increasing or decreasing CRF.

Mental health. It’s not hard to believe that getting your heart pumping can be an antidote to depression and anxiety while having a powerful impact on cognition. Exercise affects the formation of new blood vessels in the brain; the expression of growth factors in the hippocampus, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), necessary for connections and communications in the brain; as well as brain transmitters and “mood hormones” including dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine and serotonin.

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). In 2000, the Framingham Offspring study found a strong genetic predisposition for T2D, but lifestyle heavily influences the disease. As you may have guessed, exercise is the lifestyle factor with the most substantial impact on T2D.

In the last 25 years, three major studies have found that exercise or a combination of exercise and diet reduced the onset of T2D from 46% to as high as 58%. One study was on a Chinese population, another on a Finnish population and lastly, a U.S. population. According to researchers, if genetic differences in the different study populations are not a factor, combined exercise and diet remain more effective in T2D prevention than the drug metformin two decades ago.

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40 conditions strongly impacted by the power of exercise

The authors of the Health Benefits of Exercise, Gregory N. Ruegsegger and Frank W. Booth, put together a list of “Worsening of 40 conditions caused by the lack of physical activity with growth, maturation, and aging throughout life span.”

Here is their complete list:

1. Accelerated biological aging/premature death

2. Aerobic (cardiorespiratory) fitness

3. Arterial dyslipidemia (High cholesterol is one component of dyslipidemia, while dyslipidemia can refer to an imbalance in one or more of the three lipids: triglycerides, HDL and LDL.)

4. Balance

5. Bone fracture/falls

6. Breast cancer

7. Cognitive dysfunction

8. Colon cancer

9. Congestive heart failure

10. Constipation

11. Coronary (ischemic) heart disease

12. Deep vein thrombosis

13. Depression and anxiety

14. Diverticulitis

15. Endometrial cancer

16. Endothelial dysfunction

17. Erectile dysfunction

18. Gallbladder diseases

19. Gestational diabetes

20. Hemostasis

21. Hypertension

22. Immunity

23. Insulin resistance

24. Large arteries lose more compliance with aging

25. Metabolic syndrome

26. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

27. Obesity

28. Osteoarthritis

29. Osteoporosis

30. Ovarian cancer

31. Pain

32. Peripheral artery disease

33. Preeclampsia

34. Polycystic ovary syndrome

35. Prediabetes

36. Rheumatoid arthritis

37. Sarcopenia

38. Stroke

39. Tendons being less stiff

40. Type 2 diabetes

All in all, I hope I’ve given you a wake-up call to get off that couch and start a regular exercise program that will see you through to your golden years!

Sources:

Health Benefits of Exercise — Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine

4 ways exercise helps fight aging — Time

The post 40 things that go wrong with your body when you don’t exercise appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I’ve found the ones that are genuinely effective contain very specific ingredients, like retinol. Retinol, a form of vitamin A, is available in over-the-counter skin creams and serums and by prescription. It works by exfoliating the skin and increasing collagen production, resulting in skin with a plumper, more youthful appearance.

If you’re in menopause and are taking an estrogen supplement, you may notice a change in your skin’s appearance. That’s because estrogen can raise collagen count and increase skin hydration. For this reason, some anti-aging creams contain natural forms of estrogen.

These are both well-established skincare ingredients. But scientists are constantly looking for the next wave of anti-aging substances. And they’ve found potential in more hormones produced by the human body…

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Certain hormones may be key

A team of international researchers decided to study the hormones pivotal in skin aging to better understand the connection between the two. These included insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone, estrogens, retinoids and melatonin. Some of these were found to have incredible and unexpected biological effects on skin function and hair aging, as highlighted by distinct genetic deficiency syndromes.

The researchers also reviewed the emerging roles of additional endocrine players. These include alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which is responsible for skin pigmentation; members of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis; oxytocin; endocannabinoids, which are found in CBD products; and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor modulators. These were discovered to have very promising effects, such as on UV-induced genotoxic stress, which is involved in the development of photoaging and pigment synthesis within skin and hair.

“Our paper highlights key hormone players that orchestrate pathways of skin aging such as degradation of connective tissue (leading to wrinkling), stem cell survival and loss of pigment (leading to hair graying),” says lead author Dr. Markus Böhm of the University of Münster in Münster, Germany.

“Some of the hormones we studied have anti-aging properties and may be used in the future as agents to prevent skin aging,” Böhm says.

The skin is the largest organ in the body and experiences both intrinsic (or chronological) aging and extrinsic aging caused by environmental factors such as sun exposure.

“Skin is not only a target for various hormones that control pathways of skin aging but itself is certainly the largest and richest site for hormone production besides classical endocrine glands,” Böhm says.

“Further research into these hormones may offer opportunities to develop new therapeutics for treating and preventing skin aging,” he adds.

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Getting your hands on these hormones

Some of the hormones researched in this study are inaccessible. For instance, you can’t go into a drugstore and purchase a bottle of insulin-like growth factor 1 or growth hormone off the shelf.

However, others — like melatonin — are readily available. Melatonin is especially intriguing as a potential anti-aging substance for the skin because it is inexpensive and well-tolerated. It’s also an antioxidant as well as a regulator of mitochondrial metabolism.

You can purchase melatonin supplements either in drugstores or online. There are also skincare products that are formulated with melatonin. Just make sure you’re getting these products from reputable, high-quality sources.

Endocannabinoids, such as those found in CBD products, can also be obtained in drugstores and online. These substances have been found to promote an increase in new cell growth while decreasing the number of damaged cells. You can find endocannabinoids in both skincare and supplement forms, though the same caveat holds true as with melatonin. In fact, you need to be especially careful when buying CBD products, as some contain little to no CBD or get their CBD from impure sources.

Oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone,” is one of four main neurotransmitters in the brain responsible for helping you feel happy. It’s not available in over-the-counter form, but there are ways to increase your body’s production:

• Get a hug from a family member or friend
• Have an orgasm
• Sing (or cry)
• Exercise
• Pet a dog

Also, make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D, as it may be involved in the regulation and function of oxytocin.

Sources:

Hormones may have therapeutic potential to prevent wrinkles, hair graying — ScienceDaily

Endocrine Controls of Skin Aging — Endocrine Reviews

Anti-aging – Statistics & Facts — Statista

Retinol — Cleveland Clinic

Hormones in Personal Care Products — Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

The post Harnessing the anti-aging potential of hormones appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Thankfully, I’ve maintained my natural color through the magic of hair dye for decades. But I’m a little less eager to visit the hair salon because of evidence linking regular use of hair dye with an increase in breast cancer risk.

Wouldn’t it be great if all those messy, expensive and potentially toxic trips to the hair salon or the hair dye aisle of the drugstore to cover those grays weren’t necessary?

Luckily, researchers in Japan may have hit upon a solution — and unlike hair dye, this one is all-natural, offering a safe and effective alternative.

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The anti-graying power of luteolin

A study led by researchers at Nagoya University explored the effects of three antioxidants — luteolin, hesperetin and diosmetin — on black-furred mice bred to experience graying similar to humans.

The results surprised the researchers. Of the three, only luteolin — found in vegetables such as celery, broccoli, carrots, onions and peppers — appeared to have any impact on the graying effect.

Mice given luteolin retained their black fur, while their untreated counterparts turned gray. The effect was observed regardless of whether the antioxidant was administered internally or externally.

“While we expected that antioxidants may also have anti-graying effects, only luteolin, not hesperetin or diosmetin, demonstrated significant effects,” says study lead Dr. Masashi Kato of Nagoya University. “This finding suggests that luteolin may have a unique medicinal effect that prevents graying.”

The researchers observed a close link between luteolin’s effectiveness and its influence on endothelins, which are proteins that play a crucial role in cellular communication. The study found luteolin treatments preserved the expression of endothelins and their receptor. This action means that the signaling pathways remain healthy, which prevents the decline in melanocyte activity that typically leads to graying.

“Interestingly, luteolin had limited effects on hair cycles, indicating that its primary impact is on pigmentation rather than hair growth or shedding,” Kato says. “This targeted action makes luteolin a particularly intriguing candidate for addressing age-related hair graying.”

These findings and the similarities between the graying processes in the mouse models and humans open the door for potential applications in human hair care.

Given these promising results, study lead Dr. Takumi Kagawa of Nagoya University believes there will be broader applications in age-related research.

“It would be interesting to investigate whether luteolin’s anti-aging effects could also be applicable to other age-related changes, including balding,” Kagawa says.

In fact, luteolin’s potential in age-related research extends beyond hair graying. It could also be beneficial in addressing other age-related issues, such as skin aging and cognitive decline. Further research in these areas could open up new possibilities for its use in anti-aging treatments.

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Where to find the anti-graying antioxidant

As research progresses, luteolin could become a key ingredient in hair care regimens, helping individuals preserve their natural hair color as they age.

Until then, if you’re experiencing graying hair and are reluctant to hit the salon, you may want to try eating more luteolin-rich foods like the ones mentioned above. Not only will you potentially preserve your hair color, but you will also reap the anti-inflammatory and memory-boosting benefits of this powerful antioxidant. It can also help with pain relief.

In addition to vegetables, luteolin is found in many herbs used in Chinese traditional medicine, including ginkgo nut, horny goat weed, chrysanthemum, red sage, skull cap and wormwood. It is also available in my favorite healthy oil — olive oil — and peppermint, rosemary and thyme.

The study notes that luteolin is already available as a supplement for both topical and oral use. If you decide to take it as a supplement, make sure it’s of high quality, as some luteolin supplements do not contain the amount they do.

If you are on blood thinners or have kidney disease or type 2 diabetes, it’s probably best to get luteolin from food sources.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Try it for $1! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

Luteolin May Prevent Hair from Graying, Study Finds — Integrative Practitioner

Anti-Graying Effects of External and Internal Treatments with Luteolin on Hair in Model Mice — Antioxidants

Luteolin as a modulator of skin aging and inflammation — Journal Biofactors

Luteolin: A promising natural agent in management of pain in chronic conditions — Frontiers in Pain Research

Luteolin supplements: All that glitters is not gold — BioFactors

The post Luteolin: The antioxidant that kept hair from graying appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

When you’re young, your telomeres are nice and long. But as you age, they begin to gradually shorten, leading to cellular aging and age-related disease. But genetics as well as some factors within our control can cause this process to ramp up prematurely.

Some diseases linked to shorter telomeres include osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease. Now, research indicates a trio of age-related brain conditions could be added to this list — and demonstrates how short telomeres may not be the cause but instead a signal to heed…

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A biomarker that signals brain risks

The length of telomeres within leukocytes, or white blood cells, is a known marker of biological aging. Researchers analyzed data from more than 356,000 participants in the UK Biobank to explore links between telomere shortening and the onset of stroke, dementia or late-life depression — all conditions linked to cerebral small vessel disease, a condition associated with aging and accumulation of vascular risk factors.

The participants also had a Brain Care Score assessment to measure the impact of modifiable risk factors, such as lifestyle choices and social interactions. They were monitored for an average of 12 years, and the results were clear…

Compared to participants with longer leukocyte telomeres, people with the shortest leukocyte telomeres had:

• An 8% higher risk of stroke;
• A 19% greater risk of dementia;
• A 14% increase in late-life depression risk.

Overall, people with the shortest leukocyte telomere length had an 11% higher risk of developing at least one of these conditions than those with longer telomeres.

“Our findings suggest that, while leukocyte telomere length may be a well-known indicator of biological aging, it does not directly cause these age-related diseases,” says Dr. Tamara N. Kimball, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“Instead, leukocyte telomere length may act more as a reflective marker of underlying biological processes and cellular stress that precede these age-related diseases.”

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Heeding the signal

Dr. Kimball added “In a clinical setting, leukocyte telomere length could help identify people who may need more intensive monitoring or preventive measures. It could also guide personalized interventions, including lifestyle adjustments and therapeutic approaches, to enhance overall health.”

During the study, they saw how this could work…

The analysis found that in people with a low Brain Care Score, an indicator of unfavorable lifestyle choices, shorter leukocyte telomeres were associated with an 11% increased risk for stroke, dementia and late-life depression.

However, in people with a high Brain Care Score — an indicator of favorable lifestyle choices — shorter leukocyte telomeres were not linked with a higher risk of these age-related brain diseases.

“This suggests that adopting healthier lifestyles and improving modifiable risk factor profile may lower the negative effects of shorter leukocyte telomeres,” Kimball says. “In short, it is never too late to start taking better care of your brain.”

Lifestyle choices that can accelerate telomere shortening include smoking, lack of exercise, ultra-processed foods, stress and exposure to pollutants. So, if you want to protect your telomeres and your brain — avoid these behaviors.

Exercise, even just brisk walking is associated with longer telomeres. In one study, researchers doung it could translate to the equivalent of turning biological age back 16 years.

You can also add the following foods and nutrients to your diet, all of which help preserve the length of telomeres:

• Flaxseed, an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.
• Spinach, a source of folate.
• Vitamin D.
• Berries, which contain resveratrol and plenty of antioxidants such as vitamin C.
• Oats, loaded with fiber to prevent telomere-damaging insulin resistance.
• Magnesium, found in a wide range of plant-based foods, as well as fish, poultry and beef.

Sources:

Biomarker tied to premature cell aging may signal stroke, dementia, late-life depression — EurekAlert!

Five foods that protect your telomeres and extend your life — Ornish Living

 Magnesium — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The post A signal before stroke and dementia appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

One method measures biological age, or how old your cells are, by using so-called epigenetic clocks. These clocks track chemical changes in your DNA that occur naturally as you age.

Epigenetic clocks can better predict both your health and your lifespan in ways that go beyond chronological age, or the number of years you’ve lived.

There are a few conditions that can affect your epigenetic clock. Obesity, for one, can induce epigenetic changes that may accelerate tissue aging and make the liver age faster. Stress can also speed up the aging process as measured by your epigenetic clock.

Now, researchers have discovered there’s another condition that could send your epigenetic clock into hyperdrive…

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The aging effects of atherosclerosis

Since 2010, the PESA-CNIC-SANTANDER study has been analyzing the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in more than 4,000 Santander Bank employees. Subclinical atherosclerosis is atherosclerosis that hasn’t yet progressed to a symptomatic stage.

Dr. Enrique Lara Pezzi, an author on the study, says the research has helped them learn more about the causes and consequences of subclinical atherosclerosis and provide key information for more personalized treatment in the early disease stages.

But they also stumbled across a link between atherosclerosis and accelerated aging…

Employees participating in the joint venture were between the ages 40 to 54 at the start of the study, with no history of cardiovascular disease. Data on the progression of atherosclerosis was collected using advanced imaging techniques, detailed information on participants’ lifestyles and molecular omics studies. Omics is the comprehensive study of molecules such as DNA, RNA, metabolites and proteins.

During 3-year follow-up examinations, the researchers found that low-grade systemic inflammation spiked in participants with a high burden of atherosclerotic plaques, accelerating epigenetic aging in otherwise healthy adults.

In other words, long before the appearance of symptomatic cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis is harming our health.

Lead author and General Director at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Dr. Valentín Fuster emphasized the benefits of reducing low-grade chronic inflammation by adopting a healthy lifestyle or taking specific medications like cholesterol-lowering statins, “that can block, or at least slow, the transition from the subclinical phase of atherosclerosis to the appearance of severe cerebrovascular events, like myocardial infarction or stroke,” he says.

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Winding back your epigenetic clock

Lara Pezzi notes that it is possible to “slow down” our epigenetic aging. Luckily, the steps to slow your epigenetic clock are similar to the steps for lowering chronic inflammation in the body, which helps to protect against atherosclerosis.

Because science isn’t new to the inflammation theory of disease, much research has looked into how to tamp it down…

The Mediterranean diet, which focuses heavily on plant-based foods, healthy fats and fish, has been shown to reduce subclinical inflammation. That’s a great start.

But it gets better…

The fruits and vegetables consumed as part of the Mediterranean diet contain plenty of inflammation-fighting antioxidants called carotenes — bioactive compounds found in yellow, orange and green fruits and vegetables, that have the potential to check atherosclerosis. One study found the greater the concentration of carotenes in the blood, the lesser the atherosclerotic burden.

Add in a little exercise and you could be all set…

Studies have shown endurance sports like cycling, swimming and running and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) both slow signs of aging on the cellular level. If that seems like too much, don’t worry — even getting 20 minutes of moderate exercise a day can go a long way toward lowering inflammation.

Sources:

Atherosclerosis accelerates aging — EurekAlert!

Subclinical atherosclerosis and accelerated epigenetic age mediated by inflammation: a multi-omics study — European Heart Journal

The post The common condition aging you before you know you have it appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

We’re not necessarily talking about dementia here, but the brain ages along with all of your other parts and experiences changes that can lead to memory issues.

But research has zeroed in on one very important factor concerning how your blood vessels could be responsible for accelerating the age of your brain…

Here’s a summary of that research, along with a dozen ways to help slow down the rate at which your brain is aging…

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Blood vessel health is a must for a youthful brain

A group of researchers at Karolinska Institutet assessed MRI scans and AI tools to estimate the biological brain age in subjects who were 70 years old and had no cognitive impairment.

They also determined the “brain age gap” of each participant by subtracting their estimated biological brain age from their chronological age (according to birth date), while also cross-referencing their medical conditions and lifestyle habits.

From there they were able to determine among 739 participants that when it comes to keeping a young brain, vascular health is of the utmost importance.

In those with poor vascular health, brain aging was accelerated and was linked to a combination of conditions and factors including::

• Lack of physical activity
• Diabetes
• High cerebrovascular burden (conditions that impact blood flow in the brain)
• Stroke
• And inflammation

“A take-home from the study is that factors that adversely affect the blood vessels can also be related to older-looking brains, which shows how important it is to keep your blood vessels healthy, to protect your brain, by making sure, for instance, that your blood glucose level is kept stable,” says neurobiologist Anna Marseglia of the Karolinska Institute.

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A dozen ways to keep your brain young

Older brains tend to be at higher risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. And since there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, these findings, which suggest ways of protecting against cognitive decline, are hugely valuable.

The good folks at Harvard Health have put together a list of tried, true and researched ways to help keep a brain younger — and most of them will also have a positive impact on blood vessel health…

1. Mental stimulation. Mentally stimulating activities like reading, taking classes, or word and math puzzles develop neurological plasticity, building up a functional reserve that offers a hedge against future cell loss.
2. Physical exercise. Regular exercise adds to the number of tiny blood vessels that bring oxygen-rich blood to the brain region that’s responsible for thought. It also encourages development of new nerve cells and increases connections between them.
3. Diet. Studies have shown that the MIND diet can lower dementia risk as much as 20 percent. Similar to the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, unsaturated oils like olive oil, and plant-based protein sources.
4. Blood pressure. High blood pressure in midlife increases the risk of cognitive decline in your older years. Some of the other things on this list, like diet and exercise, will help keep your blood pressure under control. In fact, following this advice to get arteries like a 20-year-old, might make your brain almost as young.
5. Blood sugar. The Karolinska study found that managing blood glucose levels can help improve vascular health. Time-restricted eating (also called intermittent fasting) is successful for many people trying to control blood sugar. If your blood sugar is consistently high, consult your doctor.
6. Cholesterol. High levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol are associated with an increased risk of dementia. But diet, exercise, and weight control will go a long way toward improving cholesterol levels.
7. Tobacco … avoiding it, of course. Stay away from tobacco in all its forms to improve your vascular health.
8. Alcohol. Excessive drinking has long been linked to dementia. In fact, the Surgeon General has recently called for warning labels on alcohol, just like the ones on cigarettes. If you do drink, make it an occasional thing, not an everyday habit.
9. Emotional well-being. If you’re depressed or sleep-deprived, your cognitive performance will suffer. But anger is especially harmful to vascular health. It’s important to create habits that help manage strong emotions.
10. Social ties. Strong social ties have been associated with a lower risk of dementia, as well as lower blood pressure and longer life expectancy.
11. Avoid head injuries. One fall may not make you susceptible to cognitive decline, but repeated injuries can.
12. Low-dose aspirin. A study from researchers at Rush University Medical Center found that aspirin could help reduce brain plaques that contribute to Alzheimer’s. If you’re interested, check with your doctor to see if this would benefit you. If aspirin isn’t for you, consider supplementing phosphatidylserine.

Sources:

Poor vascular health accelerates brain aging — Science Daily

Biological brain age and resilience in cognitively unimpaired 70-year-old individuals — Alzheimer’s and Dementia

12 ways to keep your brain young — Harvard Medical School

The post How your blood vessels can accelerate your brain’s age appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

We’ve been asking that question for a while. And while alcohol does have some health benefits, so far the evidence tips the scale toward “foe.”

Alcohol consumption is associated with higher risk of atrial fibrillation, dementia, and seven different types of cancer. It’s also been linked with accelerated muscle loss and aging of the brain.

Now there’s another reason to avoid alcohol — especially certain kinds…

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Aging and alcohol: Pick your poison

I don’t know anyone who isn’t interested in slowing the pace at which they age.

But if you’re doing all the right things — exercising, eating right and taking anti-aging supplements — your drinking habits could undo all of it…

A team of U.S.-based investigators analyzed DNA methylation levels in blood samples of participants enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. The analysis included participants with alcohol consumption and methylation data at examination year 15 and year 20. DNA methylation is a chemical modification that can alter gene expression.

Using this data, the researchers tracked four measures of epigenetic aging:

• intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration is associated with cell-intrinsic aging;
• extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration is connected with immunological aging;
• PhenoAge acceleration is linked with comorbidities and physical function;
• GrimAge acceleration is associated with lifespan and measures risk of mortality by analyzing positions on the DNA where methyl groups change with age.

Overall, the investigators found a link between cumulative consumption of liquor and total alcohol and GrimAge acceleration.

The number of days of binge drinking was also associated with GrimAge acceleration. Binge drinking was defined as consuming more than five drinks in one setting.

In short, liquor and total alcohol consumption, as well as binge drinking, all speed up biological aging.

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Liquor and total alcohol consumption were associated with a 0.31-year and 0.12-year greater GrimAge acceleration, respectively, per additional five alcohol years. That’s roughly 3.7 months and 1.4 months, respectively. Binge drinking was connected with a 1.38-year higher GrimAge acceleration

The researchers also identified noticeable differences between chronological age and cumulative beer and total alcohol consumption with GrimAge acceleration. Compared to older participants, younger participants showed greater biological aging.

By contrast, beer and wine consumption had marginal and no associations with GrimAge acceleration, respectively.

“Our findings provide novel insight into the association between cumulative alcohol-specific consumption on biological aging, illustrating the type of alcohol consumed may impact the aging process differently,” says Dr. Drew Nannini, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University and lead author of the study.

Beer and wine, aging and responsible drinking

Given the results of this study, if you do decide to continue drinking, you may want to be especially careful when consuming hard liquor. While aging an additional 3.7 months over 5 years of consumption may not seem like a lot, it does add up. And you should avoid binge drinking at all costs, since that aged participants far faster than any other form of consumption.

It’s probably best to stick to modest amounts of beer and wine for the occasional drink. Or better yet, try one of the many nonalcoholic beer or wine options now available at most supermarkets and liquor stores. They can satisfy your craving without the alcohol-related risks and still provide a powerful flavonoid linked to improving metabolic syndrome.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults who choose to drink should do so in moderation. That means limiting alcohol to one drink or less daily for women or two drinks or less daily for men.

Sources:

1. Longtime Alcohol Consumption Speeds Up Biological Aging — Northwestern Medicine

2. Alcohol consumption and epigenetic age acceleration in young adults — Aging

3. Methylation — National Human Genome Research Institute

The post How alcohol speeds aging (and which drinks are worse) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Known as Life’s Essential 8, it is a checklist of eight lifestyle behaviors (like exercise) and health factors (like controlling cholesterol) that are key factors for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health.

The first study using this new measurement tool showed that heart health in the United States is less than ideal, with 80 percent scoring at a low or moderate level.

Not great news.

And while it may seem like a no-brainer, another look at what happens when Life’s Essential 8 is adhered to may offer just the incentive we all need to get serious about our heart health…

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A healthy heart can make you six years younger

According to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023, having optimal cardiovascular health may slow the pace of biological aging.

Specifically, a high heart health score appears to slow biological aging and potentially stave off age-related diseases — essentially extending lifespan.

That’s the finding of researchers who took a close look at the association between heart and brain health — as measured by the Life’s Essential 8 checklist — and the biological aging process.

To start, the researchers compared the chronological (actual) age of each participant with their phenotypic age.

Phenotypic age is a measure of age based on the results of nine blood markers for metabolism, inflammation and organ function, including glucose, C-reactive protein, and creatinine.

They then calculated the subjects’ phenotypic age acceleration — or the difference between one’s phenotypic age and actual age. A higher phenotypic age acceleration indicates faster biological aging.

Participants with the highest cardiovascular health scores were, on average, biologically six years younger than their chronological age.

“We found that higher cardiovascular health is associated with decelerated biological aging, as measured by phenotypic age.

“We also found a dose-dependent association — as heart health goes up, biological aging goes down,” says study senior author Dr. Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

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8 steps that can help you age slower

“Greater adherence to all Life’s Essential 8 metrics and improving your cardiovascular health can slow down your body’s aging process and have a lot of benefits down the line. Reduced biologic aging is not just associated with lower risk of chronic disease such as heart disease, it is also associated with longer life and lower risk of death,” Makarem said.

If you’d like to get on board, check out Life’s Essential 8. These key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health consist of health behaviors (HB) and health factors (HF) that are modifiable and if improved, can reduce the risk for heart disease, stroke and other major health problems.

Life’s Essential 8 includes:

• Eat Better (HB)
• Be More Active (HB)
• Quit Tobacco (HB)
• Get Healthy Sleep (HB)
• Manage Weight (HF)
• Control Cholesterol (HF)
• Manage Blood Sugar (HF)
• Manage Blood Pressure (HF)

Print out this list and post it on your fridge. Find your weak spot and focus on improving it first. For me, that’s “Be More Active.”

That means I need to make an effort to practice a couple of hours of moderate to vigorous exercise every week. If you need tips on how to achieve that or any of the other recommendations on the list, just visit their site.

Nothing fancy or hard to follow — just some support in getting started and continuing along a path that could help you age slower and healthier!

Sources:

Heart Health Linked to Slower Aging — Neuroscience News

Life’s Essential 8 — American Heart Association

Only 1 in 5 people in the U.S. has optimal heart health — Eureka Alert

The post 8 steps to slow aging as much as six years appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet, many of the choices we make each day actually accelerate aging, including choices like skipping out on exercise and not getting enough sleep.

However, as bad as these are, when it comes to sending our biological clocks into overdrive, the foods we eat could be the worst offenders.

That’s because according to a massive research study out of Italy, eating a certain type of food can make you biologically older than your actual chronological age.

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Anything but natural

The study compared food frequency questionnaires of over 22,000 participants to over thirty different blood biomarkers that measure biological age. Unlike chronological age which is calculated exclusively by the date of your birth, biological age reflects the actual conditions inside your body, including those of your organs, tissues and systems.

Basically, biological aging is your body’s “internal clock”, which can tick faster or slower than the years marked on the calendar, because it reflects the true state of your health — and whether it’s sped up your internal clock.

Specifically, the researchers set out to determine how each participant’s consumption of ultra-processed foods affected their biological aging.

So what are ultra-processed foods?

The easiest way to think of them is as foods that are made in part or entirely with substances you wouldn’t normally find in your kitchen. This could be things like hydrolysed proteins, maltodextrins, hydrogenated fats, as well as dyes, preservatives, anticaking agents, flavor enhancers and artificial sweeteners.

Examples of ultra-processed foods include obvious ones like packaged snacks and sugary drinks. But they can also be foods that seem harmless like the sandwich bread you buy at the grocery store, meat alternatives, and even fruit yogurts and some breakfast cereals.

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Aging accelerated

Unfortunately, these foods it turns out that when it comes to health and longevity, these foods are anything but harmless…

In fact, the study showed that people who ate high levels of ultra-processed foods experienced a significant acceleration of their biological aging.

“Our data show that a high consumption of ultra-processed foods not only has a negative impact on health in general, but could also accelerate aging itself, suggesting a connection that goes beyond the poor nutritional quality of these foods,” said lead researcher, Simona Esposito.

Although this makes it clear that ultra-processed foods and healthy aging simply don’t go together, the exact mechanisms of why these foods are so harmful to our health aren’t quite as clear.

However, nutritional epidemiologist, Marialaura Bonaccio, explains it this way, “Besides being nutritionally inadequate, being rich in sugars, salt and saturated or trans fats, these foods undergo intense industrial processing that actually alters their food matrix, with the consequent loss of nutrients and fiber. This can have important consequences for a series of physiological functions, including glucose metabolism, and the composition and functionality of the gut microbiota. Also, these products are often wrapped in plastic packaging, thus becoming vehicles of substances toxic to the body”.

In other words, these foods, which are anything but natural, are made worse by the toxic packaging they come in, setting off a cascade of health problems in our bodies and accelerating the ticking of our biological clocks.

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Choices for healthier aging

The good news?

It’s not that hard to avoid the foods that accelerate aging.

Foods to skip include:

• White foods – White breads, pastries, pasta, rice and sugar should be a hard pass.
• Sandwich and breakfast meats – Ultra-processed meats are not typically found in the butcher section of the grocery store. They look very different from their original meat source and include lunch meat, hotdogs, bacon, sausage, jerky, canned meat and any other meat that has been processed to change its shape, flavor and freshness.
• Sweetened beverages – Cut out sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages, including soda, energy drinks, sweet tea and fruit juice.
• Packaged, ready-to-eat foods – Packaged snacks and ready-to-eat meals are loaded with unnatural ingredients and wrapped in plastics that can leach into your body.

And if you really want to turn back the clock, try these six secrets to exceptional aging that studies have proven work.

Sources:

High consumption of ultra-processed foods linked to accelerated biological aging — EurekAlert!

The post Foods that send aging into overdrive appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s information that can let you know if your aging is accelerated and currently headed towards earlier-than-usual functional decline and chronic disease (and need to change your ways) — or if you’ve nailed down healthy living so well that your norm is much younger than your peers.

A few clues about how that’s going can be measured by assessing grip strength, walking speed and gait.

But a Mayo Clinic study has demonstrated a test they say is a more telltale measure of how fast we’re aging than any of those…

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How long can you stand on one leg?

In their study, forty healthy, independent people over 50 underwent walking, balance, grip strength and knee strength tests. Half of the participants were under 65, while the other half were 65 and older.

A custom-made device was used to measure grip. To measure knee strength, participants were in a seated position and were asked to extend their knees as forcefully as possible.

To assess gait, participants walked back and forth on a level walkway at their own pace.

Grip strength decreased at a faster rate than knee strength, making it a better predictor of aging than other strength measures.

But none of these were as accurate a predictor of aging as balance.

Poor balance really shows how fast you’re aging

To test balance, participants were asked to stand in a few different situations:

• On both feet with eyes open
• On both feet with eyes closed
• On their non-dominant leg with eyes open
• On their dominant leg with eyes open

They tried to stand in each of these positions for thirty seconds.

Standing on one leg — specifically the nondominant leg — revealed the highest rate of decline with age.

So, if you’re 50 or over, or are experiencing balance issues like I am, it’s time to take control.

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How to improve your balance

I wrote about a previous study that also produced compelling evidence that poor balance is a sure sign of a shorter life. This study gave more insight into why that is…

“Balance is an important measure because, in addition to muscle strength, it requires input from vision, the vestibular system and the somatosensory systems,” says Kenton Kaufman, Ph.D., senior author of the study and director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Mayo Clinic.

“Changes in balance are noteworthy. If you have poor balance, you’re at risk of falling, whether or not you’re moving. Falls are a severe health risk with serious consequences.”

Dr. Kaufman says people can take steps to train their balance. For example, by standing on one leg, you can train yourself to coordinate your muscle and vestibular responses to maintain correct balance. If you can stand on one leg for 30 seconds, you are doing well, he says.

Here are a few other ways to get better balance…

Tai Chi. Studies show that the gentle, meditative movements of tai chi can help older adults improve balance. A good tai chi teacher can show you the precise movements that will offer you more stability.

Heel-to-toe walk. Here’s one you can do on your own. Walk slowly in a straight line, touching your heel to the opposite foot’s toe as you go. Go about 20 paces, using a wall for support if you feel unsteady.

Toe stand. Also known as heel raises, this exercise can strengthen your calf and ankle muscles. With feet shoulder-width apart, raise up on your tiptoes and hold there for one second before lowering. Repeat these 10 to 15 times.

Don’t wait to get started. Dr. Kaufman added“If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you use it, you maintain it.”

Sources:

What standing on one leg can tell you: Biological age — Science Daily

Age-related changes in gait, balance, and strength parameters: A cross-sectional study — PLOS One

The post What standing on one leg reveals about aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s where people travel abroad to receive treatment for various reasons, but the main attraction is the low cost of procedures they’d pay much more for in the U.S. Cosmetic medical tourism is immensely popular for that reason

I’ve heard good and bad things about medical tourism, and though it’s not my cup of tea, another travel-related benefit certainly is…

It’s called travel therapy and it could serve as a groundbreaking anti-aging intervention — no surgery, injections or hospital stay required.

According to researchers from Edith Cowan University, it could be the best way to defy premature aging…

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Slowing the trend toward disorder and death

For the first time, researchers have applied the theory of entropy to tourism and health benefits that could slow aging.

Scientists classify entropy as the general trend of the universe towards death and disorder. In humans, that translates to aging.

“Ageing, as a process, is irreversible. While it can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down,” says lead researcher Fangli Hu.

She and her team believe travel could slow aging by triggering changes that help the body sustain a low-entropy state.

That’s because travel and exposure to new surroundings and relaxing activities positively influence metabolic activities and may also trigger an adaptive immune system response.

That latter part is a big deal because with age, our adaptive immune response declines — along with the atrophy of the thymus, a gland that supplies immune cells when we’re young.

“Put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient. Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning.

“Leisurely travel activities might help alleviate chronic stress, dampen over-activation of the immune system and encourage normal functioning of the self-defense system. Engaging in recreation potentially releases tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints. This relief helps maintain the body’s metabolic balance and increases the anti-wear-and-tear system’s effectiveness. Organs and tissues can then remain in a low-entropy state.”

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Take a trip to slow aging — or try these anti-aging practices

So if you want a youthful boost, maybe a vacation is just what the doctor ordered! If you’ve been putting it off, you’ve got a great reason to make your plans now.

If travel abroad or to a resort isn’t possible, there are plenty of destinations right here in the U.S. and most likely, even in your home state, that could help you relax and trigger a low-entropy state the researchers mentioned.  

If travel isn’t possible, exercise could kick things into gear. The researchers noted the physical activities of travel such as walking, hiking, climbing or cycling, promote a low-entropy state.

And if you can handle intense exercise, you could also “wake up” your thymus. A couple of years ago, researchers found that 80-year-old endurance cyclists were producing the same level of T-cells as adults in their 20s!

Reducing oxidative damage can also help. Oxidative stress can suppress your T-cell response, which impairs the adaptive immune response. At the same time, reduced oxidative damage at the cellular level means slower biological aging.

The nutrient resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, helped spearhead research into anti-aging because of its effects against oxidative stress. Muscadine grapes have high levels of resveratrol and of course, you can find the anti-aging antioxidant in supplement form.

Sources:

Travel could be the best defense against aging — ScienceDaily

The post These scientists say travel could help us defy aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Other times, the research just adds to the pile of proof that already exists about something.

This one is the latter.

Over the years I’ve read and written about the dangers of sugar. Research has revealed that sugar…

• increases the risk of dying with heart disease, per Harvard
• makes tumors more aggressive
• encourages your body to produce kidney stones

… just to name a few.

So it didn’t surprise me in the least to hear that cutting out sugar helps slow your body’s aging process.

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Biological vs chronological age: what’s the difference?

We have our actual age — the number of years we’ve been alive — and then we have our biological age, which in simple terms is the wear and tear on cells and organs.

Your healthspan is more than just how many years you live. It’s the length of time you get to live a healthy, disease-free, productive life.

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise by now that eating sugar shortens your healthy years on this earth.

Now we know one way that does that is interfering with how your body ages…

Sugars impact on your body’s rate of aging

“We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor,” says UC San Francisco professor Dr. Elissa Epel. 

“Now we know that accelerated epigenetic aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.” 

In other words, sugars cause diseases, but the real cause of those diseases is sugar’s impact on the body’s rate of aging.

The researchers scored the diets of 342 women, both Black and white, against a measure they created called the “Epigenetic Nutrient Index (ENI)”, which is based on nutrients (not foods) that have been linked to anti-oxidative or anti-inflammatory processes and DNA maintenance and repair.

These include Vitamins A, C, B12 and E, folate, selenium, magnesium, dietary fiber and isoflavones.  

They also scored their diets to see how they compared to a Mediterranean-style diet rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant foods and then to a diet linked to lower risk for chronic disease.  

Sticking to any of these diets was significantly associated with lower epigenetic age — the degree of aging based on patterns of DNA methylation (a biological process that helps determine how quickly the aging process moves along).

But the addition of sugar sped everything up…

This study found that eating foods with added sugar was associated with accelerated biological aging — even when someone ate an otherwise healthy diet.

In other words, eating too much sugar can undo the benefits of sticking to an otherwise healthy diet, sabotaging all your efforts toward a long healthy life.

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Cutting down on sugar: where to start

Added sugars are just that. They are added to increase the sweetness of foods or drinks, usually at very high amounts, and almost always in processed foods. That’s why eating fruits or vegetables that are on the naturally sweet side doesn’t have the deleterious effects that added sugars do.

Obviously, reducing sugary treats, like ice cream, cake and cookies is the easiest place to start.

But there are plenty of sneaky sources of sugar that could have you making all those other sacrifices and still getting too much. Here are some of the sneakiest according to the National Kidney Foundation:

Condiments: Ketchup, sweet pickle relish and barbeque sauce may have as much as 4-5 grams of sugar per each 1 tablespoon serving.

Breakfast cereals: Most cereals can contain as much as 32-40 grams of sugar in just a ½ cup serving! Some healthier options may take that down to 4-10 grams per serving.

White bread: Not only is white bread stripped of whole wheat grain and almost all of its fiber and nutritional value, it contains high levels of sugar that spike glucose levels.

High Fructose Syrup: Because it’s so cheap, processed food manufacturers love it. You’ll find it in baked goods, but even in less obvious places, including pizza, bread, salad dressing and one you’d think is healthy — yogurt. One tablespoon of HFCS contains over 14 grams of sugar.

Soft drinks: Yes, you already know they are full of sugar, but giving up this one thing can make a huge dent in your sugar consumption. One soft drink has about seven teaspoons of sugar! That’s probably why a 30-year study recently named sodas and processed meat as the 2 worst ultraprocessed foods for our health.

Milk: You can drink about 12 grams of sugar in a glass of dairy whole milk. Some brands of whole milk that are ultraprocessed and ultrafiltered contain half that amount — and more protein.

Lean towards fresh fruits and vegetables (sweet potatoes are one of my favorites). They will be sweet but have the fiber your body needs to process the natural sugars.

But whatever you do, avoid artificial sweeteners and alternative sweeteners, like xylitol and erythritol that have been linked to blood clots.

Sources:

Healthy diet with less sugar is linked to younger biological age — Eureka Alert

Essential Nutrients, Added Sugar Intake, and Epigenetic Age in Midlife Black and White Women: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program — JAMA Network

5 Sneaky Sources of Sugar — National Kidney Foundation

Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study — CNN

The post Accelerated aging: the downside of sugar you can slow appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Lines around the mouth, jowls, a sagging neck and wrinkles — including crow’s feet, the infamous “11” between the brows and horizontal lines across the forehead — can get to those of us even with the most positive outlook on aging.

No wonder anti-aging creams and serums line store shelves, while medi spas have popped up on every corner offering microneedling, Botox and fillers that promise to bring back that youthful plumpness. And for those who want a total overhaul, plastic surgery is always an option.

The downside to all this? It’s invasive and expensive. You’ve got to maintain the use of Botox or fillers once you’ve started — or you end up back at square one within a matter of months.

Luckily, there may be one thing you can do to turn back the clock on your appearance that involves zero knives or needles — and doesn’t cost a cent…

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Give your face a workout

Your face is made up of layers of skin, fat and muscle that sit on top of your skull. When you start aging, the pads of fat that shape your face and give it that youthful fullness begin to thin and atrophy, causing it to sag.

There’s no natural means of re-plumping these fat pads. However, there is a way you can strengthen the muscles under the pads so that areas of the face might appear plumper and firmer.

One Northwestern University study showed that women who regularly practiced 30 minutes of 32 different facial exercises subtracted three years from their appearance after just 20 weeks. Their upper and lower cheeks were noticeably fuller, and the women said they noticed improvements in every area of their face.

It makes sense. But just like pumping up your biceps, it takes consistency.

Many dermatologists caution there are limits to what “face yoga” can do for appearance —and of course, they’d rather you buy into what they offer.

However, according to Harvard Health Publishing, there are a couple of specific areas where these exercises can be of benefit:

• Reducing the appearance of thick scars. Using facial exercises that include stretching and movement could loosen up and lessen the appearance of a tight scar.
• Improving gravity-related fat loss. Facial exercises could help improve facial muscle tone and help keep the fat in the face from drooping with the pull of gravity. However, the change is likely to be subtle and far less than accomplished by cosmetic means such as dermal fillers.

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How to do facial exercise

The exercises done by the women in the Northwestern study were recommended by Happy Face Yoga founder Gary Sikorski. Here are just a few for you to try (links to videos are included):

• For the cheeks: First, smile without showing your teeth. Then, roll your lips outward in a sort of pursed expression. This will make you want to stop smiling, but keep trying to smile with the corners of your mouth so that you’re pushing your cheek muscles upward. Next, press a finger at the corner of your lips on either side and slowly and firmly slide them up toward your cheekbones. When you get to the top of the cheekbone, continue to press firmly for 20 seconds.
• For the jawline: First, put your hands at the base of your neck. Then, raise your chin and tilt your head back slightly. Extend your lower jaw, push the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth and smile. You should feel your neck muscles tighten. Hold for 30 seconds.
• For wrinkles: First, put three fingers from each hand between your eyebrows. Then, press down and pull up so you’re lifting your eyebrows. Stretch the eyebrows apart, then frown so that they come down. With your fingers still firmly pushing down on your forehead, slide your eyebrows in opposite directions toward either side of your head. Do 10 repetitions of the whole series.

You shouldn’t expect them to see dramatic results, but if you’re consistent, you can get a lift that helps you feel you’re putting your best face forward.

What else can you do?

• Exercise your body too: Research a few years ago by McMaster’s University found people (in their 40s) who frequently exercised, had skin more comparable to 20-30-year-olds than to others the same age. Specifically, they had thicker dermis layers with greater elasticity.
• Drink white tea: This tea contains more catechins than most other teas. Catechins prevent free radicals from breaking down elastin and collagen. Elastin keeps skin from sagging and collagen supports skin’s elasticity. This is beneficial against sagging and wrinkling.
• Reduce sugary foods: Processed sugars trigger the release of inflammatory messengers called cytokines. These break down collagen and elastin.
• Eat more of these 6 foods that increase collagen production.

Sources:

Association of Facial Exercise With the Appearance of Aging — JAMA Dermatology

Does your face need a workout? — Harvard Health Publishing

Do face exercises to slim your face work, or is it just another overhyped beauty trend? — Today

The post What facial exercise can and can’t do for these signs of aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to Stanford researchers, specific biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s that explain what’s happening to our bodies to make us feel this way.

In other words, instead of gradually aging year over year, we experience significant age-related changes during two specific times in our lives.

Here’s what’s happening and why — and what you might do to lessen the effects…

How and when your body ages the most

Using years of data from 108 people, as well as blood and other biological samples, researchers were able to identify and follow age-related changes in more than 135,000 different molecules and microbes, for a total of nearly 250 billion distinct data points.

This is how they learned that — in more than 80 percent of the molecules in the human body — major changes happen at two distinct periods of life: your mid-40s and your early 60’s.

Specifically, in our 40s, significant changes occur in the number of molecules available to metabolize alcohol, caffeine and fats (think mid-life belly bulge!) — as well as those related to the development of heart disease.

During this time we also experience a major reduction in molecules that keep our skin and muscles strong and healthy.

Then, when our 60s roll around, changes occur related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, and an increase in inflammatory cytokines that weaken the immune system.

On top of more heart-related changes, kidney function can begin to suffer. No wonder older adults are prone to type 2 diabetes, and heart and kidney disease.

So, if you’ve passed 40 or 60 and feel like your best days are behind you — you’re not the only one. But while science is just now figuring out the mechanics of aging, an unsung hero of the nutritional world could help you “feel like” you’ve turned back the clock…

Combat the ‘aging decades’

Back in the 1970s, the amino acid dimethylglycine, called DMG for short, was used by athletes to give them a performance edge. But DMG turned out to be much more than a performance enhancer…

Doctors began getting feedback from patients that it provided relief for chronic joint pain, restored concentration and focus, got their cholesterol and triglyceride levels back in check — and many other age-related symptoms.

That’s when researchers started digging and backing up these claims. They found…

DMG supports heart health. Research from Clemson University showed that DMG supports the heart and blood vessels by slowing the rate of degeneration and supporting oxygen function.

DMG supports immune health. Research in The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine showed that DMG acted as an immune modulator, enhancing the immune system’s ability to respond to foreign invaders by boosting the production of T-cells, B-cells and macrophages to guard against infection.

DMG and cognition. Based on testimonies found in The Townsend Letter, alternative health practitioners from all over have shared that DMG boosts brain function including memory, cognition and focus.

Overall, it’s involved in at least 41 different processes in your body and is needed by every single cell. Your body can’t create certain hormones, neurotransmitters or even DNA without it.

I could go on and on about DMG’s potential for relieving inflammation, reducing oxidative damage, supporting detoxification and healthy circulation — and more. But I think by now you get my point: It could be a valuable tool in the fight against the ravages of aging.

DMG is an essential amino acid, meaning our bodies can make it. You have to get it through your diet, from foods like beans, cereal grains, brown rice, pumpkin seeds and liver. But unless you get ample amounts of these foods daily, to get the therapeutic amount your body needs, consider supplementing.

Sources:

Massive biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s, Stanford Medicine researchers find – EurekAlert!

The post Feel like your body fell apart after 40? Here’s why appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

After all, who wouldn’t want to live longer, healthier and just plain better?

However, it turns out that all this time, we may have been looking for the secret to longevity in the wrong place.

That’s because according to groundbreaking research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the fountain of youth may have been inside our own bodies all this time.

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Tweaking T cells to turn back time

So what is the real fountain of youth?

According to the researchers, our very own T cells.

T cells are a type of white blood cells that play a central role in our immune system. And it turns out that they can be turned into what scientists call a “living drug” to halt the ravages of time.

Here’s how it works…

T cells are taken from a patient’s own blood and are then altered in the lab by adding a gene for a receptor (called a chimeric antigen receptor or CAR).

The new CAR T cells are then injected into the body, where they go to work eliminating senescent cells.

Those are cells that have stopped replicating and instead build up in the body causing harmful inflammation that destroys immune health and speeds up aging. In fact, senescent cells are thought to be responsible for many of the diseases we grapple with later in life.

The Cold Spring Harbor researchers found that when CAR T cells were injected into mice, they not only gobbled up senescent cells like Pac-Man, they allowed the mice to live healthier lives.

Mice that were given the altered T cells:

• Maintained a lower body weight
• Benefitted from an improved metabolism
• Had a higher glucose tolerance
• Stayed more active

And all of those benefits came without any of the tissue damage or toxicity you would find with traditional drugs.

“If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate. If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this,” said lead researcher, Corina Amor Vegas.

And the researchers say that just a single dose of CAR T cells can have lifelong effects, protecting against issues that come with aging like diabetes and obesity, since the cells are able to persist in the body for long periods.

So it seems as if the fountain of youth might truly be within our reach — at least it could be if the treatment receives FDA approval.

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Send senescent cells packing

Of course, you don’t have to wait for that to happen to start turning back the clock toward a longer, healthier life.

There are ways to support the mechanisms in your body tied to healthier aging — instead of just leaving it to chance — that can make it harder for those senescent cells to steal your youth and vitality, including:

• PQQ – Known as the ‘longevity nutrient’, PQQ lowers the risk of age-related ailments by improving the function of the mitochondria.
• CoQ10 – Without adequate CoQ10, mitochondria can’t function as they should, and aging accelerates. Research has shown CoQ10 is capable of reviving ailing mitochondria to restore lost function and slow aging. Be aware this is the nutrient statins can lower.
• Resveratrol – Found in the skin of grapes and dark chocolate, resveratrol helps rejuvenate senescent cells, turning back the clock so they behave like youthful cells again.
• Grape seed extract – A polyphenol in grape seeds known as procyanidin C1, or PCC1, has been shown to significantly extend both the healthspan and lifespan of old mice by promoting the death of senescent cells.
• Fisetin – This compound found in fruits like strawberries and apples is a senotherapeutic agent. This means fisetin is capable of specifically targeting only the senescent cells in the damaged tissue to help rein in the damage and slow aging.

Sources:

The fountain of youth is … a T cell? – EurekAlert!

The post This ‘living drug’ could be the real fountain of youth appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s because according to leading dermatologists, relaxing in the sun while sipping margarita could lead to an unexpected skin risk.

Known as phytophotodermatitis, or more commonly, “margarita burn,” this condition is not only similar to poison ivy but it can go so far as to leave your skin blistered.

So before you enjoy your margarita poolside or at the beach, here’s what you need to know to keep your skin safe…

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Margarita burn: a citrusy chemical reaction

Phytophotodermatitis can be thought of as a chemical reaction driven by the combination of citrus and UV exposure.

Chemical compounds, known as furocoumarins or furanocoumarins, in the citrus act as a photosensitizer — which makes your skin more susceptible to the damage the sun’s UV rays are capable of.

This allows UVA exposure to weaken the skin which in turn activates the immune system, making your skin even more sensitive to irritation. The effect is almost allergy-like.

As Raman Madan, MD, a dermatologist with Northwell Health in Glen Cove, New York, explains, “It can happen after patients come in contact with certain plants that can make your skin a little bit more sensitive to the sun. So when the UVA [ultraviolet-A] rays hit the skin, you basically can develop a rash that can look almost like poison ivy on your skin.”

And if you think that you’ll be fine as long as you don’t spend hours basking in the sun, think again.

According to Dr. Madan, the reaction can happen in as little as five minutes. You just might not see the visible effects for 24 to 72 hours.

The good news is that once the rash presents, it usually self-resolves in another two to three days.

However, although phytophotodermatitis can go away on its own, it’s not unusual to seek a doctor’s care, even for mild cases. Treatment for mild conditions includes topical corticosteroids and anti-inflammatories. For more severe cases antibiotics or oral steroids are used.

In addition to citrus plants, other offenders that can cause you to develop a rash when combined with UV exposure are fennel, celery and figs that also produce those furocoumarins.

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An extra level of skin protection

So, if you want to enjoy a margarita or any of the furocoumarin-containing foods, just be sure to enjoy them in the shade.

And if you’d like to take it a step further, why not put the foods in your kitchen that do the exact opposite?

Science has shown several foods provide skin protection from UV rays, rather than sensitizing it. Some of the best include:

#1 – Grapes

Grapes are packed with resveratrol, the antioxidant that launched anti-aging research, thanks to its association with the French Paradox. It’s a powerhouse that can actually make old cells new again.

Even better, study after study has proven that eating grapes and/or taking grape seed extract protects against UV skin damage, increases resistance to sunburn and reduces cellular markers of UV damage.

#2 – Cocoa

Cocoa is not only a tasty treat. It’s packed with powerful flavonols. So it’s no wonder that research has demonstrated that drinking cocoa can help reduce skin sensitivity to UV by 15 percent after six weeks and 25 percent after 12 weeks.

#3 – Green tea

Green tea sourced from unfermented leaves is rich in polyphenols, known as catechins. Scientists have found that applying a topical extract of green teak guards the skin against UVB rays while offering broad-spectrum protection.

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#4 – Sweet potatoes and carrots

Foods rich in beta-carotenes provide high levels of antioxidants, along with vitamin A. Research has shown that supplementing beta-carotene supports the skin’s structure and can provide moderate UV protection.

#5 – Green leafy vegetables

Green leafy vegetables offer their own potent carotenoids, known as lutein and zeaxanthin. This duo guards against skin aging and damage by blocking cell loss and elastin expression in connective tissue cells that have been exposed to UV rays. They’re also found in carrots, pumpkin, grapes and some berries.

#6 – Tomatoes

Tomatoes are that beautiful, juicy red thanks to a pigment known as lycopene. But it does more than just offer a bright color to this fruit. It also has been shown to have sun-protective activity in the skin.

These foods won’t take the place of sensible sun protection practices, like sunscreen, but they could offer an extra layer of protection that goes beyond the moment by fighting the culprit responsible for 90 percent of skin aging — the sun.

Sources:

THE ANTIOXIDANT THAT COMBATS AGING AND MAKES OLD CELLS NEW AGAIN – Easy Health Options

The Unexpected Skin Risk of Summer Margaritas by the Pool – MEDPAGE TODAY

What’s New In Natural Compounds For Photoprotection? — MD Edge Dermatology

The post Margarita burn: The risk to watch for appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Free radicals are produced by the body’s processes and by environmental elements that damage cells — prematurely aging us before our time.

The most damaging process that increases illness and accelerates aging is oxidation.

Think of oxidation like rust…

Ever notice a car in front of you at a traffic light with a rusted muffler? A muffler increases the performance and endurance of a car’s engine by filtering the exhaust system.

But that job exposes the muffler to constant condensation. If the muffler isn’t maintained properly — it rusts. And if the rust isn’t addressed, the problems only get worse…

That’s because what seems to be a “cosmetic” issue is actually an outward sign that the exhaust system has begun to deteriorate.

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The most destructive source of oxidation

Chronological skin aging can’t be helped. However, photoaging, which accelerates the process can.

Photoaging refers to sun exposure — and dermatologists estimate it’s responsible for about 80-90 percent of premature aging.

That’s because overexposure to UV radiation from the sun’s rays increases the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) — a specific type of free radical that damages the main proteins responsible for keeping your skin firm and smooth: collagen and elastin. 

The effect of oxidation on your skin is called photoaging. Signs of it include sagging skin, hyperpigmentation and wrinkles — all the things that can make you appear older than your years.

If sunscreen were the answer, you wouldn’t be reading this. But sunscreens contain chemicals with hormone-disrupting properties that seep through your skin into your bloodstream — wreaking their own kind of havoc.

But as Harvard experts say, even though there’s no escaping free radicals, antioxidants are the natural “off” switch to break their destructive chain reaction. Antioxidants scavenge the body, hunting down these free radicals and neutralizing them.

Better yet, antioxidants provide free radical protection from the inside out by minimizing the cell damage that results in those visible signs of premature aging.

And though it’s important to continue to practice sensible sun protection, animal and human studies have shown that when ingested, certain micronutrients are distributed to the skin where they may provide an additional layer of protection from UV damage.

If you’re looking to get an extra boost of defense against skin aging, start by adding these functional foods and powerful antioxidants to your daily diet…

Phenolics/polyphenol antioxidants

Polyphenols belong to a class of phytonutrients known as phenolics. Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants; in fact, their effect appears to be greater than that of another strong antioxidant, vitamin C.

High concentrations of polyphenols are found in colorful fruits and vegetables including berries, rich greens like broccoli and spinach, yellow onion, red pepper, carrot and cabbage. Large amounts of phenolics can also be found in cocoa, tea, red wine and grape seed extract — foods that have specifically demonstrated photo-protective properties that have caught the attention of researchers…

Grapes are rich in resveratrol, an antioxidant that spearheaded antiaging research, and has been shown to make old cells new again. But that’s not all the power they pack…

About 60 to 70 percent of the polyphenols in grapes are found in their seeds. Numerous studies have found that eating grapes and/or taking grape seed extract protects against UV skin damage, increases resistance to sunburn and reduces cellular markers of UV damage.

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This is likely due to the ability of an especially potent polyphenol compound to slow down the formation of destructive ROS free radicals that form in skin cells after UV exposure: Proanthocyanidins found in pine bark, grape seed, and other plant sources may increase the amount of ultraviolet rays necessary to cause sunburn.

Glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant — and when we consume grape seed extract the amount of glutathione in the body increases significantly. Glutathione is single-handedly the one thing ROS and free radicals don’t stand a chance against, but with age our bodies produce less and less of it naturally.

Cocoa is rich in phenolics known as flavonols. Researchers found a cocoa beverage was effective in reducing skin sensitivity to UV by 15 percent after six weeks and 25 percent after 12 weeks. The effect was found to be similar to that of carotenoid supplements.

Green tea is made from unfermented leaves. As such, it contains the highest concentration of polyphenols, known as catechins, out of all tea types.

Research has found that applying green tea extract topically to the skin protects against UVB rays and provides broad-spectrum protection against skin aging.

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Carotenoid antioxidants

Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, is one of a group of red, orange and yellow pigments called carotenoids. Beta-carotene and other carotenoids are antioxidants that can be found in fruits, vegetables, salmon, eggs and whole grains and provide roughly half of the vitamin A needed in the American diet.

Supplementation with beta-carotene may preserve the skin’s structure. Doses ranging from 15 to 180 mg per day for 10 weeks or longer have been shown to offer moderate protection against UV.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are potent antioxidant carotenoids found in green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, spinach and cabbage. Lutein is structurally related to beta-carotene, but it is an even more powerful antioxidant.

When combined, lutein and zeaxanthin protect the skin against aging and damage. The duo works by inhibiting cell loss, membrane damage and elastin expression in UV-exposed fibroblasts, a type of cell that helps form connective tissue.

Lycopene is a red pigment abundant in tomatoes and their products, and has demonstrated sun protective activity in skin that’s been exposed to UV rays. Both oral and topical forms of lycopene used over long periods of time have been shown to protect against skin erythema — the scientific term for the skin’s response to excessive amount of UV radiation, better known as sunburn.

Astaxanthin appears to act as a sort of natural internal sunscreen by helping to protect your skin from damage by the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. The nutrient builds up in the top two layers of skin, helping to block UV penetration and reduce existing sun damage like wrinkles and lack of elasticity.

Astaxanthin is found mainly in the algae Haematococcus pluvialis and the yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, both of which produce it naturally. The algae are a food source for a number of sea creatures, and astaxanthin is what turns their shells and flesh pink.

Because krill feed almost exclusively on these algae, they contain higher amounts of astaxanthin than other marine sources.

Thymoquinone

Thymoquinone, a strong antioxidant, is the key active ingredient in Nigella sativa (also known as black cumin seed) oil. It can support the body against UV-induced ROS.

One study found that consuming full-spectrum Nigella sativa oil helped reduce oxidative stress, inflammatory responses and mitochondrial dysfunction in keratinocytes, the main type of cell in the skin’s outer layers. These responses can all result from excessive UV exposure.

When applied topically, Nigella sativa oil has been found to have an SPF factor greater than 2, meaning it defends against UVB exposure.

A great second-line defense

Adding these nutrients to your daily diet can add a second layer of protection against the effects of photoaging.

But it’s important to note that while these foods and nutrients are important supplemental tools for protecting against UV effects, they provide an SPF that’s lower than that of topical sunscreens. Thus, they should be used to complement sensible sun protection methods — and most importantly to cut down on free radicals in your body.

One last note: be aware that photoaging isn’t just a summertime hazard…

Dermatologists say the lighting in our homes and workplaces is an almost constant source of low-level UVA exposure. And blue light from your smartphone, computer or tablet is almost as bad… One study found a week of holding screens close enough to your face to read was equivalent to a minute in the midday sun!

Sources:

What’s New in Natural Compounds for Photoprotection? — Cosmetic Dermatology

UV Radiation & Your Skin — Skin Cancer Foundation

Sunburn symptoms and causes — Mayo Clinic

Suppression of oxidative stress by grape seed supplementation in rats — Journal Nutrition Research and Practice

Fibroblast — National Human Genome Research Institute

Natural skin resilience with thymoquinone — Natural Products Insider

Photoaging: Reversal of the Oxidative Stress Through Dietary Changes and Plant-Based Products — Cureus.com

The post The best nutrients to fight the #1 source of premature aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

CMP affects more than 40 percent of the world’s population. It’s a leading cause of disability and can impact patients’ cognitive function.

How is that last bit possible? Well, some research indicates there may be a link between brain aging and CMP because inflammatory markers associated with brain aging are higher in CMP patients.

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It’s all in the genes

To further explore this connection, an international team of researchers decided to examine the profiles of brain aging patterns and underlying mechanisms in different types of CMP. They used structural MRI data from more than 9,000 individuals to develop a model to compare brain age to chronological age.

What they found was that individuals with knee osteoarthritis pain (KOA) experienced more rapid brain aging than healthy individuals. In addition, they found regions in the brain responsible for cognitive function, such as the hippocampus, were associated with this accelerated brain aging.

“We not only revealed the specificity of accelerated brain aging in KOA patients, but importantly, we also provided longitudinal evidence suggesting the ability of our brain aging marker to predict future memory decline and increased dementia risk,” says Tu Yiheng, a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and corresponding author of the study.

The researchers identified the gene SLC39A8 as a shared link between KOA and faster brain aging. This gene is particularly expressed in microglial cells and astrocytes and underscores the potential role of inflammation and neurodevelopment in the phenomenon of pain and accelerated brain aging.

Microglial cells are the first immune cells to respond when there’s something wrong in the brain. Astrocytes are a subtype of glial cells in the central nervous system that perform various tasks such as clearing excess neurotransmitters, stabilizing and regulating the blood-brain barrier and promoting synapse formation.

These results provide evidence for the neurocognitive impacts of KOA and could open new channels for early detection and intervention strategies targeting dementia risk factors.

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Reduce pain, inflammation and symptoms of brain aging

Managing CMP can be difficult since the source of the pain is often unclear. But given the results of this study, reducing inflammation could be a first step.

Fortunately, there is a diet that can take care of both these issues. The keto diet has been shown in studies to both reduce chronic pain and quell brain inflammation.

Keto involves significantly reducing carbs in your diet and replacing them with fats. When you do this, your body goes into a metabolic state known as ketosis, where it begins fueling itself with ketones (derived from fat) instead of glucose (derived from carbs).

Research shows that by stopping your body from turning to glucose for energy, keto activates a protein that suppresses inflammatory genes. This impacts everything from pain to anxiety and depression to brain inflammation.

So if you’re looking to manage chronic pain, you may want to give keto a try. Just be warned — it is a challenging diet to follow. An alternative is the cyclical keto diet. On this version, you follow the keto diet for five days, then go high carb for two days.

You can also consider adding inflammation-fighting supplements to your daily regimen. One that pulls triple duty for beating back pain, inflammation and brain aging is the omega-3 fatty acids. You can also find them in fatty fish, nuts, seeds and plant oils.

Sources:

Chronic musculoskeletal pain may accelerate brain aging — EurekAlert!

Morphological and genetic decoding shows heterogeneous patterns of brain aging in chronic musculoskeletal pain — Nature Mental Health

Chronic or Persistent Musculoskeletal Pain — NHS Tyneside Integrated Musculoskeletal Service

What Do Microglia Really Do in Healthy Adult Brain? — Cells

Histology, Astrocytes — StatPearls

The post An unexpected effect of chronic pain: Brain aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sound a little science-fiction-like?

Well, it’s true. Researchers are at work as we speak on measuring how fast you’re aging, and what diseases may be waiting for you.

Most importantly, this could give you clues on how to turn your health around, avoid disease and live longer…

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Chronological vs biological age

“Imagine two people aged 65,” says Aditi Gurkar, a geriatrician at the University of Pittsburgh. “One rides a bike to work and goes skiing on the weekends and the other can’t climb a flight of stairs.”

“They have the same chronological age, but very different biological ages. Why do these two people age differently?”

That’s the question that a recent study set out to answer.

We have our actual ages — the number of years we’ve been alive — and then we have biological ages, which is the wear and tear on cells and organs.

Knowing our biological age can help determine our disease risk. Our doctor can then tailor treatments and advise us on how to slow the rate at which our bodies deteriorate.

Metabolites reveal your biological age

The University of Pittsburgh study looked at 196 elderly volunteers, splitting them into two groups: healthy agers, 75 or older; and rapid agers between the ages of 65 to 75.

The healthy agers could climb a flight of stairs or walk for fifteen minutes without resting, while the rapid agers had to take breaks through each activity.

The researchers looked for different metabolites, or small chemicals left behind by various biological processes occurring in the body.

In this way, they have evidence for which processes are happening and how well they’re running.

They found 25 metabolites that indicated significant differences between rapid agers and healthy agers and named this group of molecules the Healthy Aging Metabolic Index, or HAM Index.

In tests run on a separate group, the HAM Index proved to be 68 percent accurate at determining biological age.

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What we know about slowing biological aging

These researchers hope to develop a quick and easy blood test that can even be used on people as young as 30 to determine biological age and perhaps “prescribe” advice on how to age more healthfully.

In the meantime, though, there’s plenty you can do at any age to keep your biological age from catching up with your chronological age. The further apart those two numbers are, the better.

The American Heart Association says following Lifes’s Essential 8 can reduce the effects of aging by six years. Their list includes many of these healthy practices:

• Exercise to slow brain aging;
• Eating healthy. Avoid processed foods which shorten telomeres and trigger faster aging;
• And managing stress levels that can age DNA.

Speaking of telomeres, the important “caps” on the ends of chromosomes, a study conducted on 2,000 women and reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition claims that the more vitamin D participants had, the longer their telomeres were. This was true whether vitamin D came from the sun, dietary sources or supplements.

Of all the “diets” out there, calorie restriction has long been associated with slowing biological aging. But that’s too hard for many. Fortunately, following a Mediterranean-style diet — low in processed foods and red meat and high in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods may add as much as seven years to your life.

It’s not that hard to follow. It’s more like a style of eating than an actual diet. Here’s my guide to getting started on eating Mediterranean.

With these tools in hand, you’re well-equipped to live a long, healthy life!

Sources:

A Blood Test Could Reveal Your Biological Age And Predict Disease Risk — Science Alert

A molecular index for biological age identified from the metabolome and senescence-associated secretome in humans — Aging Cell

The post A blood test could predict how fast you’re aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

What’s normal about everything changing — from your mood and ability to sleep to your sex drive, not to mention the hot flashes, night sweats and weight gain?

There are a few ways a woman can choose to handle the effects of diminishing hormones through the transition, including medication or supplements that may ease symptoms.

But we can’t change the fact that it’s an inevitable part of life — or exactly when we’ll experience it. The menopausal transition most often begins between the ages of 45 and 55.

But a growing threat to our ovaries — the source of those precious hormones — may be aging them faster and setting us up not only for a difficult transition but health problems down the road…

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Speeding up the ovaries’ biological clock

Researchers from the University of Michigan studied 549 middle-aged women whose urine samples contained heavy metals — including arsenic, cadmium, mercury or lead.

Those particular heavy metals are extremely common and found in drinking water, air pollution and food. They’re considered endocrine-disrupting chemicals — and that spells big trouble for hormones…

Previous studies have linked heavy metals with women’s reproductive aging and diminished ovarian reserve — a condition where a woman’s egg stores diminish more rapidly than normal. Researchers say it’s also linked to more pronounced vasomotor symptoms, weak bones — and a higher risk of heart disease.

So the U of M team decided to compare the women’s heavy metals levels to their Anti-Müllerian hormone levels, or AMH.

AMH levels correspond to a woman’s egg count. That makes an AMH test the equivalent of the proverbial, and literal, biological clock all women are familiar with.

The results showed that women with higher levels of heavy metal in their urine were significantly more likely to have lower AMH levels — indicating diminished ovarian reserve — up to 10 years before their final menstrual period.

The researchers concluded that, “Metals, including arsenic and cadmium, possess endocrine disrupting characteristics and may be potentially toxic to the ovaries.”

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Reducing the threat of heavy metals

If you’ve entered menopause, doing something about your potential exposure to heavy metals won’t turn your biological clock back.

But you should consider how heavy metals can increase your risk for heart trouble during a time when that threat is already elevated — even more so if you entered menopause at an earlier age.

In 2021, the American Heart Association released what they call a “scientific statement” stressing the importance of integrating early intervention strategies for good cardiovascular health — especially during midlife and during menopause.

Those strategies include diet and exercise and living a healthy lifestyle. And should include reducing the threat of heavy metal exposure, in my opinion. Because, women’s ovaries aside, some heavy metals have already been deemed worse on your heart than smoking or cholesterol.

That’s why I believe everyone should know about a proven treatment to quickly eliminate heavy metals from the bloodstream…

Chelation is the process of using what’s known as a chelating agent to chemically bind onto heavy metals in the bloodstream so that they can be excreted as waste, through urine.  

The use of EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid) as a lead chelating agent was first introduced to treat lead poisoning in employees of battery factories and then in sailors exposed to lead paint on ships during WWII. But EDTA can also bind to mercury, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum and nickel.

And while other compounds can be used as natural heavy metal chelators, the most well-known is EDTA.

In cases of acute heavy metal poisoning, EDTA chelation can be done through IV, but it’s also available in supplement form. You can read more about its other benefits here. And I’ve included a link to a book on Chelation, below.

But don’t forget to reduce exposure from the daily sources you can find listed here.

Sources:

Women exposed to toxic metals may experience earlier aging of their ovaries – EurekAlert!

The post Women’s Health Alert: Rapid ovary aging, menopause and heart disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

They’re finding that biological age is a much more accurate measure of health than birthdate.

Biological age is based on the health and condition of your cells — and can leave you much younger or older on the inside than your chronological age indicates.

And research shows you don’t have just one biological age…

It turns out a person’s organs can age separately from one another.

A team of international researchers decided to dig deeper into this phenomenon, and what it means for us…

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An age for every organ and what it means

“Numerous studies have come up with single numbers representing individuals’ biological age — the age implied by a sophisticated array of biomarkers — as opposed to their chronical age, the actual numbers of years that have passed since their birth,” says the study’s senior author Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray, a professor at Stanford University.

This study went a step further — by coming up with distinct ages for each of 11 key organs, organ systems or tissues including:

• The heart
• The lungs
• The kidneys
• The liver,
• The pancreas
• The brain
• Immune system
• Muscle
• Fat
• Vasculature
• And intestine.

They were also able to gauge not only an organ’s accelerated aging but also its susceptibility to disease and death.

To do so, the researchers identified nearly 900 organ-specific proteins from the blood work of just under 1,400 participants. Their ages spanned 20 to 90, but most were in the mid- to late stages of life.  

Then they compared the control groups’ organs’ biological age for each individual with its counterparts among a large group of people without obvious severe diseases and found that almost 20 percent of those aged 50 or older had at least one organ aging significantly more rapidly than the average.

That means about 1 in 5 reasonably healthy adults 50 or older has at least one organ that’s aging too fast, probably without knowing about it — and those individuals were at heightened risk for disease in that particular organ in the next 15 years.

Fortunately, only about 1 in 60 had two organs undergoing accelerated aging. But those unlucky few had 6.5 times the mortality risk of a person without any rapidly aging organs.

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The risks for specific organs

Next, the researchers identified age gaps for 10 of the 11 organs studied that indicated a 15 to 50 percent higher future risk of death from all causes over 15 years of follow-up, depending on the organ affected.

When looking at specific organs, they found:

• People with accelerated heart aging who initially exhibited no active disease or abnormal biomarkers had a 2.5 times higher risk of heart failure than people with hearts aging at a normal rate.
• Those whose brains were aging faster had a 1.8 times higher risk of showing cognitive decline over five years than those with younger brains. Plus, either accelerated brain or vasculature aging predicted risk for Alzheimer’s disease progression just as accurately as currently used clinical biomarkers.
• Strong links between a fast-aging kidney score and both hypertension and diabetes,
• Strong associations between an extreme aging heart score and both atrial fibrillation and heart attack.

“If we can reproduce this finding in 50,000 or 100,000 individuals, it will mean that by monitoring the health of individual organs in apparently healthy people, we might be able to find organs that are undergoing accelerated aging in people’s bodies, and we might be able to treat people before they get sick,” Wyss-Coray says.

So what can we do to slow our organs’ aging?

Well, phenotypic age may be close to what the Standford researchers used to determine organ age. Phenotypic age is a measure of age based on the results of nine blood markers for metabolism, inflammation and organ function, including glucose, C-reactive protein, and creatinine.

The American Heart Association says following Lifes’s Essential 8 can reduce that kind of aging by six years.

Their list includes many of these healthy practices:

• Exercise to slow brain aging;
• Eating healthy. Avoid processed foods which shorten telomeres and trigger faster aging;
• And managing stress levels that can age DNA.

Lastly, don’t forget good nutrition. Vitamin deficiencies can reduce your longevity.

Sources:

Stanford Medicine-led study finds way to predict which of our organs will fail first — Stanford Medicine

Organ aging signatures in the plasma proteome track health and disease — Nature

The post Your organs may be aging faster: What it means for you appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I don’t mean changing your chronological age — time marches on, no matter what we do.

Instead, I’m talking about slowing down how old your body feels and acts — and, in more scientific terms, that equates to your biological age.

One way to slow the toll of aging is to keep your heart healthy, because, as researchers found, when heart health goes up, biological aging goes down — as much as 6 years!

But your brain runs the show, right? And now there’s new evidence that healthy eating to achieve a very small amount of weight loss can result in a younger, more well-connected brain.

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Even a little weight loss makes your brain younger

In contrast to the many ways obesity accelerates the mechanisms of aging, including changes that mimic Alzheimer’s — a recent study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel suggests that even a small amount of weight loss appears to put the brakes on brain aging.

The researchers took brain scans of 102 participants at the beginning of the trial and then again after 18 months. During the 18-month period, participants ate one of three diets:

• a Mediterranean diet with lots of nuts, fish, and chicken instead of red meat;
• a Mediterranean diet with a few added extras such as green tea (for its polyphenol content);
• or a diet based on healthy dietary guidelines.

Participants’ activity levels were taken into account. They received a free gym membership as part of the trial, so exercise factored in.

Brain age was estimated using a model used in other studies that accurately predicted age from measures based on brain connectivity.

On average, participants lost around 2.3kg (around 5 lbs.).

More importantly, for every one percent of body weight lost, all participants’ brains appeared almost nine months younger than their chronological age.

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More food for thought — and a bigger brain

A previous 2015 study from Columbia University backs the findings of the Israeli study — and reinforces that it’s never too late to turn back the age of your brain…

A group of 674 people aged 80 or older was divided into two groups. One group reported that they followed a Mediterranean diet. The other did not follow any of the principles of a Mediterranean style of eating.

When researchers compared brain scans from the two groups, they found that the people who followed a Mediterranean-style diet had a total brain volume that was 13.11ml. larger than those in the other group.

It’s a well-known fact that brain shrinkage is linked to brain aging and deterioration.

Eat for a younger brain and less weight

At this point, the evidence is undeniable: eating Mediterranean-style is a “no-brainer” if you want a younger brain.

But you don’t have to do it overnight…

In fact, according to Dr. David Katz, a nutrition expert at the Yale School of Medicine, the key is to make small changes.

Don’t try and overhaul your diet overnight. It’s easier to adopt one new food habit at a time, like eating fish once a week if you’re not in the habit already, switching to whole grains the next week, cooking with olive oil instead of butter and enjoying more nuts, seeds and fresh fruits and vegetables. That way, you’ll be able to sustain those changes.

And remember, this isn’t a deprivation “diet.” The Mediterranean “diet” is really a term to describe an overall eating pattern, rather than a strict diet. When you eat the right stuff, you don’t feel like you’re giving anything up — except what’s aging you!

Oh, don’t forget the exercise part, and here’s a tip: Researchers found that a faster walking pace was associated with longer telomeres — regardless of the amount of physical activity — and could translate to the equivalent of turning your biological age back 16 years!

Sources:

Weight Loss Slows Aging in The Brain by Up to 9 Months, Study Finds — Science Alert

The effect of weight loss following 18 months of lifestyle intervention on brain age assessed with resting-state functional connectivity — eLife

Adipose tissue distribution from body MRI is associated with cross-sectional and longitudinal brain age in adults — NeuroImage: Clinical

Mediterranean diet and brain structure in a multiethnic elderly cohort — Neurology

The post Rewind the clock on your brain’s age appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If so, you may want to check your grip strength.

A weak grip is seen as an important indicator of overall muscle weakness and has been linked with a number of health issues. These include a higher risk of heart attack and stroke, poorer brain function, dementia, metabolic disease, reduced mobility, age-related muscle loss (or sarcopenia) and a shorter lifespan.

In fact, grip strength is seen as a better predictor of cardiovascular events, like heart attack, than systolic blood pressure, the clinical benchmark for detecting heart problems.

Studies have shown that grip strength can also serve as a gauge for another crucial health measurement…

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A weak grip = faster biological aging

Biological age is based on a host of factors that determine the actual speed at which our bodies are aging. Biological age is why two people can both be chronologically 50 years old but have vastly different levels of risk for disease and early death.

Illness and lifestyle choices contribute to your biological age. And in one study, researchers found more evidence that the weaker your grip, the older your biological age.

Most experts agree that grip strength serves as a proxy for overall muscle strength.

“We’ve known that muscular strength is a predictor of longevity, and that weakness is a powerful indicator of disease and mortality, but, for the first time, we have found strong evidence of a biological link between muscle weakness and actual acceleration in biological age,” says Dr. Mark Peterson, lead author of the study and University of Michigan (U-M) professor.

“This suggests that if you maintain your muscle strength across the lifespan, you may be able to protect against many common age-related diseases,” Peterson adds.

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According to Dr. Jessica Faul, study co-author and professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research, one thing that makes this study so strong is that the participants were observed for 8 to 10 years. During this period, lower grip strength predicted faster biological aging measured up to a decade later.

This evidence shows potential for clinicians to adopt grip strength as a method for screening people for future risk of chronic disease, functional decline and early death.

“Screening for grip strength would allow for the opportunity to design interventions to delay or prevent the onset or progression of these adverse ‘age-related’ health events,” Peterson says. He adds that right now, only geriatrics have somewhat incorporated this measure in their practice.

The investigators caution that future research is needed to understand the connection between grip strength and accelerated biological aging, including how chronic inflammation in aging (or “inflammaging”) contributes to age-related weakness and mortality. This inflammation is also linked with lower grip strength.

Any future studies should also focus on how lifestyle and behaviors like physical activity and diet can affect grip strength and biological age acceleration.

“Healthy dietary habits are very important, but I think regular exercise is the most critical thing that somebody can do to preserve health across the lifespan,” Peterson says.

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Measuring your grip strength

To get an idea of where your grip strength stands, you can measure it. The most precise way is to use a handgrip dynamometer, like this one I found on Amazon. Your doctor’s office or local gym likely has one of these that you can borrow. Make sure you follow the directions closely to get an accurate reading.

For men, an average grip strength reading is 105 to 113 pounds, while for women it’s 57 to 65 pounds. Anything below these measurements is cause for concern.

If you can’t find access to a dynamometer, there’s also a way to test grip strength using a pull-up bar or hangboard and a bathroom scale.

First, weigh yourself on the bathroom scale and make a note of the number. Then, place the scale under the bar or board, stand on it and grab the bar or board with your hands.

Without bending your elbows or using any other part of your body other than your hands, pull your weight up for 5 seconds. Record the reading on the scale at the end of those 5 seconds.

Subtract that number from your body weight and you’ll have a good estimate of your grip strength in pounds.

Once you get that measurement and know whether your grip strength needs work, you can take action to increase it. You can use those hand grippers you’ve seen at the gym or even one of those stress balls you see on office desks everywhere.

Or you can use one of these suggestions for ways to exercise your hands so that you hold on to that precious grip strength as you get older.

Sources:

Is muscle weakness the new smoking? —Michigan Medicine Health Lab

Weak Grip a Strong Predictor of Metabolic Disease and Disability in Adults — Michigan Medicine Health Lab

Handgrip Strength Test — Topend Sports

The Grip Strength Test: Ways To Measure Your Grip — Complete Strength Training

The post Get a literal grip to slow your biological age appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For instance, type 2 diabetes most commonly strikes people 45 years of age or older. Cancer tends to strike in middle age and beyond. And when we hit 65, our risk of heart disease, arthritis, stroke, Alzheimer’s and other dementias goes up.

But there’s another measure we should be considering when we look at disease risk. And it may be far more accurate than the date on the calendar…

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High biological age and stroke and dementia risk

When it comes to disease risk, your body’s biological age may be much more important than your chronological age. Biological age is based on the health and condition of your cells and can leave you much younger or older on the inside than the chronological age on your birth certificate would indicate.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden decided to take a look at biological age to determine whether it had more of an influence on risk of certain diseases than chronological age. They used data from the UK Biobank to study a cohort of 325,000 people who were between the ages of 40 and 70 at the start of the study.

The researchers calculated biological age using 18 biomarkers, including blood lipids, blood sugar, blood pressure, lung function and BMI. Then, they explored the link between these biomarkers and the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, stroke, ALS and Parkinson’s disease within a nine-year period.

The study found that if a person had a high biological age compared with their actual chronological age, they had a significantly greater risk of dementia, especially vascular dementia. They also had a higher risk of ischemic stroke, which is caused by a blood clot in the brain.

And the difference doesn’t have to be huge. For example, if a person’s biological age is five years higher than their actual age, that person has a 40 percent higher risk of developing vascular dementia or suffering a stroke.

The study showed that this higher risk persists even when taking into account factors like genetics, lifestyle and socioeconomics.

One thing that makes these results interesting is that because the cohort was so large, they were able to capture less common diagnoses such as ALS. The risk of developing ALS does increase with higher biological age. However, the risk for Parkinson’s remained unchanged.

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Lifestyle is key to healthy biological aging

The results of the study indicate that slowing the body’s biological aging processes may possibly reduce or delay the onset of disease.

And though genes may play a part, according to  Sara Hägg, associate professor at Karolinska Institutet, “Several of the values can be influenced through lifestyle and medications.”

For instance, exercise is key to keeping your cells young. And the good news is it takes only 30 minutes a day to make an impact.

Diet is also important. Eating red meat can age your cells, so it’s good to follow a diet that limits the amount you eat. In fact, the Mediterranean diet has been linked to slower aging, so that’s a good plan to emulate.

The Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fish, nuts, legumes, vegetables, fruits, olive oil and whole grains.  These foods are full of nutrients like omega-3s (which help people live longer), antioxidants (which slow brain aging) and short-chain fatty acids (which help your gut protect your arteries.)

Adding anthocyanin-rich berries can promote healthy blood flow in the brain. MRI scans of those who drank blueberry juice showed increases in both their brain blood flow and gray matter activity.

There are other lifestyle factors that can raise your biological age, including smoking, not getting enough sleep, stress, and feelings like loneliness and unhappiness. Mitigating these factors, as well as taking a probiotic, were shown to contribute to a more youthful biological age.

Sources:

High biological age may increase the risk of dementia and stroke — EurekAlert!

Clinical biomarker-based biological ageing and future risk of neurological disorders in the UK Biobank — Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

Type 2 Diabetes — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

At what age is cancer most common? — City of Hope

Promoting Health for Older Adults — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Heart Health and Aging — National Institute on Aging

Four Things You Should Know About Arthritis — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Holy Smoke! The connection between cigarettes and Parkinson’s disease — American Parkinson Disease Association

The post Is your ‘true age’ increasing your stroke and dementia risk? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And I know I’m preaching to the choir, right?

As we age, more aches and pains creep in. Health conditions you’d hoped to avoid begin to pile up. And day-to-day life can feel like a chore.

Now however, an anti-aging breakthrough, thanks to researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, may lead the way to a new therapy that could actually remove aging cells from the body before they do damage and leave behind only their normal, much more youthful counterparts…

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Stopping senescent from kicking off aging

Scientists specifically discovered a way to target what’s known as senescent cells — malfunctioning cells that have begun to break down and just don’t work properly anymore.

When this happens, those old cells begin to churn out proteins that damage other cells around them, kicking off inflammation throughout the body and leading to ailments associated with age.

This process even prevents the replication of stem cells — the cells your body uses to regenerate tissue.

This makes it easy to see why scientists were determined to find a way to rid the body of senescent cells. And the way they went about it is truly cutting-edge…

The researchers designed organic molecules that selectively target receptors overexpressed in the membranes of aging cells. The scientists were able to use these molecules to bind to the mitochondrial membrane of those aging cells, disrupt the membranes and cause the cells to hit the self-destruct button.

“The selective removal of aging cells by targeting the mitochondria and inducing dysfunction has been successfully demonstrated in our experiments,” said lead researcher, Professor Ja Hyoung Ryu. “This approach represents a new paradigm for treating age-related diseases.”

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Powerful support for mitochondrial health

So it looks like scientists may soon be able to just remove senescent cells so that we can all age in a healthier way.

Of course, as with all new discoveries, the timeline for exactly when this new therapy will be widely available is hard to nail down.

The good news is that there are ways to support the mechanisms in your body tied to healthier aging, including your mitochondria — instead of just leaving it to chance — using some of the most studied nutrients in the field of aging, including:

• PQQ – Known as the ‘longevity nutrient’, PQQ lowers the risk of age-related disease by improving the function of the mitochondria.
• CoQ10 – Without adequate CoQ10, mitochondria can’t function as they should, and aging accelerates. Research has shown CoQ10 is capable of reviving ailing mitochondria to restore lost function and slow aging. Be aware this is the nutrient statins can lower.
• Resveratrol – Found in the skin of grapes and dark chocolate, resveratrol helps rejuvenate senescent cells, turning back the clock so they behave like youthful cells again.
• Grape seed extract – A polyphenol in grape seeds known as procyanidin C1, or PCC1, has been shown to significantly extend both the healthspan and lifespan of old mice by promoting the death of senescent cells.
• Fisetin – This compound found in fruits like strawberries and apples is a senotherapeutic agent. This means fisetin is capable of specifically targeting only the senescent cells in the damaged tissue to help rein in the damage and slow aging.

So why wait?

Make it harder for those senescent cells to steal your youth and vitality!

Sources:

Selective removal of aging cells opens new possibilities for treating age-related diseases – EurekAlert!

The post Breakthrough: Scientists cause aging cells to self-destruct appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Offering a firm handshake when you meet someone is often taken as a sign of self-confidence. It shows that you’re interested and reflects your character. It’s also a sign of strength.

However, you may be as muscular as a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, but your handshake will reveal the true state of your health and strength — and whether you’re at risk for chronic disease and premature aging.

These are the findings of medical researchers in a study led by respiratory and sleep expert Professor Robert Adams of Flinders University in South Australia…

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Sleep apnea leads to inflammation, disease and early muscle loss

Prof. Adams and his team assessed 613 men ages 40 to 88 in the Men, Androgen, Inflammation, Lifestyle, Environment and Stress (MALES) Study.

Their goal was to measure the connection between muscle mass and grip strength in men who have obstructive sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a condition where the airway is closed off by soft tissue, causing a person to stop breathing for up to 30 seconds, sometimes hundreds of times per night.

The MALES study found that, no matter how muscular a man was or how much muscle mass he had, if his grip strength was weak, it indicated other underlying problems — including issues connected with aging, as well as systemic inflammation and hypoxemia (lack of oxygen in the blood).

“Without good levels of oxygen in the blood, we cannot use the muscles we have to their maximum,” says Professor Adams.

“Our findings suggest impairments in hand grip strength (HGS) may be related to fat infiltration of muscle, hypoxemia-induced reductions in peripheral neural innervation, or even endothelial dysfunction — a risk in chronic inflammation and even cancer.”

“Furthermore, considering that over a quarter of the MAILES participants have moderate to severe OSA, this suggests a large proportion of the population are at risk of early reductions in strength.”

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If you think you may have sleep apnea

According to Adelaide Sleep Institute for Sleep Health researcher Dr. David Steven, “This is important as up until now, age-related declines in strength and immobility (sarcopenia) were thought to be due to reductions in muscle which started when someone was over 60 years old. Instead, the declines in strength appear to begin at a younger age in people with obstructive sleep apnea.”

That means if you’re living with untreated sleep apnea, you could experience muscle loss at a much younger age. And that can lead to functional decline — in other words, male frailty.

Some definite signs of sleep apnea to watch for are:

●     Waking up with a very sore or dry throat

●     Occasionally waking up with a choking or gasping sensation

●     Sleepiness or lack of energy during the day

●     Waking up with a headache that goes away as you move around

●     Difficulty concentrating, or just not feeling as sharp as you used to

Your doctor can help you determine if sleep apnea is the cause and discuss treatments.

Another thing you can try is helping your body optimize oxygen levels. This is important also if you’re what’s known as a mouth breather.

Dimethylglycine or DMG for short, is a nutrient known to athletes to help give them a performance edge — thanks to its reputation as an all-natural oxygen and endurance enhancer.

DMG is created in the liver from the amino acid glycine and is involved in at least 41 different processes. Nothing, however, tops DMG’s abilities to support healthy oxygen levels in your body and optimize oxygen utilization in your cells, organs, and tissues.

You can read more about DMG here.

Sources:

Getting a grip on better health — Eureka Alert

How Hand Grip Strength, Body Composition May Influence Health of Patients With OSA — American Journal of Managed Care

The post The surprising condition causing premature muscle loss in men appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, while that method will tell you your chronological age, there’s another far more important measurement it neglects — biological age is the age your body functions due to multiple factors such as your lifestyle, nutrition, diseases and other conditions.

For example, if you’re a 50-year-old woman who eats only high-fat foods, never exercises and has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for decades, your biological age could be far greater than the 50 years you have on the calendar.

In other words, making those bad choices can have the effect of accelerated aging by speeding up your biological clock and causing your body to function as a 75-year-old.

The good news is that knowing this arms you with easy ways to reverse aging and live longer, like making the right exercise choices to turn back your biological clock by nine years in just 30 minutes.

It can also include hacking your daily nutrient intake and putting in place an eating program that was used to help research participants take three years off their biological age in only short eight weeks.

And now, thanks to a study by an international team of researchers, there’s insight into one more thing you can do to help keep your biological age from exceeding your chronological age…

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How your mental state affects the pace of your aging

To conduct the study, the researchers used a brand new aging clock which was trained and verified using the blood and biometric data of almost 12,000 Chinese participants.

The goal was to determine what effects loneliness, restless sleep and unhappiness have on the pace of aging and to compare it to issues that we know can increase biological age, such as smoking, history of stroke and diseases of the liver and lungs.

“Mental and psychosocial states are some of the most robust predictors of health outcomes and quality of life, yet they have largely been omitted from modern healthcare,” said Manuel Faria, study author and student at Stanford University.

So, they set out to correct that issue.

And while the team of scientists once again found that smoking and bad health did indeed accelerate aging, the data had a surprise in store…

The researchers found that feeling helpless, lonely and unhappy can have not only a significant effect on aging, these feelings actually increase the rate of biological aging more than smoking.

Additionally, they found that being single (which could play into those feelings) and living in a rural area also increase biological aging.

In other words, being in a vulnerable mental state could leave you old before your time.

According to the researchers, these results illustrate the importance of caring for your mental health to ensure healthy physical aging.

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Secrets of exceptional aging

So how can you care for yourself both mentally and physically in order to slow down the march of time?

1. Stay social – While it’s easy to slip into routines that involve spending time alone, it’s important to seek out contact with others and enjoy a variety of social activities. These can include everything from joining a book club to volunteering at your local animal shelter or soup kitchen or spending more time with family.
2. Try Tai Chi – Meditation and Tai Chi can not only offer relief for feelings of loneliness, but they may also ease symptoms of depression.
3. Get more physical activity – Exercise not only slows aging on a physical level, but it can also improve your mood and combat depression to roll back the clock on a secondary level. And getting a handle on your biological age can be simple, starting with just 10 minutes a day.
4. Controlling inflammation – Beating inflammation can help you also conquer feelings of unhappiness since depression has been linked to a 30% increase in brain inflammation. Potent inflammation-busters include turmeric and fermented foods and greens. The omega-3s found in fish oil are also a great option that’s been proven to stop inflammaging (aging due to inflammation) and may even take years off your face.
5. Work at maintaining a healthy weight. Obesity has been found to accelerate the mechanisms of aging five ways.

You can use these four simple tips to start rolling back the clock today. And if you want to determine how old you really are right now, here’s a biological age calculator you can use.

Sources:

Loneliness and unhappiness may impact biological aging more than smoking – Integrative Practitioner

Psychological factors substantially contribute to biological aging: evidence from the aging rate in Chinese older adults — Aging-US.com

The post The surprising factor that accelerates aging faster than smoking appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Her deep wrinkles and dark spots are to blame, even though she thought she was protecting her skin.

Fortunately, there are natural ways to add layers of additional protection, but first, you’ll need to know exactly what you’re up against…

And it isn’t only the UV rays from the sun that aren’t doing your skin any favors, as most of us have been led to believe…

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Photoaging: What laptops, smartphones and sunlight have in common

You’ve probably heard warnings about spending too much time in front of your computer or looking at your smartphone screen because of the damaging effects of the blue light they emit.

Numerous studies confirm that a lifetime of cumulative exposure to blue light causes the photo-oxidation of retinal cells known to contribute to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The cornea and the lens of the eye help keep UV rays from reaching the retina. But they can’t keep the blue light out.

But what about your skin? While you might be able to slather on enough sunscreen to keep out most of the UV rays from the sun, those products have no effect on blue light — which is only slightly less powerful than UV rays.

A study by German skincare manufacturer Beiersdorf found that an entire week’s worth of exposure to blue light from a screen at a distance of 30cm is equivalent to just one minute of midday summer sun in Hamburg, Germany.

It’s also been established that blue light causes hyperpigmentation — or age spots.

Despite these warnings, we’re still spending more time than ever in front of a screen. But, something that may surprise you, research shows that the sun is a much more significant source of blue light.

So when it comes to premature aging, we’ve got to protect not only against UV rays but blue light too…

How blue light accelerates aging

Blue light exposure causes a significant increase in highly reactive chemicals formed from oxygen, known as reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Too much ROS can damage your DNA, as well as key enzymes responsible for DNA repair. Studies have also shown that blue light can activate genes associated with inflammation and photo-aging (skin damage and premature aging).

Photo-aging is the same process that occurs as a result of UV exposure. Research has confirmed that both UV irradiation (UV A and B) and blue light are known to induce the formation of free radicals and ROS.

So what’s a person to do when sunscreen isn’t the answer to all the rays that can harm your skin?

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An added layer of natural protection for skin and eyes

In the late 1980s, researchers at the University of California’s Irvine and San Francisco campuses and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made a series of molecular breakthroughs…

They uncovered specific sets of genes in laboratory animals that kept cells from wearing out, from being overwhelmed by free radical damage, and from self-destructing.

One of the genes, subsequently named SIRT1, induces ROS-detoxifying enzymes that help reduce the effects of oxidation on cells.

And, eventually, it was discovered that resveratrol, found in large amounts in the skin of red grapes, kick-starts the SIRT1 gene into action.

Of all the natural ways to give your skin an added layer of protection, resveratrol is still king.

Resveratrol is also readily available in foods like red wine, blueberries, peanuts, pistachios and dark chocolate — and of course supplements.

But to protect your eyes from free radical damage from blue light, look to lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidant nutrients from foods like spinach, lettuce, kale, and broccoli, as well as avocados, mangoes, honeydew and egg yolks, and supplements as well.

These two nutrients are part of the AREDs formulation recommended by The American Academy of Ophthalmology for adults at high risk of AMD progression.

I feel a nice egg salad sandwich with veggies coming on… a glass of wine … and some chocolate for dessert! Sounds like a perfect summer afternoon treat to me!  

Sources:

Blue light: what we do and don’t know about the damage it causes our skin — The Conversation

Fidalgo, J., Novo Barros, A., & Casas, A. (2022). Resveratrol: A promising Antiaging Agent for Cosmetic Skin Treatments. IntechOpen. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.107860

Pigmentation effects of blue light irradiation on skin and how to protect against them — International Journal of Cosmetic Science

All of the Ways Resveratrol Can Benefit Your Skin — Good Housekeeping

Reactive Oxygen Species and Antioxidant System in Selected Skin Disorders —Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences

The post The light aging your skin that sunscreen can’t block appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

St. Augustine, Florida, is home to the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. The city is said to be the 1513 landing spot of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon on his quest to find the legendary Fountain.

But the reality is, there is no evidence to support the story — and all modern historians say it’s a myth…

I’ve spent a lot of time in St. Augustine, and this tale is likely not the only yarn that’s been spun in its pubs.

If you’re looking for a fun vacation, St. Augustine is a great choice.

If you’re looking for your own fountain of youth, there are certainly much better alternatives than the one Ponce purportedly sought…

In fact, there’s one, in particular, that’s backed by loads of evidence that modern scientists call fact…

CoQ10: The ‘fountain of youth nutrient’

Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is backed by thousands of major medical studies… yet it’s one of the most overlooked nutrients.

Without it, your cells can’t make energy and your heart and brain can’t function… your heart literally starves to death… yet there is no daily recommended intake for it!

Unfortunately, by the time you hit 60, 70 and 80 years old, you have less than 50 percent of the CoQ10 younger folks do.

And if you take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor^®, Pravachol^®, Zocor^® or Crestor^®… or any other highly prescribed drugs like Metformin for blood sugar control… beta-blockers like Lopressor and Tenormin^®… or antidepressants like Lexapro^®, Zoloft^® and Paxil^®, they are depleting your body’s supply of CoQ10 even more.

In general, when your cells can’t make enough energy, you not only lose muscle strength and stamina… you can develop debilitating problems like fatigue, premature aging, joint stiffness, lightheadedness and even brain fog.

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Without enough CoQ10, you’re like a car with a dead battery

Depletion of Coenzyme Q10 is so dangerous because it’s critical in helping produce the metabolic energy known as ATP that your whole body runs on, and, without this energy, none of your cells can function correctly. That leaves you open to a whole host of problems. Yet with a good store of CoQ10 in your body, you can expect…

Heart health support — According to the Cleveland Heart Lab, not only could CoQ10 have “significant cardiovascular protective effects,” but supporting heart health may ward off heart disease down the road.

Relief from headaches — A 2004 study reported at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting found migraine patients who took 100mg of CoQ10 three times a day had fewer attacks in three months than those who took a placebo.

Healthier skin — Applying CoQ10 directly to the skin can reduce the damage from internal and external agents by increasing energy production in the cells and promoting antioxidant protection. It was shown to reduce damage caused by UV rays and even decreased the depth of wrinkles.

More energy — Tons of research shows CoQ10 helps keep mitochondria (the cell’s power plant) functioning optimally… that’s because more than 90 percent of each cell’s energy production relies on an adequate supply of CoQ10.

Are you starting to see why CoQ10 is closer to a real-life “fountain of youth”?

The cellular energy you get from CoQ10 helps energize and repair every cell, muscle, tissue and organ in your entire body. When it’s present, your immune system works to its full capacity to help replace and repair damaged cells and to protect you from known pathogens, viruses and bacteria.

CoQ10 is present in small amounts in animal organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys, as well as beef, soy oil, sardines, mackerel and peanuts. Unfortunately, due to poor absorption, the necessary level of Coenzyme Q10 is nearly impossible to obtain from diet alone, especially if you’re on any of the medications I mentioned above.

That makes supplementing with Coenzyme Q10 a no-brainer!

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Tips on getting the most from CoQ10

Many conventional CoQ10 supplements are capsules with raw CoQ10 material containing dry powder crystals your body can’t absorb. Further crystallization also takes place due to temperature fluctuations during the production process making it even less bioavailable. That’s why it’s imperative you get a formula that is crystal-free.

The form it comes in is also important, and many formulas are made with ubiquinone — a substance that must be converted into ubiquinol in order to be used by your body. But it gets increasingly harder for your body to turn ubiquinone into ubiquinol as you age.

That makes 90 percent of the CoQ10 on the market today practically worthless… the body can’t convert or absorb the vast majority of them.

For this reason, when you set out to find your own fountain of youth, you need to choose one that’s 100% crystal-free ubiquinol.

Daily supplementation is important too. That’s because CoQ10 takes a few days to buildup in your system. When it does, you should notice a difference in your energy levels. But if you skip a day or two, you will notice that energy boost drop.

Sources:

Coenzyme Q₁₀ Supplementation in Aging and Disease — Frontiers.org

The post CoQ10: Your personal fountain of youth appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Taking vitamins might not be at the top of your list when you think of ways to stay healthy and cool this summer, but it should be…

Research shows there’s a specific vitamin that is especially important during the long, hot summer days ahead.

I’m talking about vitamin C.

Lots of folks only think about taking vitamin C during the winter months… when they want to boost their immune system and avoid colds, flu and other opportunistic infections.

But taking vitamin C during the summer can make the season safer and the heat bearable in two big ways…

#1 — Vitamin C provides sunburn protection

Taking vitamin C can help protect your skin from those painful and cancer-causing sunburns.

That’s right! Research in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reported that taking a combination of vitamins C and E daily can help keep you safe.

Here’s how…

The UV radiation that causes sunburns, photoaging (which causes premature aging) and malignant skin tumors, works by causing your skin to produce what’s known as reactive oxygen species, more commonly called free radical damage.

Both vitamins C and E are antioxidants… compounds that can scavenge those free radicals.

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They were proven to be photoprotective in vitro studies and animal experiments which led researchers to try out the two vitamins in humans to see how they stood up to the UV rays beaming down from above. For their study, they split participants into two groups:

• One group took 2 mg of vitamin C plus 1,000 IU of vitamin E daily.
• The other group took a placebo.

Not only did the vitamin group experience fewer problems with sunburn despite UV exposure, but the researchers say that since the group had less sunburn reactivity, they were also likely at far less risk for UV-induced skin damage later.

#2 — Vitamin C keeps you cool

Further research has shown that taking vitamin C could help you stay cool despite the rising temperatures this summer.

One study by researchers at the University of Alabama found that vitamin C actually has the power to delay your sweat gland fatigue. This boosts your heat tolerance and also helps lower your risk of both heat exhaustion and prickly heat rash.

A second study, in the Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental, and Exercise Physiology, discovered that when you take vitamin C (as little as 250 milligrams), it helps to keep your body temperature from rising despite being exposed to rising heat levels.

All of this makes vitamin C your new best friend for the summer months ahead.

It’s best to take it with meals, and if you live with stomach problems like I do, it’s a good idea to choose one in a buffered form or with rosehips, since they are less irritating to your gastrointestinal system.

I also like to look for a supplement that has all three types of vitamin C’s forms (ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, and calcium ascorbate), plus antioxidants to get the most benefit. And, of course, if you’re looking for sun protection, vitamin E can help as well.

Now, you can clearly see why taking vitamin C is one of the best choices you can make for this summer. So, grab a bottle and grab sun and heat protection along with it.

If you need more options, reach for grapes! Pop them in the freezer for a cooling summer snack that packs powerful protection from damaging UV rays.

Sources:

1. Protective effect against sunburn of combined systemic ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and d-alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) — Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
2. Vitamin C and Tolerance of Heat and Cold: Human Evidence — Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
3. Effects of plasma ascorbic acid levels on heat acclimatization in man — Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental, and Exercise Physiology

The post Two big reasons you need more vitamin C this summer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If you’re naturally a blond, brunette or redhead, that color is fixed for at least the first few decades of your life. Then, as you age, your hair follicles produce less and less of the melanin that colors your hair.

So when each hair follicle goes through its natural cycle of death and regeneration, the new hair that’s produced comes in with little to no color. That’s why your hair “goes” gray as you get older.

Scientists believe the graying process is partly due to a gradual decline in the number of hair follicle stem cells that mature into melanin-producing cells — cells that also have a role in the dangerous skin cancer, melanoma.

And what they learned could have implications for both issues…

“Stuck” stem cells are key

A study in mice led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine zeroed in on these melanin-producing cells called melanocyte stem cells (McSCs).

During normal hair growth, McSCs have plasticity. This means they continually move between compartments of the developing hair follicle, where they’re exposed to different levels of protein signals that influence maturity.

The researchers found that as hair ages, sheds and grows back, increasing numbers of McSCs get “stuck” in the compartment known as the hair follicle bulge. When they remain there, they don’t mature and return to their original location in the germ compartment. That compartment is where proteins would signal the McSCs to regenerate into melanin-producing cells.

“Our study adds to our basic understanding of how melanocyte stem cells work to color hair,” says study lead investigator Dr. Qi Sun, a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health. “The newfound mechanisms raise the possibility that the same fixed positioning of melanocyte stem cells may exist in humans. If so, it presents a potential pathway for reversing or preventing the graying of human hair by helping jammed cells to move again between developing hair follicle compartments.”

In other words, now that research has figured out what starts hair turning gray, the next step will be to find out how to stop it.

These findings may also have implications for melanoma research. Melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer that develops from melanocytes. One reason it’s so fierce is that, unlike other tumors, the melanocytes in melanoma have plasticity, meaning they can change easily. This makes them difficult to eradicate. The knowledge that McSCs retain greater plasticity than previously thought may play a role in future studies of melanoma.

Keeping our hair color longer

Until science can help us keep color in our locks longer, here are a few things that might help.

First, make sure you’re managing the stress in your life. Stress releases cortisol, which can impact the McSCs responsible for coloring your hair. Research has shown that stressful events can turn colored hair gray.

Also, make sure you’re getting enough B vitamins, particularly vitamin B12. Deficiency in B12 is considered a significant contributor to gray hair. Other nutrients that are key to preserving hair color include iron, zinc and vitamin D.

There are several foods you can eat that will help protect against graying hair. For instance, hummus is loaded with folate, which plays a key role in producing methionine. This amino acid is essential for hair color. Hummus is also an excellent source of copper, which supports melanin production.

Iron supports hair color by boosting ferritin levels. Dark chocolate is a good source.

Keeping your gut microbiome healthy can also help delay the graying of your hair by helping to produce biotin. A biotin deficiency can contribute to premature gray hair. Eating fermented foods like kimchi or sauerkraut helps provide your gut microbiome with helpful bacteria, as does taking a daily probiotic.

Sources:

Study Links ‘Stuck’ Stem Cells to Hair Turning Gray — NYU Langone Health

Dedifferentiation maintains melanocyte stem cells in a dynamic niche — Nature

Gray Hair and Aging: Could ‘Stuck’ Stem Cells Be to Blame? — WebMD

Why does hair turn gray? — Harvard Health Publishing

Why Hair Turns Gray — Cleveland Clinic

How to Reverse Gray Hair — Vegamour

4 Foods to Eat to Delay Gray Hair, According to a Clinical Nutritionist — Vegamour

The post What makes hair gray? Stuck cells that hold cancer clues too appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I’ve got skin creams and serums and lotions galore and different skincare regimens for day and night. Those regimens seem to make a difference in my skin’s elasticity and appearance, and they make me feel good.

As someone who takes care of their skin, I’m always keeping an eye out for new advances in anti-aging products. And as someone who prefers using products made from all-natural ingredients, I was intrigued by news of a potential anti-aging breakthrough derived from a common weed….

Stem Cells Make you look 30 years younger:

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The anti-aging potential of cocklebur

Cocklebur is a weed that grows in moist or sandy areas such as roadside ditches and riverbanks. It’s native to Southern Europe, Central Asia and China, but has spread worldwide.

The distinctive fruits of the cocklebur plant are encased in stiff hucks covered in burrs. They’ve been used for centuries in traditional medicine for problems like headaches, stuffy nose, tuberculosis-related illness and skin pigmentation disorders. And in recent years, scientists have investigated their potential use in treatments for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

Now, research indicates that cocklebur fruit has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components that could be used to protect the skin.

In laboratory tests using cells and tissues, researchers found these compounds reduced damage from ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and accelerated wound healing. They also seem to influence collagen production. Collagen is the protein found in skin that gives it elasticity and prevents wrinkles from forming.

“We found that cocklebur fruit has the potential to protect the skin and help enhance production of collagen,” says Eunsu Song, a doctoral candidate at Myongji University in South Korea who conducted the research with Myongji University Professor Jinah Hwang.

“In this regard, it could be an attractive ingredient for creams or other cosmetic forms,” Song says. “It will likely show a synergistic effect if it is mixed with other effective compounds, such as hyaluronic acid or retinoic acid, against aging.”

The study is the first to explore cocklebur fruit extract’s properties as a skin protectant and wound-healing agent.

When comparing the bioactivity of cocklebur fruits grown in different places, the researchers discovered those grown in South Korea had slightly higher antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and greater wound-healing activity than those grown in China.

Some caution required

But don’t rush out to start gathering cocklebur fruits just yet. The researchers warn that high doses of cocklebur fruit extract can be toxic, so further research is needed to figure out how to use it safely in cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications.

“In its burrs, cocklebur fruit also has a toxic constituent, carboxyatractyloside, which can damage the liver,” Song says. This effect has been observed in livestock and other animals that ingest cockleburs.

Song adds that while cocklebur fruit extract showed potential as a cosmetic agent by increasing collagen production, it showed negative results with higher concentrations.

“Therefore, finding the proper concentration seems very important and would be key to commercializing cocklebur fruit extracts in cosmetics,” he says.

The next step for the researchers is to further study cocklebur fruit extract’s biological mechanisms and conduct experiments in animal alternatives to explore ways to safely adapt it for cosmetic use.

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What to do in the meantime

Unlike cocklebur, grapes have been found to provide skin-protecting properties — and you can eat quite a bunch of them. In studies, eating grapes protected against UV skin damage, increased resistance to sunburn and reduced cellular markers of UV damage linked to premature aging.

Until cocklebur is available commercially, there are a few other anti-aging ingredients you can try to keep that smooth, plump glow to your skin. My colleague Dr. Adria Schmedthorst talks here about the many benefits hyaluronic acid provides for the skin. And here I go over the newest research on how skincare products containing cannabis may turn back the clock on skin aging.

Of course, one of the best things you can do to protect your skin is to use sunscreen. A lot of sunscreens use harmful chemicals, so check this list from EWG to find one that’s both safe and effective at protecting you from the sun’s aging rays.

Be sure to avoid foods that age you. Sugar and cooked meat can prematurely age your skin, while plant-based foods that are rich in powerful antioxidants like polyphenols (think grapes!) can help protect it from the ravages of time.

Sources:

Scientists see anti-aging potential in an invasive weed — EurekAlert!

Xanthium — ScienceDirect

Skin Care – United States — Statista

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In fact, it’s already been shown that people who live with depression are at far higher risk of chronic disease and even early death.

However, what we didn’t know was why…

But that’s all changed thanks to groundbreaking research from a team of scientists at the University of Connecticut who have discovered an undeniable link between depression, disease and death in something called senescent cells.

Old, malfunctioning cells

While ‘senescent’ sounds like a big word, it really just means a cell in the body that has gotten old and is no longer working properly.

Put simply, when a cell gets old, it begins to function differently and much less efficiently than a “young” cell.

When this happens, the aging cell begins to produce proteins that lead to damage, promote inflammation and other unhealthy conditions, and block the replication of stem cells — the cells in your body that are capable of promoting the regeneration of tissue, even your blood.

So it’s no surprise that these proteins that wreak so much havoc can be measured in the blood. And it’s a fact that the Connecticut researchers used to finally nail down the connection depression has to death and disease…

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The depression/senescence link

The team took blood from 426 people with late-in-life depression. They measured the levels of proteins associated with aging in each person’s blood. They then compared those levels with measures of the participant’s overall health, medical problems, brain function and the severity of their depression.

And sure enough…

The researchers discovered that older adults with depression have more senescent cells than their peers. In other words, people who live with depression are actually aging faster than those without depression.

And according to the researchers, this holds no matter the severity of the depression experienced.

Additionally, the results showed that:

• Accelerated aging was associated with worse overall heart health.
• People with higher levels of aging-associated proteins were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and multiple medical problems.
• An increase of the proteins from senescent cells was associated with worse performance on tests of brain health, like working memory and other cognitive skills.

That last one — poor brain health due to accelerated aging — is what the researchers believe is the main link to depression.

And it’s why the team is now looking at whether therapies to reduce the number of aged, “senescent” cells in a person’s body can improve late-in-life depression. They are also looking at specific sources and patterns of proteins associated with aging, to see if this might lead to personalized treatments in the future.

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Keeping your cells youthful

If you suffer from depression, the most important thing to do is to talk to someone about it. Seniors often face unique hurdles that can compound loneliness and the depression that comes with it. That’s why getting involved in your community and staying in touch with family and friends is very important.

Additionally, there are a few ways we can work at promoting our cellular health until those scientists come through with personalized treatments they plan to pursue…

• Fisetin – This natural compound found in foods like strawberries has been shown in two separate studies to be a senotherapeutic capable of specifically targeting only senescent cells to rein in the damage and slow aging.
• Resveratrol – Found in red wine, the skin of grapes and dark chocolate, resveratrol doesn’t reduce the number of senescent cells, but instead helps trigger their rejuvenation, so that they can begin to act like young cells again.
• Grape seed extract – One of the polyphenols found in grape seeds, known as PCC1, has been shown to specifically promote the death of senescent cells while leaving normal cells unaffected.

Sources:

Depressed, and aging fast — ScienceDaily

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Wouldn’t it be great if we could stop this from happening? While we can’t halt the inevitable march of time, research has revealed a few ways to at least slow the aging process…

Exercise can definitely help, as can getting enough sleep, quitting smoking and managing your stress load. So can the right diet.

But by far the most convincing evidence for slowing aging has come from calorie restriction.

For years, studies involving fruit flies, worms and even mice have shown calorie restriction — with proper nutrition — seems to extend lifespan and delay the onset of age-related disorders by reducing what is called reactive oxygen species in the body.

And now, drum roll please, they’ve finally gone a done it…

An international team of researchers led by Columbia University conducted the CALERIE study — which stands for Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy — the first-ever investigation into the effects of long-term calorie restriction… in humans.

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Slowing the pace of human aging

They chose 220 healthy and non-obese clinical trial participants who were randomly assigned to a 25 percent calorie-restricted diet or a normal diet for two years.

To measure their biological aging, researchers analyzed the participants’ blood samples at the start of the trial, then again at 12 months and 24 months. Specifically, they looked at chemical tags on each participant’s DNA sequence that are known to change with aging, measurements that are sometimes referred to as “epigenetic clocks.”

The researchers focused on three such measurements. The first two are the PhenoAge and GrimAge epigenetic clocks, which estimate the chronological age at which a person’s biology would appear normal. The third, DunedinPACE, estimates the pace at which biological deterioration, or aging, occurs over time.

The researchers say to think of the first two measurements as “odometers” that give a static measure of how much “aging mileage” a person has experienced. The third measurement is more like a “speedometer” that shows how fast the aging process is going — and this is the measurement that related most to slowing aging.

In fact, the effect of the calorie restriction intervention on DunedinPACE represented a 2 to 3 percent slowing in the pace of aging. This translates to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in mortality risk, which is similar to the impact of quitting smoking.

“In contrast to the results for DunedinPace, there were no effects of intervention on other epigenetic clocks,” notes Dr. Calen Ryan, a research scientist at Columbia’s Butler Aging Center and co-lead author of the study. “The difference in results suggests that dynamic ‘pace of aging’ measures like DunedinPACE may be more sensitive to the effects of intervention than measures of static biological age.”

There is an ongoing follow-up of trial participants to determine if the calorie restriction intervention had long-term effects on healthy aging. In other studies, a slower DunedinPACE has been linked with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, disability and dementia.

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Simplifying calorie restriction

Ryan cautions that calorie restriction may not be for everyone.

Most of the CALERIE participants couldn’t attain the full 25 percent restriction goal but still saw considerable weight loss, changes in body composition and age-associated physiological alterations.

“Our findings are important because they provide evidence from a randomized trial that slowing human aging may be possible,” he says. “They also give us a sense of the kinds of effects we might look for in trials of interventions that could appeal to more people, like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.”

But if you want to give calorie restriction a try but are feeling intimidated, it’s probably best to start slow. Pick one day a week and cut back your calorie intake just by 500 calories. If you can handle that two days a week, give it a go for a couple of weeks and decide if you want to try it for 3 days.

Then if you want to take your calorie-restricting efforts up a notch, try a fast-mimicking diet. This eating plan specifically reduces your calorie intake while proportioning your protein, fat and carbohydrate consumption in a very specific way that mimics the effects of a 5-day water fast.

Obviously, there’s nothing easy about slowing aging this way. You may also want to consider supplements that have been studied for their effects on aging processes…

•  Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), is an antioxidant naturally occurring in the body that’s important to mitochondrial function. According to research, CoQ10 can revive ailing mitochondria, restore lost function and slow the aging process. Since CoQ10 levels decline with age, taking a CoQ10 supplement can help.

• Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Brighton have delved into the aging process and found that the antioxidant resveratrol can make old cells act like younger cells.

• And lastly, another powerful antioxidant, astaxanthin gives the body’s aging processes quite a challenge, in part because of its powerful impacts on the body’s most vital systems and organs.

Sources:

Calorie Restriction Slows Pace of Aging in Healthy Adults — Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Effect of Long-Term Caloric Restriction on DNA Methylation Measures of Biological Aging in Healthy Adults: CALERIE Trial Analysis — Nature Aging

Aging: What to expect — Mayo Clinic

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It’s a truth that’s inspired a search for the fountain of youth since Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.

Yet, while that mythical fountain was never discovered, researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center may have finally done what that Spanish explorer couldn’t…

Make an aging body youthful again.

And it all has to do with turning back the clock on your blood.

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Capturing the power of young blood

You see, recent research has already demonstrated the power of young blood to rejuvenate older bodies.

It can make aging hearts beat stronger, muscles become stronger and thinking becomes sharper.

“An aging blood system, because it’s a vector for a lot of proteins, cytokines, and cells, has a lot of bad consequences for the organism,” says Emmanuelle Passegué, Ph.D., director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, who’s been studying how blood changes with age. “A 70-year-old with a 40-year-old blood system could have a longer healthspan, if not a longer lifespan.”

However, it’s not like you can just head into your doctor’s office and ask to be hooked up to an IV of blood from a 20-year-old.

So those Columbia researchers set out to find a way to replicate the effects of young blood using a pill, specifically by rejuvenating the system that makes blood in the first place — your stem cells.

Basically, all of the blood cells in your body are created by a small number of stem cells found in your bone marrow.

Yet, over time, these cells start to change, producing fewer red blood cells (which can cause anemia) and fewer immune cells (which can increase your risk of infection). With age, they also have problems maintaining the integrity of their genomes, which can raise your risk of certain types of cancers.

This led the researchers to believe that if they could restore those stem cells to a younger state, they could restore your entire body to a younger state.

Aging stem cells and inflammation

To do so, the researchers had a few tricks up their sleeves…

First, they turned to exercise and a caloric-restricted diet — which have been found to regenerate stem cells found in other areas of the body, like the intestines.

Unfortunately, these options just didn’t do the trick for the stem cells that make your blood.

Transplanting old stem cells into young bone marrow also failed.

Even directly infusing young blood had no effect on rejuvenating old blood stem cells.

That’s when the researchers decided to take a closer look at the stem cells’ environment… the bone marrow.

“Blood stem cells live in a niche; we thought what happens in this specialized local environment could be a big part of the problem,” assistant researcher, Carl Mitchell, says.

And sure enough — that environment was exactly where the root problem behind stem cell aging was discovered.

The team found that aging in blood stem cells is due to inflammation, which leads to deterioration and dysfunction of the cells.

And they found that one inflammatory cytokine signal released from aging bone marrow, IL-1B, was critical in driving this process. That’s when they turned to an anti-inflammatory drug called anakinra, which is used to block inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

And guess what…

Stem cells from older animals treated with the drug miraculously became younger and healthier!

Even more youthful effects were achieved when IL-1B was prevented from exerting its inflammatory effects throughout the animal’s life.

In fact, the results were so remarkable that the researchers have now moved on to studying the same processes in humans, to determine if rejuvenating blood stem cells earlier in life, in middle age, could finally be the fountain of youth we’ve all been looking for.

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The real anti-aging target: Inflammation

Of course, if you’re like me, your first thought was probably — this is great. My next thought was, well when they repurpose that drug as “anti-aging” it’s probably going to have a hefty price tag. And who knows who it will be offered to and when.

But inflammation as a root cause of destruction is nothing new, so we’ve got some backup…

I’ve written before on natural ways to reduce the inflammation and irritation patients with rheumatoid experience.

One of the most powerful compounds I’ve come across in the last couple of years that’s been researched to ease inflammation in general — but also in the case of rheumatoid arthritis — is thymoquinone, the active principle of Nigella sativa, the plant that produces black cumin seed oil.

Research published in the Journal of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy even found thymoquinone reduced the expression of the IL-1 family of cytokines, of which IL-1b is a member.

I’m not saying it’s a miracle nutrient that will stop aging on a dime, but plenty of studies show it’s powerfully effective against inflammation, and that’s good enough for me.

Sources:

Will revitalizing old blood slow aging? – EurekAlert!

Thymoquinone attenuates rheumatoid arthritis by downregulating TLR2, TLR4, TNF-α, IL-1, and NFκB expression levels — Science Direct

Overview of the IL-1 family in innate inflammation and acquired immunity —  Library of Medicine

The post Is revitalizing old blood the secret to slowing aging? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The sun is responsible for about 80 percent of skin aging — and that is the least of the harm it can do.

When I know I’m going to be outside in the sun for long periods, I make sure to wear sunscreen on my face. And I either wear sunscreen or long sleeves and pants to cover other areas.

But you might be excited as I was to learn that all of this prevention focusing on the outside of my body isn’t the only way to cut down on the dangers of UV exposure…

Omega-3 fatty acids, for example, help people experience less sun damage and reduce signs of aging. Orange, green and red vegetables high in carotene can not only protect your skin from sun radiation damage but also scavenge the free radicals that lead to skin aging… and worse.

Plus, mounting evidence suggests that one popular fruit, in particular, is especially effective at countering UV damage to the skin…

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Confirming the grape’s sun-protective properties

Previous studies have found that eating grapes protected against UV skin damage, increased resistance to sunburn and reduced cellular markers of UV damage. 

More specifically, the phytonutrients in grapes can slow down the formation of destructive reactive oxygen species (ROS), or free radicals, that form in skin cells.

Now, a third study has reinforced these findings…

Researchers gave one group of volunteers whole grape powder equivalent to 2.25 cups of grapes per day for 14 days. They also measured each volunteer’s skin response to UV light before and after consumption of the grape powder. They also analyzed each volunteer’s gut microbiome, blood and urinary samples.

In as little as two weeks, one-third of the subjects given the grape powder showed UV resistance. And the researchers believe polyphenols, natural antioxidant components found in grapes, are responsible for these beneficial effects.

Then, something even more interesting happened…

These same UV-resistant subjects displayed significant microbiome and metabolic differences compared with those who did not show UV resistance. One of those metabolic differences is a strong indicator of reduced premature aging of the skin and could be relevant for use in personalized medicine.

Furthermore, researchers found that a sub-group of the UV-resistant subjects retained their UV protection for 4 weeks after they stopped consuming the grape powder. This suggests a segment of the population is capable of resisting sunburn after eating grapes, and that there is a correlation between the gut-skin axis and UV resistance.

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Protecting the gut-skin axis

If you’re looking to protect your skin from sun damage, it certainly appears to be a good idea to add grapes to your diet. One of the most abundant polyphenols found in grapes, resveratrol, also a powerful antioxidant, has been the subject of anti-aging research for decades.

But are there other dietary steps you could take?

In this study, researchers saw gut microbiome differences between those who received UV resistance after eating grapes and those that didn’t. Previous investigators have also found connections between imbalances in the gut microbiome and inflammatory skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis, rosacea and psoriasis. There also appears to be a link between certain types of skin damage and upset in the gut microbiome. This two-way relationship is known as the gut-skin axis.

The best way to support your gut microbiome is to consume probiotics every day. You can get them from foods, like unsweetened yogurt, kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut and miso soup. Or you can add a high-quality probiotic supplement to your daily regimen.

Sources:

Grape Consumption Helps Counter UV Damage to Skin — Western New England University

Short-Term Grape Consumption Diminishes UV-Induced Skin Erythema — Antioxidants

Gut–Skin Axis: Current Knowledge of the Interrelationship between Microbial Dysbiosis and Skin Conditions — Microorganisms

Gut–Skin Axis: Unravelling the Connection between the Gut Microbiome and Psoriasis — Biomedicines

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