How Not To Age
I remember back when I was 13 years old, I could not wait to grow older. Being an adult seemed so amazing. Growing a full beard, growing taller, and finally being able to buy all the games I desired. But suddenly, my thinking switched. Birthdays are not special to me anymore. Nowadays it’s just like: Meh.. I survived one year more on this planet.
And these days are also, sadly a reminder, that we don’t have unlimited time left. That sooner or later time runs out and we face death.
When I worked at an old age home people’s biggest fear was not death, but to depend on others. Being unable to walk, being unable to put on their own clothes.
Trust me, sometimes the people would even openly say, that they’d rather die.
Nowadays billionaires, like Bill Gates, are searching for a way to live forever. And there is even a way to freeze yourself, to probably be revived by future generations. But I think the focus should rather be not only in this video but in life, to stay young as long as possible.
It’s hard to fight something that has proved it’s effectiveness in the face of evolution.
That is, at least, the only way I could explain why we still need to sleep. I mean come on, it’s the 21st century scientists! Anyway.
What I’m trying to say is that over millions and millions of years aging was beneficial to us.
In the past you lived just long enough to give away your genes, make sure that your new DNA survives and then you decay.
Your genome further improved a long the way, but you, you simply needed to disappear. Death is life greatest change agent – it makes place for the new, by deleting the old. Right now we’re all the “new”, but it’s only a question of time, until we become the obsolete “old”.
It doesn’t matter how you as a person perform or exist at the age of 80, as long as you’re kid has the perfect genome. Think about your body as the CEO of a company that is only trying to sell and profit. He doesn’t plan for 20 years ahead, the only thing that matters is selling the company as fast and lucrative as possible.
This tactic is great when you are young when your body is making sure that you’re on the best level possible. But this tactic is really really bad, when you are old and suddenly are doomed to decay.
This is called antagonistic pleiotropy, what is beneficial in young age can be detrimental later. But isn’t there a way to stop this process of aging?
Yes I think so, at least partially. Your body doesn’t want to damage itself in the long run, but rather think of your body as over-cautious. That type of person that sees a spider and immediately burns down the whole house.
Our environment and even processes inside of our bodies are constantly trying to disrupt our DNA. For example a cell in your body can only divide about 50 times, because afterwards the potential of DNA damage would be too big. If a damaged cell keeps on dividing and dividing it would lead to cancer.
Therefore your body balances risk and reward, and decides to isolate or kill the cell altogether.
This is great for not getting cancer, but this is bad when later in life you do not have enough functioning and healthy cells left. Genius body.
So it is important to keep your cells healthy and dividing as long as possible.
A great way to take care of your cells and reduce DNA damage is managing stress.
Stress not only in your office when you have plenty of work to do. But also with your nutrition.
Make sure you eat a lot of antioxidans, meaning a lot of vegetables and fruits that actually can defend against stress.
Make sure you exercise everyday on a low to moderate intensity, meaning go for a walk or a jog for about 30 minutes.
Make sure you stay healthy mentally, do something you love everyday, laugh more – watch my videos or sign up for my coaching – I can help you with that.
These are all great ways to reduce stress and keep your cells healthy as long as possible.
But the only study that I read about, that was able to even reverse the aging process by lengthening your telomeres. Apparently was a plant based diet.