Anti - ageing

If you wish you could slow down the aging process you're not alone. For centuries people of all cultures have searched for a "fountain of youth" to keep them looking and feeling young longer. Let's face it, growing old may be "natural" but there's nothing unnatural about yearning to delay or prevent wrinkles, loss of mental sharpness and the host of degenerative diseases associated with aging.

Well, you're in luck because as fate would have it, you're living in the time of anti-aging medicine, the revolutionary new paradigm that promises to extend longevity and quality of life. Anti-aging medicine focuses on diet, lifestyle, nutrition, hormones, herbs and exercise to increase life span while simultaneously preventing and reversing disease, memory loss and the physical signs of aging. "Aging, which has long been thought of as inevitable, part of the human condition, can now be seen as a disease for which there are causes and treatments," says Dr. Ronald Klatz, president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in his book "Grow Young with HGH."

Why does aging occur?

There are dozens of theories. The three most compelling and widely accepted are the free radical theory, neuroendocrine theory and telomere theory.

If you read health magazines or watch any health news on TV, you've probably heard about the free radical theory of aging. Basically, free radicals are necessary but dangerous electrically-charged molecules produced in the body that wreak havoc on our cells. Free radicals mutate cell membranes, degrade protein in tissues and activate enzymes called proteases that destroy DNA. You can also blame free radicals' attacks on elastin and collagen in the skin for wrinkles and sagging. Lipofuscins (a.k.a. age spot pigments or brown spots) are a waste product of free radical activity that are not only unsightly, but also interfere with cell regeneration -- causing cell death and aging. The antioxidants you hear so much about are "free radical scavengers" that defend against the destructive action of these molecules.

The neuroendocrine theory blames aging on the plummet in hormone production that occurs as we get older. Hormones are chemical messengers that regulate all body functions, including growth, metabolism, stress response, sexual libido, mood and reproduction. Estrogen, progesterone and testosterone decline with menopause to a fraction of pre-menopausal levels. By age 65, levels of DHEA (the most abundant hormone in the body) drop to only 10-20% of the levels present in a 20-year-old and human growth hormone (HGH) is partially or wholly deficient in half of the population. Production of thymic protein A by the thymus gland is severely curtailed by age 40, and by age 75, pregnenelone levels are 50-60% less than at age 35. A key component of many anti-aging protocols is to restore hormone levels to that of a 30-40 year old through pharmaceutical or nutritional/herbal hormone replacement therapy.

The new kid on the block in aging research is the telomere or "biological clock" theory. "Aging is a biologically controlled occurrence," writes Dr. Klatz in his book. "People are not immortal because cells do not reproduce indefinitely." The telomere is part of the DNA structure at the end of a chromosome that gets shorter and shorter each time the cell divides until there's not enough left for the cell to reproduce anymore and it dies. As cells die, we age. An enzyme called telomerase controls whether a cell's telomeres shorten (as is the case in most cells) or can relengthen infinitely (which is the case in blood and cancer cells). Anti-aging and cancer researchers are hard at work to discover a way to turn the telomerase enzyme on and off to prohibit cancer cell reproduction and allow for eternal cell life in body tissues and organs.

The Great Hormone Debate

Some of the most highly touted aging therapies involve hormonal supplementation. It's nearly impossible to talk about the anti-aging revolution without addressing these remarkable findings. Currently very widely used is Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). It is the safest and most effective.