Vaults - Premature Aging – Is Your Lifestyle Making You Old?

I’ve often wondered why premature aging affect some people and not others, causing them to age so much faster. I know people in their seventies and eighties who look twenty years younger, and conversely, I know people in their thirties and forties who look twenty years older. Why is this? Is it just bad genes? Or is there something else at play here?

Case in point, last month I went to a memorial for an old friend who had just passed. She was a very popular lady who brought a lot of people together. So over the years, I became acquainted with many people through her. Many of these people were also at her memorial. Now I hadn’t seen most of them for close to ten years, but it just struck me that most of them looked at least ten to twenty years older than they actually are. Of course, there were a few who looked exceptionally young and vibrant. But for the most part, the majority of people looked old, frail and very fragile. Instead of looking older, but vibrant and alive, they just looked old, as if they were aging prematurely.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that we all must get older, but there’s a difference between getting older and aging prematurely. The physical body does age, but it can be a graceful, instead of a drastic, process. It’s like a houseplant. When you don’t water it and give it good food and light, it can shrivel up and die almost overnight. However, when you water it regularly, make sure that it gets adequate light and change the soil occasionally, that same plant will last for years.

Most scientists now agree that aging is, at least in part, the result of accumulating damage to certain molecules—such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA)—that make up our cells. If enough molecules are damaged, our cells will not function as well, our tissues and organs will begin to deteriorate, and eventually, our health will decline. So in many respects, we appear to age much like a car does: Our parts start to wear out, and we gradually lose the ability to function. Of course, this can be a slow gradual process, or it can happen quite rapidly, leading to premature aging.

But are we just at the mercy of our predestined fate or can we take charge of the entire aging process, thereby, at least slowing the rapid decline of our cells, tissues and organs?

In the rest of this article, I will explore the relationship between our lifestyle choices and the degree to which our bodies decline both in looks and function.

Is it your Genes or your lifestyle that causes premature aging?

In talking with some people, many of them have resigned themselves to the “fact” that they’re getting old and that’s just the way it is. But is that really the case? It’s true that as we get older things just don’t work the way they used to. But is this a function of aging or lifestyle?

Let’s look at a few examples. Your body produces various hormones that help to regulate a myriad of functions. When you’re young, hormone production is high. As you get older, however, hormone production drops off causing a decline in the body’s ability to repair itself and keep functioning at top form.

Another example is cellular waste. Your working cells produce a lot of waste. Over time, this waste accumulates because your cells make more than they can get rid of. Unfortunately, the build up of cellular waste can affect their ability to function and slowly lead to their death.

While these are naturally occurring processes that happen with an aging body, the rate at which they occur depends on the raw material that the body has access to. Let’s take the case of free radicals; remember those? Free radicals are unstable molecules roving around your body, ready to pounce on healthy cells. They are produced as part of the millions of chemical reactions your body performs to sustain life. Your body also produces them in response to environmental toxins such as excessive amounts of cigarette smoke, toxic air and food toxins.

Can free radicals lead to premature aging?

It is a widely held belief in the scientific community that excessive free radical activity accelerates the aging process at the cellular level. From premature wrinkling of the skin, to arthritis, cancer and heart disease, excessive free radical activity is believed to be the primary culprit. Is it true that based on our DNA that some of us are predestined for certain diseases?

Yes, that is the case. However, just because we are predestined for certain conditions based on our genes, oftentimes, most of those genes remain dormant until other conditions (such as poor lifestyle choices) cause them to be expressed.

In the case of excessive free radical activity, which ultimately leads to a pre-disease condition called oxidative stress, it is our lifestyle choices that ultimately take us down this path because free radicals can easily be neutralized by the body’s antioxidant defense system. Unfortunately, the body cannot produce these antioxidants. It has to get them from the fruits and vegetables that we eat.

Antioxidants are molecules that can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged. The most widely known micronutrient (vitamin) antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and vitamin C. The body cannot manufacture these micronutrients so they must be supplied in the diet.

The bottom-line

We all must get older, but premature aging is a result of poor lifestyle habits. Like a car, if you take care of the body, you’ll be able to rack up the miles and still remain functional into old age.

On the other hand, poor lifestyle choices, such as poor eating habits, lack of physical activity, excessive use of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, will most certainly cause your cells to decline in function and ultimately die an early death. This leads to premature aging. So don’t blame your genes for making you old, blame yourself for not taking better care of them. The good news is it’s never too late to start.

Until next time, may “the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows.”