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Antiaging Health News Updates
"Act to improve your life."
Art Print Antiaging Health: Green Tea Reduces Damage To Older Brains Aging brains show reduced capacity to protect brain tissue against free radical (oxidative stress) damage, tissue atrophy or shrinkage, and subsequent loss of memory and learning capacity. Now several studies show that green tea catechin antioxidants can reduce this damage to the brain. One of the brain's antioxidant enzymes is glutathione peroxidase which is reduced with age. Green tea catechins protected glutathione peroxidase levels and activity in age-acccelerated animals compared to untreated animals (Kishido T, Decline in glutathione peroxidase activity is a reason for brain senescence: consumption of green tea catechin prevents the decline in its activity and protein oxidative damage in ageing mouse brain, Biogerontology, August 2007). Another report found that daily green tea for 14 months prevented memory loss and DNA oxidative damage to age-accelerated animals (Unno K, Daily consumption of green tea catechin delays memory regression in aged mice, Biogerontology, April 2007). An earlier study showed that long-term usage of daily green tea catechins showed reduced damage to DNA from oxidation, protection against atrophy in the brain, and protection of learning capacity and working memory (Unno K, Suppressive effect of green tea catechins on morphologic and functional regression of the brain in aged mice with accelerated senescence (SAMP10), Experimental Gerontology, July 2004). These improvements in brain structure, physiology, and function in aged animals were all achieved with daily green tea for most of their lives. Check out your different green tea varieties here Antiaging Health: Baby Boomer Burden? In a couple of years, Baby Boomers will start to enter the over-65 age group. And there aren't enough doctors to take care of them. A new study evaluated the expected need for geriatric specialists over the next few decades. Combining the number of Baby Boomers with an increased life expectancy for many of them, the actual number of over-65 geriatric people is expected to double. At the same time, the number of geriatric specialists is decreasing. Since older people have more complex health problems than middle-aged patients, this study strongly recommended facilitating an increase in geriatric specialists (John Rowe, Gerontological Society of America and Institute of Medicine, April 2008). Baby Boomers and healthy adults can help relieve this future burden by having an antiaging health program including maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding addictions, exercising regularly, using common sense disease prevention, and maintaining healthy habits like drinking green tea daily, if appropriate. Learn more about anti-aging here Antiaging Health: How Calorie Restriction Helps Adult Brains A new study demonstrates one way that calorie restriction with optimal nutrition can help protect the brain from damage. Researchers put adult rats on short-term calorie restricted diets for 7-10 weeks. During this time, there was no detrimental effect on neuronal function as measured by long-term potentiation. Then they challenged the hippocampal areas of the rats' brains with kainic acid, a polyamine similar to glutamate that excites brain cells into toxic reactions. Rats that had been on calorie restriction had almost twice the recovery to normal brain cell function as did a control group that had been eating freely (Youssef FF, Adult-onset calorie restriction attenuates kainic acid excitotoxicity in the rat hippocampal slice, Neuroscience Letters January 2008). The hippocampus portion of the brain is important in antiaging health research because of its association with language, memory, nerve regeneration, and life support functions. Antiaging Health: Managing Calorie Restriction Many people are trying to adopt a lifestyle habit of calorie restriction without malnutrition for anti-aging benefits. While understanding the concept is easy, putting it into daily practice is more difficult. A new study shows that modified alternate day fasting may provide a portion of the antiaging health benefits that daily calorie restriction offers. Researchers separated mice into five groups. One group received 25% fewer calories every day. Three groups received alternate day fasting--one day free eating, one day fasting at 75% fewer calories, 85% fewer calories, or 100% fewer calories (total fasting). The last group received free eating. Results showed that skin cell, spleen cell, and mammary cell proliferation was decreased significantly for the 25% daily restricted group, and the 85% and 100% alternate day fasting groups. Insulin-like growth factor-1 was only reduced for the 25% daily restricted and the 100% alternate day fasting groups. Body weight was only reduced for the 25% daily restricted group (Varady KA, Modified alternate-day fasting regimens reduce cell proliferation rates to a similar extent as daily calorie restriction in mice, FASEB J, Jan 2008) Cell proliferation reduction and insulin-like growth factor-1 reduction are characteristic of lifetime calorie restriction without malnutrition and are involved in some of the anti-aging benefits. If you're working on reducing unnecessary calories, here's some calorie counting tips. And remember, green tea has only 0-2 calories per cup. Antiaging Health: Theory Of Anti-Aging In 1934, when Dr. McCay discovered that calorie restriction dramatically increased the maximum life span in rats, no existing theory could account for his results. In the last 74 years, his results have been confirmed in many species, including single-celled organisms, yeast, spiders, fish, mice, hamsters, dogs, and now primates. But theories of aging and anti-aging have still been unable to account for the successful life span increase with calorie restriction optimal nutrition. The growth retardation/small size theory, biological clock hypothesis, low body fat theory, low metabolic rate theory, glucose-insulin hypothesis, and growth hormone hypothesis have so far proven inadequate to explain the anti-aging results of calorie restriction. It is also unlikely that the oxidative damage/free radical theories will account for all the separate anti-aging effects of healthy calorie restriction. It is possible that the concept of hormesis could encompass all the life-extending, anti-aging changes from calorie restriction. Hormesis states that small amounts of stress can activate the body's natural defense systems. It is a concept used to explain the results of homeopathic remedies and exercise benefits from pulsed intensity workouts. Basically, it says controlled stress is good for you. Hormetic theory and other theories related to calorie restriction anti-aging are reviewed by Dr. Masoro, a pioneer researcher into calorie restriction, in Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, September, 2005, and Interdisciplinary Topics in Gerontology, 35, 2007. Learn more about the ultimate anti-aging calorie restriction diet here. Antiaging Health: Independent At 100 Years How do they do it? Are people who live longer than 100 years, those fabulous centenarians, just lucky from birth? Now a new study of centenarians is helping those of us who are younger understand how centenarians achieve their longevity success. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts, examined 739 men and women over the age of 100. Approximately 30% of the centenarians had age-related diseases for over 15 years. These diseases included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dementia, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, osteoporosis, and Parkinson's disease. However, 72% of the men and 34% of the women were still independently active according to the Barthel Activities of Daily Living Index (Terry DF, Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008). Researchers found that simply having a disease (morbidity) could be separated from disability, and that centenarians manage to postpone both disease and disability. Important factors in lowering the risk of both disease and disability include early detection by regular consultations with a health care provider, daily exercise, stopping smoking, and a healthy diet (check out this research on anti-aging diets. Adding healthy lifestyle choices that are safe and may reduce the risk of a wide variety of diseases, such as daily green tea, could also help if appropriate to the individual health condition. Antiaging Health: Modified Alternate Day Fasting Research on the lifespan extension benefits of calorie restriction has moved beyond verifying the validity of the procedure by testing different species. Now, most of the research concentrates on understanding how calorie restriction optimal nutrition works and what procedural variations will still give equivalent antiaging health results. A new animal study examined the effects of modified alternate day fasting on cell proliferation rates. Cell proliferation rates are important biomarkers for cancer risk. Mice were tested over four weeks with 25% daily calorie restriction, three alternate day fasting levels (100% restriction, 85% restriction, and 75% restriction), and an ad lib control group. Only the 25% daily calorie restriction reduced body weight. Both 25% daily reduction and 100% alternate day fasting lowered insulin-like growth factor-1 levels. Cell proliferation rates and splenic T cell proliferation rates were reduced significantly by approximately 30% only in the 25% daily reduction, 85% alternate fasting, and 100% alternate fasting. Mammary epithelial cell proliferation was reduced significantly up to 70% in the same three groups. There were no significant results reported for the group alternating between ad lib eating and 75% restriction days (Varady KA, FASEB J, 2008). For people who are counting calories for general health, anti-aging benefits, or weight management, it seems important to look for healthy lifestyle changes that can be used daily. Depending on your health condition, an excellent lifestyle improvement is daily green tea. Green tea is easy to add to your lifestyle, and you can pamper yourself with different gourmet green tea leaf varieties at less than 2 calories per cup. Antiaging Health: Counting Calories Improves Muscles Our bodies need daily exercise to keep our muscles strong and healthy. But people who are aging may experience an additional loss of muscle mass and strength called sarcopenia. Now researchers have observed that an anti-aging diet using calorie restriction helps protect against muscle loss from age-related sarcopenia. Two cellular factors that seem to have a primary association with sarcopenia are mitochondrial health and cellular signaling systems related to apoptosis or muscle cell death. Both calorie restriction with optimal nutrition and a daily fitness program seem to help prevent malfunction with mitochondria and apoptotic cellular signaling. The result is greater preservation of muscle mass. For aging humans, this could mean more mobility and self-sufficiency for a longer period of time. These reviewed studies are considered preliminary (Marzetti E, Free Radical Biology Medicine, 2008). Here's more fitness program benefits. Antiaging Health: Primates Benefit From Calorie Restriction One of the concerns about an anti-aging diet through calorie restriction with optimal nutrition, has been using research data from short-lived species. After the calorie restriction lifespan extension discovery of Dr. McCay, researchers (Dr. Roy Walford) decided that using short-lived species would provide the greatest amount of information within the shortest amount of time. The results showed consistently prolonged youth and health across many species, with only a couple of exceptions (brown trout, housefly results were inconsistent). But a legitimate question remains. Will these results prove true with species that live for a longer time? To answer that question, researchers began studies with primates several decades ago. A recent review of primate calorie restriction research shows that results from primates are comparable to rodent studies so far. Rhesus monkeys at 30% fewer calories are compared to ad lib monkeys (ad lib animals can eat all they want). The calorie-restricted monkeys show greater antiaging health by avoiding many diseases, show biomarkers (blood and other laboratory tests) that indicate protection against disease, and are aging more slowly (Ingram DK, Neuroscience, 2007). Of course, it will be many more decades before primate research results are considered conclusive. Don't want to wait that long? People who are interested in exploring calorie restriction benefits for themselves can learn dietary strategies at Lose Weight In 2008. For example, a cup of green tea tops out at 2 calories and five cups daily is less than 10 calories. Green tea offers delicious, soothing, gentle energy loaded with life-protecting antioxidants and almost no calories. Available world-wide, it's a great choice for a positive lifestyle change. People who have health conditions should consult with their health care provider before making dietary changes. Antiaging Health: It's A Longer Dog's Life A recent review summarized over two decades of research testing calorie restriction diets for dogs. The median lifespan of the calorie-restricted test animals was almost two years longer than for dogs that ate all they wanted. Late life diseases like osteoporosis were postponed with the test animals. With all the dogs, once the muscle mass diminished and stored static fat increased, death within one year became strongly predictable. Animals with larger fat masses also showed insulin resistance which was independently associated with chronic diseases and lowered lifespan. The studies began when the dogs were eight weeks old and there were no negative effects on skeletal maturation. The animals were matched pairs and received the same diet except for a 25% reduction in calories for the test groups (Lawler DF, British Journal Nutrition, 2007). Most calorie restriction studies with rodents have used 30% to 50% calorie restriction with optimal nutrition diets.
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