And do it with food, not expensive pharma medicines
Investors in
biotech companies are putting billions
into a new category of drugs that promise to extend the number of years you can
stay healthy – and improve the quality of life in later years.
Dr Richard Miller is a leading gerontologist at the University of Michigan. In an article in New Scientist headed ‘The Age of Living Younger’, he states:
“We have proven you can slow the ageing process using drugs”.
He’s right.
But Big Pharma’s expensive drugs are not the only – or even the best way. Because
you can get the same result with nutrition and food.
Why does so much illness appear age-related?
The
incidence of almost every debilitating chronic disease – heart disease, stroke,
dementia, cancer, arthritis, vision impairment – increases suddenly around the
age of 60.
But it is
not related to the passing of years. It is related to accumulated, unrepaired
damage to DNA and to the cells that make up our tissues and organs – causing
those organs to gradually fail. The damage accumulates because the body’s cell
repair mechanisms stop working properly.
Prevent, limit or even reverse that damage, by
boosting cell repair mechanisms, and you stay healthier for longer. But how?
Toxic dead ‘zombie’ cells need to be cleared
The trillions
of cells in your body are continually turning over. They replicate and
ultimately die. Indeed, an estimated 50 billion die each day! A normal cell death occurs through a process
called apoptosis, and those dead cells are usually cleared away.
But occasionally the dead cells or debris
from the dead cells is not cleared away. These are called senescent cells – cells that have
suffered irreversible damage, but which have not been eliminated from the body.
Scientists sometimes
refer to them as them junk or zombie cells.
Very recent
research by Judith Campisi at the Buck
Institute for Ageing shows that these senescent cells secret a cocktail of damaging
chemicals that poison surrounding tissues and cause chronic inflammation.
We know
inflammation underlies almost all age-related diseases and the Buck Institute explains
how that inflammation occurs and directly links senescent cells to ageing
itself and to cancer.
Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, underlines the threat: “Senescent cells are very bad for you – they
destroy the tissues around them”.
Even a small
number of uncleared senescent cells trigger problems – just as a rotten
strawberry in a punnet can cause the rest to go bad.
(Hold that analogy in your mind, as it will have special significance as we
unravel this latest science).
The huge cost of senescent cells
A result of
this damaging sequence – senescent cells poison surrounding tissues, which
causes chronic inflammation, which causes multiple later life illnesses – is
that the average person will live the last 12 – 18 years of their life with
some sort of health issue and increasingly on medication.
This is not
only distressing for the individual, but a huge cost for society. 80% of
healthcare costs in the US are linked to later-life degenerative disease! It’s
similar in the UK where the annual spend on healthcare is £2,892 for every man,
women and child and most of that is spent on later life.
So, a drug that clears senescent cells and therefore extends healthy life span could literally save trillions.
You are likely to live a somewhat longer life – say typically to around 90 – but, importantly, stay healthy, vigorous and productive until your final year or two. As one researcher put it, perhaps too bluntly,
“We are not trying to fill care homes with geriatrics, we are trying to make sure you live actively and well to enjoy your pension to the full!”
You can see why bio-tech investors are so excited. But our interest is in doing this without Big Pharma’s expensive, patented pills.
How you can clear away senescent “zombie” cells
If you take
senescent cells from an old mouse and transplant them into a young mouse, it
ages prematurely and suffers age-related diseases.
The reverse
is true. In 2011 researchers at the Mayo Clinic used a drug to clear senescent
cells from aged mice – and it significantly extended the time they were disease-free
and enabled them to function as young mice.
Removing senescent cells “jump starts tissues’ natural repair mechanisms” as a Johns Hopkins researcher puts it.
Other studies in 2016 and 2018, including at Newcastle University, showed that a range of illnesses – from simple frailty to heart disease to osteoporosis to dementia and even to osteoarthritis – was halted or even reversed by clearing senescent cells.
As a leading researcher put it, we are now seeing:
“ … how multiple diseases of ageing are being caused buy a single underlying cause”.
It is a genuine breakthrough in understanding how healthy lifespan can be extended.
James Pickett, is head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, and was not involved in the Mayo study. His comment:
“There hasn’t been a new dementia drug in 15 years, so it’s exciting to see the results of this promising study.”
The importance of “senolytics”
So how do we clear away senescent
cells? The answer is with senolytics – defined as molecules that seek
out, destroy and eliminate senescent cells.
There are drugs that do this – like dasatinib, navitoclax and possibly the diabetes drug metformin – but none appears to work very well on their own, without being coupled with flavonoids.
Flavonoids are a class of nutrients in fruits
and vegetables that are as important to health as the vitamins and minerals
that fruits and veggies also provide.
They include the pigments in plants – like resveratrol (found in grape skin, red wine, blueberries and bilberries), quercetin (found in red onions, apples, green and black tea and grapes), beta carotene, lutein and lycopene (the red pigment found in tomatoes).
Many flavonoids are linked to an
anti-cancer effect, as well as being senolytic.
A flavonoid with powerful senolytic action – fisetin
But the most powerful flavonoid with
senolytic activity appears to be a little-known pigment called fisetin – found in strawberries – at a
level that’s 6 times higher than in the next fruit, which is apples.
A lead researcher at the Institute on
the Biology of Ageing and Metabolism at the University of Minnesota told
Newsweek magazine:
“We’re looking for drugs that can kill these damaged senescent cells that are very toxic to our bodies and accumulate as we get older. It turns out that fisetin is a natural product that we were able to show very selectively and effectively kills these senescent cells.”
You’ll note that she didn’t suggest you just loaded up with strawberries. Unfortunately the default reaction from most researchers is to make a natural product into a drug!!
Another proven senolytic – nicotinamide form of Vit B3
Another proven senolytic is nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, which unlike niacin, does not cause flushing. Nicotinamide creates a blood chemical called NAD+, which clears DNA damage from especially mitochondrial cells – the tiny ‘energy factories’ in our cells. That should, in turn, improve energy levels.
There are already supplements on the
market that combine resveratrol, quercitin and nicotinamide. But they are
jumping the gun. Partly because research on quercetin and resveratrol as
senolytics, on their own, is not conclusive. And partly because senolytics are
not the whole story.
All-round cellular spring cleaning
To create a truly comprehensive plan that will clear senescent cells and therefore prolong health, we need to include what are called mTOR inhibitors. O.K. it’s a mouthful – but stay with me!
The mTOR pathway
mTOR is a pathway within your cells that regulates the life cycle of that cell – its growth, repair and natural death. The science is rather complicated, but the key is this.
mTOR senses your nutrient intake and when it senses adequate nutrients, the cell will replicate.
When it is suppressed, then rather than replicating, the cell goes into repair mode.
When it is over-stimulated it can promote excess growth and even tumours.
So it’s a finely
balanced cycle. And sometimes you’ll want to suppress or down-regulate mTOR to
ensure your cell repair mechanisms are working properly.
One way to
suppress mTOR is calorie restriction, which we know improves cell repair and makes
organisms live longer. Which is why some people fast. But starving yourself is
hardly the most attractive way to live longer!
Down-regulating mTOR to up-regulate cell repair
The key fact
to remember is that to upregulate cell repair – thereby boosting health and
longevity – you need to down-regulate or damp down the mTOR pathway.
Assuming fasting is not your option, there are drugs that do this – possibly including metformin. Exercise also helps suppress the mTOR pathway. But again, certain nutrients and food compounds do it.
So why risk the drugs?
Some of the
most powerful, natural, mTOR inhibitors include curcumin, EGCG (an ingredient
in green tea), Omega 3, olive oil, indoles (a compound in broccoli, sprouts and
kale), genistein (a compound in soy with anti-cancer credentials), grapeseed
extract, fisetin (again) and quercetin.
You should note that there are also factors that can dangerously over-stimulate the mTOR pathway, notably excess protein. This makes sense – if mTOR senses excess nutrition intake, it may go into cell replication overdrive and cancer is marked by unrestricted cell replication.
Garbage disposal for old cells
The final piece of the jigsaw is that down-regulated mTOR also cleans out dead cell debris, a process called autophagy – which literally means “self-eating”.
So, although senolytic activity and autophagy are not exactly the same, you want both of them working properly to do a frequent ‘internal spring clean’. Or as one researcher puts it – “to act like a garbage disposal system for old cells”.
The summary so far
Cleaning out senescent cells that are dead, but still present in the body, prevents them causing toxicity which leads to inflammation and thus to many diseases that are related to age, but not caused by ageing. That includes osteoarthritis, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Damping down mTOR activity encourages the process of cell repair, which otherwise becomes weaker over time. It also ensures that ‘zombie’ cells are cleared away.
You can liken both processes – which are vital for reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, dementia and even arthritis, and for increasing the years in which you remain healthy – to a regular spring clean.
There are natural compounds that do this – including nicotinamide (vitamin B3), the flavonoids in strawberries, blueberries, turmeric (curcumin), green tea, grapeseed, green leafy vegetables, onions and garlic.
What you can do with supplements
I need to
make a disclosure at this point.
I have been researching nutrition and health for over 30 years. Some years ago, when I was 60, I worked with the then Chair of the Forum on Food and Health at the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Paul Clayton, to create a comprehensive health food supplement. Because we knew from many surveys that a simple vitamin and mineral pill made little difference.
The multi-capsule daily health food supplement is called NutriShield.
It is high in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, because we knew that oxidative free radical damage and inflammation were key causes of chronic age-related illness.
It includes nutrients known to boost the immune system as we know immune function can decline with age.
It includes nutrients that help express or ‘turn on’ genes that lead to improved health – nutrients like lutein, betaine, omega 3, folate (folic acid), genistein, curcumin and beta carotene.
NutriShield also includes high levels of flavonoids and key vitamins and minerals – levels found in the diets of longevity hot-spots around the world called blue zones. But these levels are hard to achieve in a typical Western diet.
It’s only recently that the importance of clearing out toxic senescent cells has been uncovered.
However, we knew about the need to down-regulate mTOR and already had many of the mTOR down-regulators in NutriShield – nutrients like curcumin, green tea, genistein, Omega 3 and grapeseed.
We included high levels of flavonoids (and nicotinamide) because they are found diets of people who stay healthy the longest. We now know they are also senolytics. The potency of fisetin as a senolytic has only recently come to prominence, so it is not yet included in NutriShield.
Add strawberries every 2 weeks
An encouraging thing from the senolytic research is that it appears you don’t need to take action every day – an occasional, probably bi-weekly, clear-out seems to work very well.
So why not add a large bowl of strawberries at least once every two weeks? That’s certainly no hardship for most people! And canned or frozen are fine out of season.
Try this healthy eating plan – it’s simple and effective
It combines
the best health and nutrition advice from amongst others, Harvard Health, UCLA,
University College London and the American Cancer society.
The combination of NutriShield and the eating plan will tackle those zombie cells too!
This
article was written by Colin Rose, a Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society
of Medicine, who has been writing on science for 40 years.
If you enjoyed this article, please share it with family and friends. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily headline health tweets.
Register now for a free monthly e-newsletter on the latest in nutrition and health research.
Dr Paul Clayton designed NutriShield as a comprehensive health supplement with OPTIMUM levels of essential nutrients. See more detail elsewhere on this site or click on the button.
Dr Paul Clayton’s best-selling book Health Defence is available from booksellers.
See online here for delicious recipes from the Health Defence Cookbook incorporating healthy foods featuring in a Mediterranean Diet.
References:
Cellular Senescence: The Sought or the Unwanted? ; Sun, Y., Coppé, J. P., & Lam, E. W. F. Trends in Molecular Medicine. (2018).
Senescence in health and disease. He S, Sharpless NE. Cell. 2017; 169: 1000-1011
Cellular senescence and its effector programs. Salama R. et al; Genes Dev. 2014; 28: 99-114
New agents that target senescent cells: the flavone, fisetin, and the BCL-XL inhibitors, Yi Zhu, et al, Aging (Albany NY) 2017
Declining NAD(+) induces a pseudohypoxic state disrupting nuclear-mitochondrial communication during aging. Gomes AP et al, Cell. 2013 Dec 19;155(7):1624-38. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.11.037.
It is time to classify biological aging as a disease Sven Bulterijs, et al; Frontiers in Genetics 2015
Inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signaling by Natural Products Shile Huang*Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2013 Sep; 13(7): 967–970.
Senescence-associated secretory phenotypes reveal cell-nonautonomous functions of oncogenic RAS and the p53 tumor suppressor; Coppé, J. P., et al (2008). PLoS Biology, 6(12), e301.
The senescence-associated secretory phenotype: the dark side of tumor suppression. Coppé, J. P., Desprez, P. Y., Krtolica, A., & Campisi, J. (2010). Annual Review of Pathological Mechanical Disease, 5, 99-118.
Autophagy and signaling: their role in cell survival and cell death. Codogno, P. and Meijer, A. J. (2005). Cell Death Differ. 12 Suppl. 2, 1509-1518.
Defining the Role of mTOR in Cancer; Guertin, D. A. and Sabatini, D. M. (2007). Cancer Cell 12, 9-22.
https://nutrishield.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/long-life-signpost-SStk.jpg325500Colin Rosehttps://www.nutrishield.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/logo-1.pngColin Rose2019-05-21 15:44:422019-06-11 11:28:50Clear out ‘zombie cells’ and live healthier, longer
What to do when your blood pressure simply won’t go down
Researchers
have identified a condition called Resistant Hypertension – high blood
pressure that simply doesn’t respond to medical treatment – even when a
combination of drugs is used.
But a recent study from Johns Hopkins University in America shows that Resistant Hypertension can be lowered.
That’s good news when more than half the people over the age of 50 have elevated blood pressure (BP). Unfortunately most don’t realise they have the condition, which is why it’s called
‘The silent killer’
The health threat is obvious when a recent editorial in the Lancet calculated the risk of becoming hypertensive is greater than 90 percent for individuals in developed countries!
So, if you have struggled for years to get your blood pressure under control – or are over 50 – you are wise to follow this proven way to lower BP.
Especially when a 2018 report from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, shows that high blood pressure at 50 raises the risk of dementia in later life. ‘High’ being defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140.
The report in the European Heart Journal explained that high blood pressure has been linked to silent mini-strokes in the brain, damage to the brain’s white matter, and restricted blood supply to the brain.
A 10-point plan to reduce BP naturally
Following this 10 point plan will improve your health and normalise your blood pressure, without potentially dangerous drugs – whether you are aiming to reduce your Systolic Blood Pressure to below 140 or 120.
1. Eat a DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
The eating plan known as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. Research shows it can lower your blood pressure by up to 14 mm Hg.
Reducing inflammation reduces hypertension. Inflammation is linked to the build-up of cholesterol on arterial walls, which narrows and restricts the blood vessels, which means that the heart has to pump harder, which increases blood pressure.
2. Reduce sugar and other carbohydrates
Insulin plays an important role in high blood pressure, as many people with hypertension have insulin resistance.
Eating sugars and excess carbohydrates – including bread, pasta, potatoes, or rice which are metabolised as sugars – will cause your insulin levels to remain elevated, leading to increased insulin resistance. To compensate, your body generates yet more insulin. It’s a vicious circle.
Insulin encourages the uptake of magnesium, but if your body’s insulin receptors are compromised and your cells grow resistant to insulin, you will not store magnesium effectively. That’s a problem because magnesium relaxes muscles, especially those in your arterial network. If your magnesium level is too low, your blood vessels will tend to constrict rather than relax, which will raise your blood pressure.
Insulin further affects your blood pressure by encouraging your body to retain sodium. Sodium retention causes fluid retention – which in turn causes high blood pressure.
3. Increase your Omega 3 intake
Rollmop and caper bruschetta from the Health Defence Cookbook
We in the West are getting too much omega-6 in our diets and far too little omega-3. Omega 6 fatty acids – found in polyunsaturated plant oils like safflower, sunflower and corn oil – are used by the body to produce hormones that promote inflammation.
Omega 3 fatty acids (from oily fish) have the opposite effect – they are used to produce hormones that reduce inflammation – which as we’ve seen helps reduce blood pressure. Omega-3 fats have another benefit – they help to re-sensitize your insulin receptors if you suffer from insulin resistance.
Omega-3 fats are typically found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil and fish, with fish being easily the best source.
4. Lose excess pounds and watch waistline measurements
Weight loss is one of the most effective lifestyle changes for controlling blood pressure, because blood pressure often increases as weight increases. Losing just 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) can help reduce your blood pressure by up to 5 points.
Belly fat is especially dangerous and in general:
Men are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 40 inches (102 cm).
Women are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 35 inches (89 cm)
5. Less sodium and more potassium
Even a small reduction in the sodium in your diet can reduce blood pressure by between 2 to 8 mm Hg. In fact only small amounts of sodium occur naturally in foods – most sodium is added during processing. So eat fewer processed foods.
Sweet potatoes are high in potassium
In cooking, add less standard table salt; replace with low-sodium, high-potassium salts or other herbs and spices.
Add extra potassium to your diet which can lessen the effects of sodium on blood pressure. Good sources of potassium are bananas, avocadoes, spinach and sweet potatoes.
6. Reduce your stress
Chronic stress is an important contributor to high blood pressure. It’s not stressful events themselves that are harmful, but your feelings of inability to cope. Studies show that people with heart disease can lower their risk of subsequent cardiac problems by over 70 percent simply by learning to manage their stress.
So make time for this simple but effective de-stressing deep breathing exercise which can be done anywhere, and takes a short time but brings immediate results. Click to go to Instant Relaxation exercise.
You might also want to listen to some classical music. A study at the University of Florence showed that listening for 30 minutes a day for 30 days while breathing calmly, could ‘significantly’ reduce blood pressure.
7. Be physically active regularly
Regular physical activity — at least 30 minutes on most days of the week — can lower your blood pressure by an average of 7 mm Hg.
The best types of exercise for lowering blood pressure include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming or dancing. Strength training also can help reduce blood pressure as it helps to reduce insulin sensitivity.
You should try to exercise to an intense level. ‘Intense’ means exerting yourself sufficiently that you are out of breath and can’t comfortably talk to someone during your workout. Fast walking while swinging your arms is a simple way to ‘intensify’ your exercise.
8. Moderate alcohol
In small amounts, a drink can potentially lower your blood pressure by 2 to 4 mm Hg.
But that protective effect vanishes if you drink too much alcohol. The limit is generally one drink a day for women (and men over age 65), or two a day for men under 65. One drink equals 150ml (5 fl oz) of wine.
Drinking more than moderate amounts of alcohol can actually raise blood pressure by several points. It can also reduce the effectiveness of blood pressure medications.
Does coffee increase blood pressure? The evidence is that it may increase your BP levels short term, possibly by blocking a hormone that dilates your arteries. Drink more decaf and try hibiscus tea which has been shown to help lower BP.
9. Ensure an optimum level of vitamin D
Research shows that blood pressure is typically higher in winter months than during the summer!
That’s because sun exposure enable your body to produce vitamin D. Lack of sunlight reduces your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to insulin resistance and Metabolic Syndrome, a constellation of health problems that include elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels, obesity, and high blood pressure.
Unfortunately there is abundant evidence that almost all of us in the West are well below optimum vitamin D levels – and would benefit from a vitamin D supplement in the winter. See https://nutrishield.com/category/vitamins/vitamin-d/
10. Take a well-designed daily health supplement
No one vitamin or nutrient will make a lot of difference on its own. It is a combination that can make a real difference to blood pressure levels – and health generally.
Studies indicate that vitamins C and E can be helpful in lowering blood pressure, as can calcium and magnesium.
The optimum level of vitamin C is 500mg a day – at which level there are other benefits too – including a reduction in cataract risk. Vitamin C has been shown to increase the body’s production of nitric oxide which helps keep blood vessels dilated.
The optimum level for vitamin E is 70mg a day, ideally including all the tocopherols (d-alpha, d-beta, d-gamma and d-delta) – the “family” of vitamin E compounds that are more effective than simple d-alpha vitamin E.
Omega 3 fish oil should be included at a level of 1,000mg a day. To get that level you would need to eat oily fish 3 times a week, so a supplement is wise for most people.
To which nutrients add the powerful anti-oxidant CoQ10 which, along with vitamin B6, helps dilate blood vessels. The University of Maryland examined several studies and found that supplementing with CoQ10 over 4-12 weeks could deliver a remarkable 17 point drop in systolic levels and 10 points in diastolic.
Folic acid and the lesser known nutrient betaine are also important. They reduce the level of a blood protein called homocysteine. Homocysteine makes arteries less flexible and stiff – restricting blood flow and increasing blood pressure.
Finally polyphenols – the protective compounds in fruits and vegetables and in green tea – have a role to play in reducing inflammation and hence indirectly, blood pressure.
There is a supplement that includes all these nutrients and more. It was formulated by the former Chair of the Forum on Food and Health at the Royal Society of Medicine. It’s called NutriShieldPremium – www.nutrishield.com.
When a natural approach to preventing disease is available, it is a better choice than drugs. In the case of high blood pressure, the above 10 point plan is such a choice.
This
article was written by Colin Rose, a Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society
of Medicine, who has been writing on science for 40 years.
If you enjoyed this article, please share it with family and friends. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily headline health tweets.
Register now for a free monthly e-newsletter on the latest in nutrition and health research.
Dr Paul Clayton designed NutriShield as a comprehensive health supplement with OPTIMUM levels of essential nutrients. See more detail elsewhere on this site or click on the button.
Dr Paul Clayton’s best-selling book Health Defence is available from booksellers.
See online here for delicious recipes from the Health Defence Cookbook incorporating healthy foods featuring in a Mediterranean Diet.
References:
Ann Intern Med, Published online January 17, 2017. Guidelines.
A Randomized Trial of Intensive versus Standard Blood-Pressure Control N Engl J Med 2015; 373:2103-2116 November 26, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1511939
Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Trial: Design and Methods John B. Buse, MD, PhD The American Journal of Cardiology Volume 99, Issue 12, Supplement, 18 June 2007, Pages S21–S3
Intracellular magnesium and insulin resistance. Takaya J1, Higashino H, Kobayashi Y. Magnes Res. 2004 Jun;17(2):126-36.
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