Aging
The
passage of time is inevitable and eternal. Aging begins as early as from young
adulthood (around age 20 to 40) to middle adulthood (around age 40 to 65), and
continues to old age (beginning at the age of retirement, approximately at age
65). Aging occurs throughout most of one’s lifespan. The aging process is an
accumulation of changes, which may be subtle or sudden, and even drastic, that
progressively lead to disease, degeneration, and ultimately death. Truly, you cannot
die merely of old age; your ultimate demise is caused by advancing age itself,
as well as by the diseases and degenerative conditions that accompany it.
Aging
is difficult to define, but you will know it when you see it, or experience it
firsthand yourself. In brief, aging is a steady decline in health and wellness,
instrumental in shortening lifespan; and the aging process is the duration
during which such changes occur.
The hard facts of aging
Whether
you like it or not, your biological clock is ticking, and this will happen to
various systems in your body:
Your heart will pump less
blood, and your arteries will become stiffer and less flexible, resulting in
high blood pressure—a common health problem that often increases with age.
With less oxygen and nutrients
from the heart, your lungs will also become less efficient in getting and
distributing oxygen to different organs and membranes of your body.
Your brain size will slowly and
gradually reduce by approximately 10 percent between the age of 30 and 70. Loss
of short-term memory will become increasingly more acute and evident.
Your bone mass will reduce,
making it more brittle and fragile. Your body size will shrink as you lose your
muscle mass.
Your
biological clock is continuously ticking, whether you are conscious of it or
not. Your mortality has been pre-programmed into your biological organisms and
your body cells. Theoretically, you may have an indefinite lifespan through the
division, the rejuvenation, and the regeneration of your body cells and
organisms—if they are still healthy
and fully functional. Although your genes may have pre-determined the speed of
your biological clock, you can still slow down the speed of aging—if you still have good health.
So, what is good health?
Is being healthy synonymous with the absence of disease?
According
to the United States Public Health Service, good health is “preventing
premature death, and preventing disability, preserving a physical environment
that supports human life, cultivating family and community support, enhancing
each individual’s inherent abilities to respond and to act, and assuring that
all Americans achieve and maintain a maximum level of functioning.” This
statement probably sums up what you need to do in order to be younger and healthier
for longer; it says everything about aging.
Premature aging
The
truth of the matter is that you age, just like everyone else does. The point in
question is how you can delay that
aging process in order to make you not only feel but also look younger and
healthier for longer—or, at least, not making you age more quickly than you are
supposed to.
Unfortunately,
many of us have fallen victims to the accelerated aging syndrome, or premature
aging.
Accelerated aging syndrome
According
to Steven Masley, M.D., the former medical director of the Pritikin Longevity
Center in St. Petersburg, Florida,
you may have the potentials for accelerated aging, if you have just any three
of the following:
A fast blood sugar level of
more than 100 mg/dl
A blood pressure higher than
130/85
A waist larger than 35 inches
for women and 40 inches for men
Good cholesterol level (HDL)
less than 40 mg/dl for men, and 50 mg/dl for women
Triglyceride (a certain type of
fat in your blood) levels greater than 150 mg/dl
Factors contributing to premature
aging
There are several factors that increase the predisposition
to accelerated aging:
Your diet: you are what you
eat, and you become what you eat.
Your lifestyle: life on the
fast lane often leads to faster aging.
Your physical inactivity:
immobility brings about stagnation and degeneration.
Your stress level: stress kills
your brain cells, predisposing you to premature aging.
Your disease and physical pain:
disease and pain have a devastating impact on both the body and the mind.
Damaging free radicals
Your
body is composed of many different types of cells, made up of many different
types of molecules.
Free
radicals are molecules that contain unpaired electrons. Since electrons
have a very strong tendency to co-exist in a paired rather than in an unpaired
state, free radicals indiscriminately pick up electrons from other
healthy molecules close by. This chemical reaction converts those otherwise
“healthy” molecules into free radicals, and thus setting up a chain reaction
that can cause substantial biological damage to cells. Free radicals are highly
reactive, damaging not only cells but also chemicals in your body, such as
enzymes (for digestion), making them less effective and efficient.
Aging
causes oxidation, which literally means “rusting.” Free radicals cause
oxidative damage to cells and tissues. Free radicals do not make you younger
and healthier for longer; quite the contrary, they age you prematurely and
contribute to many diseases, including cancer and heart disease, among others.
Free
radicals occur naturally as byproducts of oxidation, such as during respiration
and other chemical processes. For example, during your breathing, life-giving
oxygen is produced while harmful carbon dioxide is released; digestion is
another oxidation process, in which your body obtains its energy from food
through oxidation, during which free radicals are also generated in the form of
waste buildup. Ironically, what gives life may also take away life indirectly.
Free
radicals are normally present in your body in small numbers, without causing
too much harm. However, over the long haul, the accumulation of these free
radicals may cause irreparable damage to your body cells and tissues, if such
accumulation is unchecked.
In
addition, free radicals can also be caused by external factors, such as
alcohol, nicotine, chemicals from foods and toxic pharmaceutical drugs, heavy
metals, such as cadmium and lead, from the environment, radiation from the sun
and other sources.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
