So why do we Age and what is Aging?
Try these known 4 major theories of aging on for size….
- The Wear and Tear Theory – this theory simply states the body and its cells are damaged by over-use and abuse. The wearing out of vital organs, gland and cellular structures is largely the result of stress. Stress speeds up our aging clock. Stress includes the daily anxieties from the fast-paced life we live and the demands placed on our time and focus. Stress also results from a poor diet and environmental toxins – high in processed foods, chemicals, sugars, acids, fats and artificial substances. These wreak havoc on our biochemistry and hormones by breaking down important proteins and gene-repairing mechanisms and reduce circulation in areas such as the digestive system.
- Free Radical Theory – Normal cell activity produces waste products. Along with environmental pollutants, poor nutrition and digestion are highly toxic to cells and DNA. These unwanted bio-chemicals, called free-radicals, are generated by the breakdown of oxygen (oxidization) and cause damage to the energy sites in the cells – the mitochondria. This process is similar to metals that rust, slowly weaken and get eaten away.
- Neuro-endocrine Theory – This is the decline of the nervous and endocrine systems and lessening of their ability to regulate and integrate the body’s key activities. Key hormones such as melatonin, HGH, IGF1 and DHEA decline by around 10% per decade. Decreased hormonal levels result in a body-wide imbalance that decreases the immune system, strength, metabolism and sexual functions.
- Genetic Control Theory – This theory states that the body’s own genes are genetically programmed to stop repair and maintenance after a pre-determined time. Scientists have discovered that specific genes are related to specific age-related illnesses. These genetic weaknesses predispose individuals to develop certain disorders by making them more vulnerable to outside influences such as stress, poor nutrition, and environmental toxins.
In total there are approximately 18 theories of aging, however these four are the most widely known and accepted theories.
So which is the most accurate explanation of Aging?
The facts seem to show that no one theory on its own can fully explain why we age. Scientists and Anti-aging specialists seem to agree that ageing is caused in part by all of these factors, and to successfully stave off the effects of aging.
How does the body work so efficiently?
In order to understand ageing we first need to quickly review our biology lessons to recall why and how the body functions. Our complete bodily functions (and there are thousands of these each minute), depend on a series of highly complex and critically timed chemical reactions in order to function ‘’normally’’. Every cell in your body depends on hundreds of chemical messages and electrical charges to communicate between themselves and within the cell, to instruct the cell and body what to do and when.
A simple movement or action requires millions of cells to function in unison to create that movement or action. It then stands to reason that in order for your body to function normally or optimally, it requires the right levels of chemical and hence biochemical reactions in order to do its job.
Ageing or the loss of optimal bodily functioning begins not so much when we reach a certain chronological age, but at such time as our bodily biochemistry is out of balance in greater or lesser amounts over a period of time, causing an array of symptoms from fatigue to other more serious diseases if left unchecked.
Low hormone levels from stress, the absence of important nutrients missing from food, high acidity levels from too much sugar, high pollutant levels and toxicity – in other words an unhealthy biological terrain – does not allow the body to function correctly.
Its natural communication channels and mediums are clouded or blocked. This poor communication ability creates all sorts of problems for the body, stopping it from operating effectively.
It automatically redirects its energy and its immune system in an attempt to rid itself of the excess toxins – pollutants introduced to it through processed and unnatural foods. In doing so, it lowers its ability to fight viruses and bacterial infections from the surrounding environment.
Cells making up the organs, glands and bones etc. don’t divide and renew as they should, in turn making them less efficient and effective and less able to perform their necessary functions, manifesting itself externally into what we see as ageing.
While we are young our bodies (through fewer years of abuse) can adapt to almost anything. That’s why young people can go out and play all night, consume large amounts of alcohol and pizza with spicy sausage and wake after a few hours’ sleep and put in a full day’s work. The down time and recovery for young people are much less, and their bodies can handle more punishment than in the years to follow. But as time goes on we have less and less ability, as our environment slowly deteriorates, to recover and renew.
The secret to slowing your Ageing
To help simplify and summarise the above, the real break-through occurred when scientists discovered that dramatic reductions in the rate at which we age could be achieved by simply altering and rebalancing the state of health of our internal biochemistry, ie. Regenerating and rebalancing our levels of hormones, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, coenzymes, fats, proteins, sugars etc. Studies have begun to believe and prove that if our biochemical environment is kept healthy and at youthful (optimal) levels, not only will we look and feel years younger but our chances of experiencing the diseases of ageing are far reduced.
You are What You Eat, Drink & Think!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . . although I believe you are not only what you eat, but what you drink, think and do. All these factors combined affect how you age, as all these factors have a direct bearing on the daily state and health of your biochemistry.
Your internal biochemistry is nothing more than the cumulative state (quality and quantity) of your body’s entire fluids and chemical profile, including substances such as water, proteins, fats, sugars, hormones, enzymes, co-enzymes, minerals, acids and other important substances that allow your body to undertake the critical functions – to grow, detoxify and repair itself on a daily basis.
It is this interaction and the inter-relationship between all these substances that determines how well and how effectively your body deals with itself and the billions of chemical actions and reactions that result in keeping you alive and healthy.
Control Your Age Forever
Your internal biochemistry is dramatically affected by 5 important factors that you have total control over.
- Stress
- Food you consume
- Exercise or physical exertion
- Pollution and environmental pollutants
- Your daily hormone levels
On a daily basis you have a choice as to what you expose yourself to and what you do. You can choose the foods you eat, the stress you put yourself under (or learn to manage this effectively), the amount of exercise or physical exertion you do, the pollutants and toxins you expose yourself to (for example whether to smoke or not, drink pure water or not etc.) and hence the effect it will all have on your toxicity, acidity, hormones and other internal biochemistry levels.
The point being made is that to succeed in slowing your rate of ageing, your first and most powerful tool is KNOWLEDGE, and second but equally important is your POWER OF CHOICE!
To be successful you need to instantly realize you are not a runaway train out of control with regard to your age and health. You have a complete choice over your environment, which in turn has a major bearing on how you age and your long-term health.
Therefore ageing is a matter of choice . . Your Choice!
Choose your environment carefully and you can by consequence Choose Your Age!…
Ask yourself ….did I make GOOD choices today?
Don’t worry you get another chance at practising good choices tomorrow!
