How to Shut Down Premature Aging
By James H O’Keefe, MD
Have you ever noticed how American presidents tend to age at hyper-speed while in office? One striking exception to this phenomenon was Harry Truman.
He stayed hardy and healthy and youthful despite taking over from FDR in 1945 during World War II. During his 8 years in office, and throughout his almost 90 years of life, Harry was a poster boy for healthy coping mechanisms. Each morning he walked briskly, “as if I had someplace important to be” as Harry liked to say. He also ate an amazingly healthy diet full of colorful fresh vegetables and fruits, and clean, unprocessed, natural protein sources—like fish and nuts, had stress-relieving hobbies like playing the piano and socializing with family and friends, and consumed one alcoholic drink per day.
The rate of aging of living creatures is genetically determined, programmed by nature. The pace of aging is to a large degree controlled at a cellular level by your telomeres. Each of the 500 trillion cells that work together to make up your body, have a full set of your DNA—the unique instruction book on how to build and maintain the one and only you. This DNA is contained within chromosomes, which are X or Y-shaped structures. The ends of chromosomes are capped by telomeres, which are like the tips on the ends of shoelaces that keep them from fraying. Each time the cell divides to make a new copy of itself, the telomere is shortened. When the telomere is whittled away to nothing, the DNA unravels like a shoelace that has lost its plastic tip. In essence, once its telomere is used up, the cell can’t make copies of itself anymore—which is a very, very big problem indeed.
Scientific studies consistently show that high levels of emotional stress over time cause increase cardiovascular risk, impair immune function, worsen general health and even shorten lifespan. The precise mechanisms by which chronic stress gets “under the skin” remain somewhat unclear, but recent studies show that cellular and genetic aging rate may play a role. Psychological stress has been linked with higher oxidative stress, lower telomerase levels, and shorter telomere length. These mechanisms can all cause cellular and genetic aging, and shorten longevity. Shockingly, one study found that women with the highest levels of emotional stress had telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women. In other words, a high stress lifestyle can make you ten years older, at a genetic level, than you really are. Importantly, a recent study of women who reported high levels of emotional stress, found that those who were sedentary (physically inactive) had shorter telomeres; while a similar group of emotionally stressed women who exercised at exercised at least 100 minutes per week suffered no shortening of their telomeres.
Bottom line: keep stress under control—easier said than done. Still, what fits into your busy hectic schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being disabled or dead 24 hours a day? You must make it a point to some vigorous physical activity on a daily basis. Include aerobic exercise, strength training (like weight lifting), and also include some stretching, like yoga. Also prioritize your rest and relaxation. The French say we Americans live to work, whereas they only work so that they can live. Take vacations, enjoy long and social meals, get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Make it a point to invest more of your time, money, and energy into personal relationships and experiences, and less of it on material things. And be sure to keep a sense of humor about life.