Scientists have recently demonstrated how young plasma injections can reverse aging in rats by rejuvenating blood, organs and immune systems.
Plasma fraction treatment caused the DNA methylation age of treated old rats to move towards that of young untreated rats, as indicated by their orange dots moving away from their controls (figure 2). This effect was noted across all six clocks: blood, liver, brain and hypothalamus samples.
1. Exercise
Exercise is an integral component of healthy living and can help reverse the signs of aging in rats. Treadmill exercise is one popular form of physical activity used to combat signs of aging in rats; swimming and voluntary wheel running may also provide benefits. All of these exercises may help decrease oxidative stress levels, improve blood flow and expand cell size – three benefits which all reduce signs of aging in rat species.
Exercise can also have the added advantage of helping aging rats improve cognitive function. This can be measured using the Barnes maze test, which measures latency periods while rats attempt to escape from small holes within a cage. In one study conducted, treated old rats had significantly shorter latency periods than untreated old rats – an indicator of improved learning and recall abilities.
The results were groundbreaking: rejuvenating plasma fraction reduced epigenetic age in liver, heart and brain tissues by over 50%! Furthermore, treatment reduced oxidative stress and chronic inflammation – hallmarks of aging. Intriguingly enough, researchers discovered these changes weren’t limited to rats alone but could be transferred across mammalian species, suggesting rejuvenation may also apply to humans and other mammals alike.
2. Diet
Decades of research into aging rats indicate that caloric restriction (CR) prolongs lifespan while slowing fat accumulation, while simultaneously turning back biological clocks in liver, blood and the hypothalamus area of the brain.
An innovative study published by GeroScience showed that using young pig plasma, E5, reversed biological age by over 50% among elderly rats. Researchers administered injections of this treatment into these animals’ bodies and discovered their DNA methylation markers were younger than in untreated old rats.
Cross-species epigenetic transfer has never before been observed and could have significant ramifications for future anti-ageing medicine. Furthermore, the study demonstrated how treatment increased memory and speed during maze tests with rats; suggesting it might work for humans as well.
Scientists speculate that aging may be triggered by communication barriers between cells. Therefore, stress reduction, diet optimization, exercise and sleep improvement are effective ways of improving health and extending lifespan – an example being seen with naked mole rats who live years longer with healthy habits such as these.
3. Sleep
Scientists at Harvard Medical School believe they may have discovered how to reverse the effects of aging through epigenetic study, injecting reprogramming factors into mice that effectively reversed their age progression.
Scientists targeted OPCs, or oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, in the brain as stem cells known to give rise to various kinds of neurons in the central nervous system and decrease with age. Researchers discovered that by deleting Piezo1 protein from OPCs they behaved younger and transplanting OPCs from older to younger rats helped improve older rats performance on maze tests.
Sprague Dawley rats of both sexes were used for blood, liver and heart tissue samples as well as the plasma fraction experiment. Two DNA methylation-based age estimators were trained on each animal: one to estimate absolute rat age in years while the other estimated relative human-rat age by dividing lifespan by total lifespan.
After just one month of plasma fraction treatment, old treated rats performed Barnes maze tests more quickly compared to untreated controls; their blood, liver and heart tissue also demonstrated decreased epigenetic age.
4. Meditation
Meditation has been shown to improve brain function, reduce stress and enhance focus and mood. Furthermore, it may even slow aging by increasing activity of telomerase, the enzyme responsible for maintaining telomere length. Studies have revealed that even 15 minutes of meditation practice has an amazing impact on gene expression that controls telomerase activity – even for novice meditators!
Meditation may help slow cellular aging by decreasing inflammation responses and stress hormone levels, as well as by counteracting chronic stress by providing emotional stability, mental clarity, and increased empathy.
Yuvan Research conducted an astounding research study that has demonstrated it is possible to reverse biological aging in rats by more than 50% with young pig plasma nanoparticles, making this the first cross-species epigenetic therapy ever applied successfully to mammals.
But this study was only limited in scope; only immune cells were studied. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted in order to see whether or not its results transfer to other tissues and organisms. Furthermore, protecting telomeres by themselves does not prevent or delay disease; for this to occur a more comprehensive rejuvenation therapy based on Yamanaka factors would need to be implemented.
5. Vitamins
Studies of anti-aging diets and drugs have demonstrated how restricting certain nutrients can lengthen healthy lifespan in lab organisms such as yeast, worms, flies and rodents – yet these findings have yet to translate to humans – it could take decades before an anti-ageing diet or drug is safe enough for clinical trials on human populations.
Step one in this goal is understanding what causes organisms to age, as well as strategies for stopping or reversing these processes. Researchers are currently investigating vitamins and minerals that could play a part in this aging process.
Vitamin C has been proven to significantly reduce oxidative stress and support immune system function in aged mice. A study using mice with gene deletions that increase susceptibility to oxidative damage revealed that those fed high doses of vitamin C experienced significantly less frailty index scores compared with control mice.
Vitamin D, another key nutrient for age-related gene expression regulation, can either be obtained directly from sunlight exposure or taken as a supplement. One study using old mice with enlarged livers and low circulating levels of calcium and phosphorus demonstrated how supplementation with vitamin D3 reduced frailty index scores while at the same time increasing cognition scores when treated with this vitamin D3. Researchers discovered improved cognition when treated with this vitamin D3.
6. Medication
As one way of combatting the process of ageing, medication may help slow its process; but could turning back your biological clock really be possible? A small clinical trial in California seems to indicate this possibility: participants taking growth hormones combined with two diabetes medications lost on average 2.5 years from their biological ages within one year, as well as experiencing signs of rejuvenation within their immune systems. While this evidence supports reseting biological clocks may be possible, further research will need to be completed before definitive results can be confirmed and replicated.
Shinya Yamanaka’s 2006 discovery that adult cells could be reprogrammed back into an embryonic-like state was an extraordinary breakthrough and earned him the prestigious Noble prize in cell biology. This research represented an essential step toward therapies designed to combat aging and its related diseases.
Scientists at the Salk Institute in the US have been conducting tests using this reprogramming technology, and believe they have managed to slow down aging in mice by rejuvenating organs and slowing the rate of decline. After giving old mice Yamanaka factors treatment, their kidneys and skin appeared younger compared to untreated ones.
7. Supplements
Supplementation with antioxidants has been demonstrated to reverse aging in rats. Antioxidants play an integral role in relieving oxidative stress and inflammation, with fruits and vegetables providing some source of these essential antioxidants. For best results, consume a balanced diet to get all of the antioxidants your body requires.
Scientists are researching methods of delaying human aging. One approach involves extracting senescent cells that remain in tissues and can cause health issues; they’re not usually removed during normal cellular cleaning processes and could trigger inflammation.
Senescent cells also produce more reactive oxygen species that damage healthy cells, potentially leading to disease or cancer. To combat this issue, scientists are developing drugs designed to eliminate these senescent cells.
Researchers have developed an anti-aging treatment that is effective against mice and can even reverse it in rats. This novel therapy employs reprogramming factors to modify older cells’ epigenetics, thus restoring their functionality and prolonging lifespan. Researchers hope that eventually humans may also benefit from this breakthrough; in the meantime it represents a huge step toward reverse aging rapamycin blocks an enzyme in your body that produces glucose production, slowing it down while protecting from it as well.
