Recent studies suggest that humans can turn back their biological age clocks. A small clinical trial found that healthy participants could successfully reverse much of their predicted biological age by altering their lifestyle choices and taking medication.
Progeroid syndromes are rare genetic conditions that accelerate aging by changing lamin A (LMNA).
This alteration causes proteins to misfold into an unstable protein known as progerin that results in unstable cells that lead to progeria-like symptoms.
Sleep
As part of your anti-aging routine, restful, quality sleep is absolutely vital to good health and reverse aging. Restorating energy levels, supporting hormone production/balance and maintaining a strong immune system all depend upon getting sufficient restful, quality rest.
At night, most body systems slow down to conserve energy for later use, including our brains which need rest in order to function normally and process our thoughts, emotions and memories. Poor sleeping habits have been linked to chronic fatigue, mood disorders and memory issues; studies also demonstrate how poor rest accelerates cell aging and accelerates loss of collagen from our skin cells.
Sleep, Redox biology and Aging has become a focus of significant study. Lack of sleep disrupts redox regulation leading to increased ROS accumulation which then accumulates within mitochondria where it inhibits production of ATP thus aggravating oxidative stress – this self-reinforcing cycle speeds up aging process and contributes to neurodegenerative disease risk.
Studies on Drosophila indicate that similar mechanisms exist within humans, with redox imbalance and sleep disruption playing an integral role in shaping circadian rhythms, sleep architecture and mitochondrial function. While understanding the complex connection between sleep, redox metabolism and aging is difficult, understanding its interrelations may lead to new strategies for increasing healthspan and mitigating risk associated with age-associated diseases.
Researchers conducted an exhaustive analysis on more than 3,300 adults and concluded that sleep duration and stability are major indicators of successful aging. According to this research study, successful aging can be defined as being free from major chronic illnesses; having adequate physical functioning for daily activities; experiencing minimal depression symptoms and engaging fully in social engagement activities. Researchers divided participants into five groups according to their sleep duration trajectories and found that short consistent and consistently increasing trajectories were associated with lower odds of successful aging; long consistent and consistently increasing ones had higher odds. They suggest this connection between sleep, metabolic function and inflammation may explain variations in healthy aging throughout populations.
Stress
Stress is an inevitable part of life, but chronic anxiety can have serious repercussions for your health. Luckily, there are ways to effectively manage and prevent it from getting out of hand: exercise, sleep and healthy eating all are effective methods of doing so; but one of the most powerful approaches to alleviate anxiety is seeking support from friends and family – talking to an confidant can often ease concerns, while therapy or joining support groups may also provide beneficial relief.
Studies have demonstrated that chronic exposure to adverse conditions triggers a neuroendocrine stress response and accelerates biological aging through various mechanisms simultaneously.1
Stress triggers the release of hormones that induce inflammation and damage DNA and cells. Furthermore, chronic stress shortens telomeres–protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that protect chromosomes–leading to further oxidative stress and accelerate aging processes.
These processes may also contribute to the development of cancer and cardiovascular, neurological, and autoimmune diseases.1
Psychological stress is a known risk factor for numerous pathologies and is related to both an increased rate of whole-body aging as well as having direct impact on the endocrine system.2
Studies indicate that stress increases biological age in humans and manifests itself through changes to DNA methylation levels.3
However, this does not provide an accurate representation of biological age as the effects of stress may be reversed once tension subsides4.
Lower biological ages have been linked with better health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease, immune dysfunction and metabolic disorders.
