Since the dawn of time people have been trying to find ways to live longer. However, living longer is no longer enough. Who wants to live long when they are unwell? The onus therefore, is now on living well longer. We all know the basic rhetoric that states that you have to have a healthy lifestyle in order to ward off chronic diseases such as mature onset diabetes, heart disease and obesity. However, recent research on the Blue Zones across the world has shown that aging is not only determined by life style.
Aging is also matter of our genetic inheritance and where we are born. How a person ages is the result of the influence of the accumulated impacts of our resources or lack thereof across our life span. This means that the relationships we have with our environments which are determined by the family we are born into, our gender fluidity, ethnicity, level of education and our financial status. Thus, the environment in which we live can either promote or hinder our health.
The environment is made up of our home, our community and our society. The factors in our environment that will help us stay healthy older relates to whether we are able in our society to meet our needs, continue to learn, grow and make decisions, build and maintain relationships and contribute to our society.
Furthermore, positive relationships and happiness helps lengthen our telomeres. Telomeres are small ribbon like structures in our cells that shorten with every cell division and determine how long we live. Recent studies have shown that doing things that make us feel good actually make these telomeres longer.
As for genetics, it accounts for 20-30% of influence on our health and aging. That means that we can still have a tremendous impact on the quality of our health as we age. Addressing the quality and the quantity of our nutritional needs is a good place to start. A good rule is to try to eat real food that is as close to its original form as possible. That means we need to control what goes into our meals. Therefore, minimizing restaurant meals and when we do eat out, opt for healthier choices that are comprised of vegetables, roasted or raw and protein sources as opposed to saucy items that are likely to involve high fat and salt contents. Having an alcoholic beverage now and then is quite acceptable but within limits.
As much as possible, opt for water when you’re thirsty, stay away from fruit juices, soft drinks, diet or not, pastries, desserts or processed foods. Include items like whole grains, above ground leafy vegetables, root vegetables, tree nuts, peanuts and berries. Eating a high fiber diet will prevent you from having to ingest supplemental fibers such as psyllium in order to regulate your bowel movements.
As some of the farm food we now eat may lack in nutritional value, you may want to consider taking supplemental magnesium, vitamins D2, C and vitamin D. People that are vegan likely do not have sufficient B12 vitamins, therefore they must supplement.
Fats are an important factor in our nutrition therefore don’t fret about eating animal and vegetable fats including meat, poultry, seafood and eggs in moderation. Stay away from trans fats that are added to packaged dry good like crackers and cookies. Eating two full meals a day with no in between snacking has been promoted to be the best. Your dinner plate should be made up of one half colourful vegetables, one quarter lean protein and one quarter carbohydrates like rice, potatoes or pasta. If you can fast every day for at least 14-16 hours it will help with autophagy.
Autophagy is the cellular cleanup process that removes damaged, aged components of cells allowing our cells to remain healthy. Autophagy decreases with age but we can trigger it by healthy fasting. The key to autophagy is short term stress. Calorie restrictions is well established to lengthen life span and reduce risk of certain diseases. If you are pregnant, breast feeding, are underweight, malnourished, have an history of an eating disorder, you are a child if you have gout, or are an endurance athlete you should avoid fasting. Always check with your health provider before attempting to fast.
Collagen is made from protein. Its production is also important to keep our tissues healthy including our skin. Eating foods that promote collagen production will give our body the building blocks to continue to produce healthy tissues like muscles and skin.
Foods that promote collagen production include meats such as beef, ideally grass fed as they will contain more omega 3 fatty acids. Chicken and pork that are pasture raised and/or organic are less likely to harbor antibiotic resistant bacteria and may contain natural vitamin E.
Vegetarians or vegans must eat a variety of protein sources to maintain their collagen production. Nuts are packed with protein, healthy fats and fiber. Opt for fresh, unsalted or minimally salted almonds, walnuts, pistachios, chestnuts, brazil and hazelnuts.
Seeds such as sunflower chia, pumpkin, hemp and flax are also packed with proteins, healthy fats, vitamins and nutrients.
Legumes are also good sources of protein, fiber, vitamin and minerals and will promote collagen production. Some of these include lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, canalini beans and navy beans. Soaking and sprouting beans overnight will help neutralize lectin and phytic acid effects that produce flatulence.
Other antioxidant rich foods are colorful fruits and vegetables. Try to eat them in all colours of the rainbow every day. Higher intake of vitamin C rich foods is also healthy for your skin and helps minimise the signs of aging like wrinkles. Try to eat at least two servings of vitamin C rich foods every day. Adding a vitamin C serum to your skin during your daily skin care routine will also help with wrinkles and with the damaging effects of sun radiation.
Other antioxidant foods that help with UV radiation are avocados, broccoli, butternut squash, carrots, pumpkin and spinach as they all contain higher levels of vitamin E.
Carotenoids, another antioxidant is found in tomatoes, red peppers, cabbage, collard greens, kiwi and orange peppers. These all contain lutein, lycopene and xeaxanthin that make up the carotenoids.
Spices such as basil, thyme, cinnamon or cumin don’t only make your food taste great, they are also packed with antioxidants, so don’t hold back on adding spice to your life.
Other good sources of antioxidants are green tea which is filled with catechins and polyphenols, black coffee with no sugar or creamers, and red wine which also contains polyphenols. Limit yourself with one glass of red wine as the effect of the alcohol will cancel out the beneficial effects. The antioxidant activity of dark chocolate (70% or higher) has been shown to be stronger than green tea or red wine.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods and our Microbiome
The microbiome in our gut is an important health determinant overall. Our skin is profoundly affected by the health of our gut. Some of the inflammatory skin disorders impacted by gut health are Rosacea, Ectopic Dermatitis and Acne.
It has also been shown the health of our gut can affect our moods and mental health.
Anti-Inflammatory foods include fermented foods such as kim chi, sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, kombucha and yogourt as well as turmeric.
Probiotic supplements should include at least 5-15 billion CFU from different sources daily.
If opting for collagen supplements, they should be hydrolyzed for easy conversion to low molecular weight peptides that are more easily absorbed. A 2021 study with 1125 participants showed favorable results in terms of skin hydration, elasticity and wrinkles. Other studies have shown similar results.
The Role of Exercise on Our Health and Longevity
There is an article that went viral after being published online on September 5, 2022 in the journal of the American College of Cardiology by Jason C Kavacic, of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Australia. It was called, Chronic ‘Exercise Deficiency’ Linked to HFpEF (decreased capacity of the heart to pump blood). I received it in my emails from a regular subscription to Medscape Medical News this September.
The authors set out to demonstrate that: 1) There is a strong association between physical activity and heart function; 2) That a lack of exercise is a major risk factor for heart failure due to decreased capacity for the heart to pump enough blood; 3) That increasing physical activity is associated with a larger heart that can pump more blood and deliver more oxygen to the body; 4) That the lack of exercise leads to the heart becoming smaller and stiffer therefore decreasing the amount of oxygenated blood it sends to the body; 5) That people who do not exercise during their lifetime cannot reverse the age related reductions in the size of their heart after a certain time.
La Gerche also added that exercise deficiency sets the stage for chronic illnesses that affect quality of life such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of which negatively impacts the heart’s capacity to deliver enough oxygen to our body causing a multitude of collateral damage to other body systems.
The obvious solution to ensure a healthy heart throughout our life span is to start exercising at a younger age and maintaining it throughout our life. After the age of 60, it becomes more difficult to improve on the heart’s function and size as the heart is harder to remodel.
Regular exercise that meets or exceeds the current physical activity guidelines is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, other chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and mortality. The minimal amount of exercise per week to remain healthy is determined to be between 150 and 300 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise or 75 to 250 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Included in this amount is weight bearing exercises for at least 20-30 minutes two times a week. This is because as we age, we lose muscle mass much more quickly. Weight bearing exercises helps us maintain our muscles, gives us the capacity to perform the cardiovascular exercises and helps prevent osteoporosis especially post menopause.
This level of exercise will have a beneficial impact on blood pressure, weight, cholesterol and a sense of well-being, especially if the exercise is out doors in a green space and with someone else.
If we consider the effect of a healthy lifestyle on our skin, we can conclude that more oxygen delivered to our skin cells will keep our skin fresh, youthful and healthier.
As you know, smoking of any kind is an absolute hindrance to our health. It affects every part of our body negatively including our lungs, heart and skin and will cause us to age much faster while contributing to severity of chronic diseases. It has also been found to cause many forms of cancer such as lung and bladder cancer.
It’s never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle but for most people change is very difficult. It’s important therefore to think about our motivation for changing and trying to make the changes in very small steps. Thinking about why we want to be healthy and keeping these reasons at the forefront of our thoughts will help give us the boost to get off the couch. It’s important however to start with very small steps for a better chance at longer term success. For example, someone who does not exercise at all or has been sedentary for more than a few weeks, starting to get out for a short walk for 10 minutes a day is manageable. Doing it at the same time every day when you know nothing else will get in the way increases your chance of doing it. Personally, I find getting out the door the most difficult. Once I am up and going, the rest is easy. I never regret getting out and I feel great once I’m done my exercise for the day. Once the habit is established, you can increase in small increments like adding 5 minutes a day every week. If the amount of time you set up in your goal is too overwhelming to get out, just tell yourself to do a very small amount like going back to 10 minutes. You may find that once you’re out there, you will want to do a bit more.
After a while, finding a group of people who are at our level of fitness and making a commitment to this group helps with motivation and makes the experience much more pleasant. Finding a personal trainer to help get you started can also provide incentive as you become accountable to showing up. There are many on line platforms now as well that you can connect to that will provide this service. Whatever way you choose to motivate yourself, once this practice becomes part of your daily activities and that you start seeing the benefits in your well-being, it will become easier to keep yourself motivated be active.
My Personal Fitness Journey
I started exercising and changing my lifestyle after years of schooling and child rearing when I realised I was 35 pounds overweight and easily out of breath. The pounds crept up on me very gradually. At that time, I also realised I had a very bad sense of self-worth. I have a strong family genes for obesity, hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. I did not want that for myself. My motivation was to live mentally and physically healthy to a ripe old age of 104. I have no idea if I will be able to reach that goal. Regardless, I started by joining a gym showing up and eventually getting a personal trainer to make me accountable. After a while I joined a group of tri athletes and set goals for myself. Through my years as a driven and focussed tri athlete, I managed to successfully complete many marathons and every distance in between as well as many short and long distance triathlons. My mental health has improved significantly and my weight slowly came off when I modified my diet to include healthier choices. I have maintained a healthy weight now for over ten years. I’m happy to say, that by setting goals and starting gradually, giving myself permission to have set backs, I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do in the endurance sports, including qualifying and competing in the Iron Man World Competitions in Kona. Although I no longer compete, I continue to enjoy many activities that require strength, balance and endurance with a community of athletes who keep me motivated.
Not everyone needs be this extreme but whatever your goals, there are people out there you can reach out to that will support you in your goals.
With the same passion and determination, I had to become an accomplished tri athlete, I have now set my goals to become the best I can be in the field of Medical Aesthetics. My goal now is to help each of my patients become the best version of themselves through the many modalities Chi Medical Aesthetics has to offer. Like lifestyle goals, each and every one of us are individuals with different ideas of what version of themselves they want to project, regardless of ethnicity, age or gender continuum.
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