Oct. 18 - Seven Steps to A More Youthful Life

Seven Steps to A More Youthful Life

By Al Sears, MD

When you were young, you probably said you never wanted to get old. I can understand why. As you age, you are ever more likely to get cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, deafness, blindness, incontinence, osteoporosis, arthritis, and impotence. Aging conjures up fears of be­coming a weak and feeble invalid, a burden to your loved ones because you can no lon­ger take care of yourself.

Imagine though, if you could live to a ripe old age of 100 or so, yet retain the same body you had at say, 35. Imagine if you recaptured all the energy, strength, and resistance to disease that you had when you were young.

Fortunately, medical science is currently discovering how and why the human body ages. Within the next few decades, it looks like science will learn how to put an end to the suffering of old age. And right now, there is enough known to significantly stall or even reverse certain aspects of the pro­cess of aging.

In this report, I’m going to show you some very advanced tools you can use to slow down the rate at which you age. The more slowly you age, the more youthful you remain. This can not only extend your life but also save you from suffering from “old age” disease and disability. It will also help you look and feel years younger.

How and Why You Age

When I lecture on Anti-aging, I have learned from the audience to clarify one thing first. Anti-aging is not the same thing as life extension. That would make it anti-death. But aging and death are two different things.

Aging is the process by which you grad­ually weaken and lose function. Anti-aging seeks to understand this process and inter­vene to preserve youthful characteristics. The recently discovered genetic control of aging has opened up a completely new world of possibilities.

The most important medical discovery of all time

History may mark the beginning of the 21st century as the time when we finally unlocked the secrets of aging…and learned how to stop the process. It will change the course of human history.

Your body is constantly renewing, re­building, and repairing itself throughout your live. With all this constant renewal, you should stay young forever. But you don’t. We all age. Even newly minted cells from an 80-year old are readily recognizable as cells from an aging body. These brand-new cells look and act older than cells from a younger person. How can this be?

In 1990, Nature published a ground­breaking article based on something called the telomere. It changed forever our under­standing of the aging process.

Previous theories of aging, such as free radical damage, glycosylation, collagen cross-linking or other proposed mecha­nisms, now appear to be simply features of the aging process but not the true cause.

To say that we age because of free radical damage is analogous to the FAA announc­ing that the cause of a plane crash was grav­ity. Clearly, the force of gravity pulled the plane to the ground. But gravity exerts equal force on every plane in the sky, most of which safely reach their destination.

In the same way, our bodies are as­saulted by free radicals from the day we are born. We have mechanisms that effectively quench free radicals and correct the dam­age. We must understand why they stop.

The story begins with Leonard Hay­flick’s accidental discovery that cells divide about 80 times and then slow down and stop. This is now known as the “Hayflick Limit.” 1

We now know why our cells stop divid­ing. It turns out that there is a mechanism built into each cell, a sort of clock that lim­its the number of times a cell can divide. It is controlled by something called a telo­mere, which is a stretch of DNA that oc­curs at the end of every chromosome.

Every Time Your Cells Divide,The Clock Is Running Down

Most of the cells in your body have the ability to reproduce at will. But, contrary to a century of scientific doctrine, we now know that each daughter cell does not re­ceive a complete copy of the parent cell’s DNA. Each time a cell divides, a tiny por­tion of the DNA, a portion of the telomere at the end of the chromosome—is lost. 2

Each new generation of cells have slight­ly shorter telomeres than their parents. In fact, you can judge the age of a cell by mea­suring telomeric length. When the telo­mere gets sufficiently short, the cell enters programmed cell death.

So the telomere serves as a counter, or clock, for the cell. But the telomere does more than just tell time. As the telomere shortens, it changes the behavior of the cell. Cells with shorter telomeres begin to slow down. The signals that control hor­mone output and immune function be­come weaker. They start to act old.

When enough cells act old, they create a ripple effect. Eventually, the damage pro­gresses to the point that your body can no longer defend itself and succumbs to dis­ease.

There are strategies that you can put into play today that will help slow the shorten­ing of your telomeres, thus slowing the ac­tual aging process.

Keep your homocysteine levelin a healthy range

Homocysteine is an amino acid that ac­cumulates in the tissues. If you have high levels of this dangerous substance in your bloodstream, you greatly increase your risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Par­kinson’s disease, and impotence.

It’s no coincidence that homocysteine levels have been correlated with the most common degenerative diseases of aging. Researchers have discovered that high ho­mocysteine tripled the amount of telomere length that was lost during cell division. This is tripling the speed at which your body is aging. 3

There is more reason than ever to closely monitor and correct high homocysteine lev­els in the blood. Your doctor can measure homocysteine with a simple blood test. It is very easy and inexpensive to correct high homocysteine levels with the following nu­trient protocol. You can get these nutrients at any health food store.

Vitamin B12.........................500 mcg

Folic Acid..............................800 mcg

Vitamin B6...............................25 mg

Riboflavin (B2)........................25 mg

TMG (trimethylglycine)......500 mg

Reversing Human Aging

Many argue that aging is a natural phe­nomenon that should be accepted as the natural order of things. Aging may be nor­mal, but that doesn’t make it desirable.

There can be no doubt that the aging process is the root of serious health prob­lems. We die because we get sick. But we get sick because we get old.

New technology that can rebuild the telomere and reset the biological clock now appears tantalizingly close. It turns out that our bodies already hold the answer. We are all born with the capacity to make an enzyme called telomerase. It can rebuild the telomere at each cell division so that the new daughter cells will behave no older than the parent cell. We all have the gene for this enzyme but the gene is switched off. About a decade ago, a team of Ameri­can scientists cloned the gene for human telomerase.

Eternal Youth

A biotechnology company called Geron Corporation owns the patent for telomer­ase. It is leading the research on the use of telomerase as an anti-aging therapy. (It is also researching the development of telom­erase inhibitors as a cancer treatment. If a cancer cell could have its telomerase turned off, it would grow old and die like a nor­mal cell.) So far, the results of research on telomerase as an anti-aging therapy are ex­tremely encouraging.

By inserting a gene for telomerase into aging cells, it is possible to restore the shortened telomeres to lengths more typi­cal of younger cells. Geron has taken cells from old mice and restored their telomeres to youthful lengths. These cells looked and acted in every way like young cells. And now last summer, they succeeded in chang­ing a tissue culture of old human skin into youthful skin with telomerase.

Imagine if all the cells in your body functioned the way they did when you were thirty, you wouldn’t see the kind of degen­erative conditions that are characteristic of aging. Your bones and joints would remain strong and your skin supple. Your immune function would remain vigilant and your heart vigorous.

Everything we currently associate with aging: heart disease, arthritis, hearing loss, failing eyesight, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis could become as rare in 70-year-olds as they are in 30-year-olds. You simply will not age.

But before we can create eternally youth­ful bodies, we have to consider safety. One major concern is that the stimulation of telomerase could trigger or promote cancer. Abnormal presence of telomerase is seen in the development of cancer.

The University of Texas and Geron have both tested telomere-restored cells. Cells were monitored for cancer development. The immortalized cells were even exposed to cancer causing proteins to see if they could provoke cancerous behavior. All of the cells were found to be stable and can­cer-free. 4

The research continues to look positive. It seems that anti-aging therapy via telom­erase as an option for humans is drawing

nearer. I would be surprised if we don’t see some human applications within 10 years.

But in the meantime, your cells are di­viding, your telomeres are shortening and you are getting older. I told you that homo­cysteine actually speeds aging by accelerat­ing the shortening of your telomeres. Keep­ing your homocysteine levels low is a good first step to make sure you don’t accelerate aging. Now evidence is clear that you can also take action to rebuild the length of your telomeres.

Despite his critics …Linus Pauling was right.

The Noble Prize winning scientist Linus Pauling was the first to claim that vitamin C could extend your life. Dr. Pauling took between 12,000 and 18,000 mg of vitamin C every day for 40 years.

Pauling’s theory was dismissed until the 1980’s when scientists discovered that anti­oxidants could protect cells from oxidative damage. The free radical theory of aging became popular. Vitamin C was found to be among the nutrients that protect cells from free radicals.

But oxidative damage to cells can be re­paired. It is the oxidative damage to telo­meres that is not repaired. This results in further shortening of telomeres. This very specific effect of free radical damage helps drive the aging process.

In 1998 Japanese study tested vitamin C’s effect on telomeres. It was found that raising the level of vitamin C in the cells could slow down the loss of telomeres up to 62%. 5

The Recommended Daily Allowance of 60mg of Vitamin C per day is not enough to slow telomere loss. You must take larger doses. The telomere preserving, anti-aging benefit of vitamin C appears to begin at about 500 mg, twice a day. This is also the dose that vitamin C begins to have it anti-oxidant benefit. Personally, I have taken 1‑2000 mg twice a day for 25 years.

Burn Energy Likea 20 Year-oldYet Live to Be 100

You, like all animals on the planet, get your energy through a process called oxi­dation. Oxidation occurs outside of living systems as well. When oxidation occurs very rapidly, we call it fire. Fire derives enor­mous energy very quickly but is of course a very destructive process.

This is analogous to what happens in­side your body. You have to burn energy through oxidation to live. But, oxidation damages surrounding tissues. The higher the rate of oxidation, the greater the dam­age done. In other words, the faster you live, the more damage you do to yourself.

In fact, we are learning that oxidative damage correlates with the negative effects of aging in each organ system. For instance, it’s not the amount of cholesterol you have that correlates to cardiovascular disease but the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

This is the underlying reason for the paradox inherent in the statistics of living longer. Many of the things the statisticians tell us will make us live longer, are tanta­mount to not living at all. They admon­ish us to avoid this or that until there is nothing left for fun.

You would likely live longer if you shut yourself in, don’t smoke or drink, eat very little, go to bed early, abstain from sex and never allow yourself to become excited -if you can call that living. But swearing off wine, women and song is not my idea of the good life.

This brings me to the real point of this letter. My patients often ask me, “Doctor, which vitamins do you take?” This is what I tell them: I have taken a multivitamin every day for the last 30 years. The most important change in all that time has been the accumulation of evidence for the ben­efits of antioxidant supplements.

Playing with Fire without Getting Burned

Nature has provided protection against oxidation. We call these naturally occur­ring fire fighters antioxidants. They are a group of diverse vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that do much more than provide needed nutrients. They protect your deli­cate biomachinery from the fire of living. The problem is that the longer you live and the harder you live the more you overwhelm your natural antioxidant systems.

I don’t want to stop living hard. I don’t really even want to slow down. And I’ve al­ways been uncomfortable advising my pa­tients to do anything that I’m not willing to do myself. My solution for them and my­self has been the supplementation with an ample and aggressive antioxidant regimen.

Many antioxidants are also your body’s free radical fighters. Free radicals destroy the cells in your body. Free radicals are fragments of oxygen, which are byproducts of normal oxidative processes. Your body is constantly making free radicals every time it produces energy.

Through research and testing, I have sorted through the hype and found which antioxidants are really proven to work. The seven most important antioxidants are Vi­tamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Alpha Li­poic Acid, CoQ10, Lutein, and Lycopene.

You can live longer by living the life of a monk or if you chose to live your life at a more robust pace, you might want to do as I do and take “The Magnificent Seven” battery of antioxidants.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is in a family of compounds called carotenoids. It is fat-soluble and very important for maintaining a healthy and youthful body. Vitamin A is best known for aiding in good eyesight. But this vita­min is good for much more than that. Here are some other attributes of Vitamin A:

Prevents night blindness by prevent­ing free radical damage in the eye.

Lowers the risk of macular degen­eration, which is the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.

Decreases the risks of lung and breast cancer by supporting the im­mune system.

Maximizes skin health by playing a key role in the integumentary system.

Vitamin A can be found naturally in meat, milk, eggs, liver, carrots, and spinach. I recommend taking 2,500 IU of Vitamin A per day.

Vitamin E Is Not What We Used To Think

The term “Vitamin E” is perhaps out­dated. It is best used to as a generic word to describe a group of eight compounds. These compounds include four types of tocopherols and four types of tocotrienols. Put simply, tocopherols and tocotrienols are specific types of Vitamin E like com­pounds. Vitamin E:

Fights free radicals that cause dis­eases of inflammation (such as rheu­matoid arthritis)

Lowers risk of heart disease by in­creasing blood circulation

Lowers risk of cancers in the pros­tate, colon , and breast

The best way to get Vitamin E is as a mix of the four tocopherols and the four toco­trienols. It is important to note that too much of one tocopherol in the body can stop the absorption of the other tocopher­ols. So a good mix is to your greatest ad­vantage. I recommend 400 IU of Vitamin E a day.

VITAMIN C

I talked about Vitamin C as the only substance shown to preserve the age con­trolling telomere. But no discussion of anti-oxidants could be complete without discussing the unique role of Vitamin C.

Humans are among only a handful of animals that do not naturally produce Vi­tamin C. You are dependant on getting Vi­tamin C from your diet. Here are some of Vitamin C’s important functions:

Fights free radicals before they can do damage

Maintains body structure by being an important ingredient in collagen (collagen’s integrity is dependent on Vitamin C)

Helps the immune system by stimu­lating antibodies and other immune system cells

Aids the nervous system by contrib­uting to the production of amino ac­ids that regulate the nervous system.

Helps to break down histamines with are the inflammatory element of allergic reactions

Vitamin C is found in an array of foods including oranges, strawberries, broccoli, and bell peppers. You can get your mini­mum daily requirement from food. But to get antioxidant amounts, you’ll have to take a supplement. I recommend at least 500 mg twice a day. Many of my anti-aging patients are taking 2-5000 mg per day in divided doses. Take it with food to avoid an upset stomach.

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) was discovered in 1951. It plays a vital part in the produc­tion of cellular energy. It has been dubbed the “Universal Antioxidant”. It is unique because it can fight free radicals in both the oil and water areas of cells. Here are some other functions of ALA:

Lowers the risk of atherosclerosis, lung disease, and neurological dis­orders by fighting the specific free radicals that contribute to these af­flictions.

Recycles and extends the life of other free radicals like Vitamin C, E, and CoQ10.

ALA is one of the most effective free radical fighters known. It is most common­ly found in red meat. I recommend taking 100 mg of alpha lipoic acid every day.

Coenzyme Q10

CoQ10 is crucial in the creation of ener­gy that cells use to exist. Your major organs use CoQ10 as energy. The body cannot survive without the presence of CoQ10. In natures cleaver design Co Q10 simultane­ously provides energy guzzling organs with “high octane” fuel and protects them from the resultant oxidation. Coenzyme Q10:

Destroys free radicals in the cell membranes.

Prevents arteriosclerosis by protect­ing against the accumulation of oxi­dized fat in blood vessels.

Successfully treats heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cho­lesterol.

CoQ10 is found in fish and in the organ meats of animals. I highly recommend tak­ing 30 mg of CoQ10 every day.

Lutein

Lutein is related to vitamin A and beta-carotene. It is a member of the carotenoid family. Carotenoids give bright colors to your vegetables. Lutein contributes to pig­ment in your retina. It is a critical nutrient for eye health. It’s known to:

Protect vision by neutralizing free radical in the lens and retina.

Act like sunglasses by shielding the eye from harmful sunlight.

Lower the risk of cancer and car­diovascular disease by stopping free radical damage that contributes to these diseases.

Lutein can be found in red grapes, egg yolks, squash, peas, and oranges. I recom­mend taking 20 mg of lutein every day.

Lycopene

Lycopene is also part of the carotenoid family. It is the pigment in many vegetables. It is most commonly found in tomatoes. Once absorbed, lycopene is widely distrib­uted in the body. It is concentrated most in the liver, lungs, prostate, colon, and skin. Lycopene’s many functions include:

Prevents coronary artery disease by stopping the oxidation of LDH (bad) cholesterol.

Reduces the risk of prostate and pancreatic cancers by fighting free radical damage.

Aids in preventing macular degen­eration by neutralizing free radicals in the eye.

Lycopene is found in tomatoes, guava, peppers, watermelon, and pink grapefruit. I recommend taking 20 mg of lycopene a day for maximum health.

It is possible to get some of these vita­mins from your food. But in order to get the antioxidant levels, supplements are nec­essary. For example, antioxidant doses of vitamin E are virtually impossible to get in the diet. You would have to eat 2 pounds of sunflower seeds every day!

All of these antioxidants (except for Vi­tamin C) are oil soluble. They should be taken in gel cap form. Try to find as many of them as you can together in a single supplement. Take them with a teaspoon of flaxseed oil or peanut butter for best absorption. Or taking them during a meal with fat or oil in it will do the trick.

Taking these antioxidants will help quench oxidative damage. Remember that antioxidants slow age associated changes to

your of cells. They will help you look and feel younger as well.

Life The Most Scientifically Validated Extending Solution

If you want to increase your chances of living longer, eat less.

Restricting calorie intake is absolutely the most proven method to extend life. It works in every animal model that has yet been tested. Mice, rats, Guinea pigs, rab­bits, dogs and fruit flies all live about one-third longer if you feed them less. In hu­mans, this would amount to an additional 25 years of life. Not only do calorie-re­stricted animals increase life span but they also look and behave younger.

The work of Drs. Wolf and Pendergrass at the University of Washington, Seattle, shows that caloric restriction slows the rate of cell division. Remember that, in a cell, age is measured not in elapsed time but in the number of cell divisions. If you slow cell division, you slow aging because fewer cell divisions mean less shortening of telo­meres.

Dr. Ray Walford is also experimenting with calorie restriction. He has extended the lives of various small animals. Dr. Wal­ford is a professor of pathology and a phy­sician at UCLA Medical School. He is a firm believer that people can extend their life through manipulating their diet. Dr. Walford is so convinced that he has volun­teered his own body for a life-long experi­ment. He is now in his late seventies and has been restricting his own calories for the past 15 years.

Simple Doesn’t Always Mean Easy

There are some obvious problems with employing this most fundamental anti-ag­ing strategy. For one, it’s very tough to do. Additionally there are some tradeoffs to living longer through permanent calorie re­striction. You will grow smaller, your meta­bolic rate will drop and your sex hormones will plummet. The drop in testosterone in both men and women suppresses sex drive. If continued it causes a reversal of sexual characteristics like body hair and breast de­velopment. It appears nature doesn’t want you to begin a family if you are starving.

To employ this strategy, you must per­manently reduce your caloric intake to about 2/3 of what it takes to maintain your current weight. An initial weight loss ta­pers off as the metabolism adjusts to a low­er metabolic rate.

It is not possible to test this in the tra­ditional model of controlled studies. You would have to control everything a person ate for an entire lifetime. There are, how­ever a small but growing group who have decided to use themselves to test long-term calorie restriction.

They call themselves “Cronies”. It’s short for “calorie restriction with optimal nutrition”. Cronies have experimented with calorie restriction to the point that it is their only way of life. They know that the diet is working by monitoring their vi­tal signs. Cronies look for drops in their temperature, sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Long-living monkeys and rats placed on calorie restricted diets expe­rience the same drops in vital signs.

This extreme approach to diet will ex­tend life. It is, however, no surprise that it has not become popular. It is not my idea of “living”. But there are important principles here that can be applied to less extreme ap­proaches.

Lengthening Your Life Safely

If you are highly motivated to slow ag­ing, especially in the anticipation of the advent of more user-friendly anti-aging therapies within the next several years, you might want to consider shorter term caloric restriction as an interim strategy. I practice and advocate a modified version of caloric restriction, consisting of regular fasting for one or two days every 10 to 14 days. For many, this is more realistic.

And regular fasting has other anti-ag­ing benefits. Short-term fasting triggers increased production of human growth hormone, one of the most important anti-aging hormones, and one that declines dra­matically after the age of 30.

In September 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences made an ex­citing announcement. A new study revealed that short-term calorie restriction length­ens life. The scientists looked at 11,000 mouse genes that showed the effects of cal­orie restriction. Short-term calorie showed up in the genes very rapidly. The youthful effects could even be seen in older organ­isms that had never been previously calorie restricted. 6

Under eating is anti-aging. And over­eating is age accelerating. The emerging evidence for the cellular mechanisms for caloric intake to affect aging is one more good reason to avoid overeating.

Here are some strategies that will stop you from overeating and help you to work toward restricting your calories.

Avoid high calorie foods

Avoid eating late at night

Stop eating once you are satisfied (leaving extra food on the plate)

Don’t eat while you are distracted (as when reading or watching TV)

Try short-term fasting (for about two days at a time)

Muscle Is Youth

Did you know that you are losing about 3 pounds of muscle mass per decade? Most people don’t. They don’t notice because the lost muscle is replaced with fat. You should be concerned over this loss of muscle - and you should build it back.

Loss of muscle is interconnected with the mechanisms by which you age. The amount of muscle you have is a key factor in regulating other metabolic activities.

Muscle is important in maintaining each of these body functions:

Supporting bones

Reducing osteoarthritis

Aiding in sexual health

Thyroid hormone production

Maintaining adrenal production

Controlling metabolic rate

Stimulating human growth hormone

Preventing chronic aches (like back pain)

A Finnish study,the Evergreen Project, is currently studying the effects of muscle on the aging process. Men and women be­tween the ages of 65 and 94 are participat­ing in the study. It is proving wide-ranging benefits that go hand in hand with muscle building. The participants with the most muscle are experiencing better mental function, fewer chronic illnesses, and lon­ger life spans. 7

Reversing the Age-Associated Loss of Muscle

The most powerful tool for building muscle is exercise. But it must be the type of exercise suited for that specific goal. The right exercise can reverse just about every change of aging. Each of the following symptoms of aging can be reversed through a specific exercise.

Symptom of Aging	Benefit of Exercise
Increased susceptibility to disease	Improves immune system function
Loss of muscle and increased body fat	Aids in loss of fat and builds muscle
Increased risk of a cardiac event (heart attack, stroke)	Lowers blood pressure, improves circulation, lowers cholesterol
Slowing of mental function and alertness	Improves reaction times and mental clarity
Insomnia	Improves quality of sleep
Depression	Relieves stress, improves self-esteem and outlook
Immobility and susceptibility to falls

Resource: Klatz, R. Hormones of Youth 1999

Every one of these benefits has been shown to occur regardless of the age of the participants. For example, the Human Nu­tritional Research Center on Aging at Tufts University studied the effect of muscle building exercise in elders. They were be­tween the ages of 63 and 98. Most required walking aids or were in wheelchairs.

Over 10 weeks, a marked increase in muscle strength was reported. The partici­pants also noticed improved stamina and stability. Many participants were able to walk unaided after the muscle building ex­ercise therapy. 8

Forget Wear and Tear Exercise

Of all the benefits of exercise, I have come to believe that maintaining youthful muscle mass is the most generally health enhancing. This is particularly evident in elders. Building muscle keeps you young.

Long endurance exercise is a waste of your time if your goal is to reverse the changes of aging. Long duration exercise will not build an ounce of muscle. It causes wear and tear on your body. Your joints become sore. Muscles are fatigued but not given an effective signal for growth.

Here are some strategies I’ve learned from sports training that have proven effec­tive for building muscle in elders as well.

Work the large muscle groups first (think legs and back)

Perform strength training exercises only 3 times a week

Perform the exercises at high intensity for short duration

Progressively increase your work load to stimulate muscle growth

Use slow and smooth movements to prevent injury

Here are 10 areas an ideal anti-aging

exercise program should address

1. Metabolic Rate. As you age, your metabolism slows down. But just about any regular exercise—even walking 20 minutes a day—will raise your metabo-lism.

2. Muscle Mass. Choose exercises with weights that you can comfortably re¬peat 10 to 15 times. You only need to work each body part once a week to make a significant difference. For more serious training, your diet should include extra protein, and possibly supplements of creatine, glutamine, and HMB.


3. Bone Density. Once you hit age 35, your bones slowly start to lose density. Weight bearing exercise—such as stair stepping, back packing, mountain hiking, weight training, or even tennis—help signal your body to retain bone mass.

4. Fat Gain. As your metabolism slows with age, you tend to gain more body fat. Ten to twenty minutes of cardio-vascular exercise before and after break¬fast will help burn this fat off efficiently. Exercising for longer periods will burn off muscle in addition to fat, and should be avoided.


5. Flexibility. Regular stretching exercises will help keep your body limber as you age. Beginner’s level yoga or martial arts classes often teach excellent stretching exercises.

6. Strength. Training for strength is different than training for muscle mass. For strength, you exercise for shorter durations—4 to 6 repetitions only.


7. Growth Factor. You can actually increase your body’s production of growth factor by short, intense exercise followed by sound sleep.

8. Lung Volume. To increase your lung capacity, you must use your lungs at their full capacity. That does not mean long intense cardiovascular workouts, which unfortunately burn off needed muscle. Pushing a car for 10 feet, for example, is a much better workout for your lungs.


9. Heart Fitness. Ten to twenty minutes of strenuous cardiovascular exercise will build your cardiac reserve capacity. Stair stepping, bicycling, and swim¬ming are much better than jogging. Start slow and build up.

10. Co-ordination. Leading a sedentary lifestyle allows your neuromuscular co-ordination to deteriorate. Exercises such as dance, sports, or martial arts counteract this tendency. But remember this principle . . . don’t play sports for exercise, exercise to play sports. Playing sports when you’re out of shape can lead to injury.

11. It is better. It’s also much easier to fit short exercise sessions into your schedule.


Keeping Your Most
Important Organ Young


As you age, it becomes more apparent that your most important organ is your brain. Did you know that too much stress kills brain cells? Research is showing stress to be one of the leading causes of mental deterioration with aging.


For most people, effective anti-aging has to address living better as we age not neces¬sarily living longer. We want to retain the independence and abilities of our youth. For the elders I talk to, loss of mental ca¬pacity is the most frightening symptom of aging.


Fortunately, the loss of mental faculties is not inevitable. The most important thing you must do to keep your brain healthy and your mind sharp is avoid excess stress.


The Physiology of Stress


Stress has serious physiological effects on the body. When you are stressed, your body produces a hormone called cortisol. In moderate amounts, cortisol is not very harmful. But cortisol is secreted excessively in response to chronic stress. In these larger amounts, cortisol is extremely toxic.


Cortisol actually kills and disables your brain cells. Over your life span, cortisol ruins your brains “biochemical integrity”. Chronic exposure to cortisol causes the mental haziness, forgetfulness, and confu¬sion that is associated with aging.


In anti-aging, most hormonal manipu¬lation involves supporting declining levels. Almost all hormone levels fall as you age. Cortisol is one of the very few exceptions. Cortisol actually rises as you grow older. To regain and keep a youthful mind, you must lower the cortisol levels in your body.


Attaining Your Mental Clarity
You can lower levels of cortisol in the body by reducing stress. Here are some simple, but effective ideas to lessen stress:


Use breathing techniques: Breathing techniques can help to calm your body. They aid in releasing stress. I often recom¬mend breathing techniques to my patients. They are simple to do, and are very effec¬tive. Once you learn the techniques, you can do them anywhere.


Dr. Andrew Weil has some very good breathing tapes. You can learn more by vis¬iting his website at www.DrWeil.com.


Let it out: Writing down problems or talking about them is also effective stress management. Write down your problem and how you feel about it. You will be sur¬prised at the therapeutic effect.


Talking through your problems can also help. An understanding friend or a family member can make a good listener.


Do your favorite thing: Most people have one thing in life that they like to do most. It is the thing that relaxes you and lets you forget about your worries. Golfing, painting, gardening, visiting a special place, or having a picnic can release your mind of the stress of daily living. Set aside time for your favorite thing and do it more often.


Meditate: Meditation can be very sim¬ple. It is a time that you use to focus within yourself. Sit or lie in a comfortable position. Listen to your breathing and follow it. Or repeat a word or short phrase that means something. You can speak it or just think it in a rhythm that is comfortable. Clear your mind of worries, and focus on relaxing.


Take 10 or 15 minutes out of your day to do this. You can even meditate as you lie in bed at night. It will be time well spent.


Take care of yourself: Eat a healthy diet and make sure to exercise. Remember to take your multivitamin and antioxi¬dants. A healthy body and mind go hand and hand.


With these techniques, you should be able to reduce your stress. This eliminates the number one age associated killer of brain cells. It will help you keep a sharp and focused mind at any age.


The Anti-Stress Hormone: DHEA


I call DHEA the “anti-stress hormone”. DHEA stands for dehydroepiandrosterone. Don’t let that tongue-twisting name both¬er you, everyone refers to it as DHEA. It is the most abundant product of the adre¬nal glands. DHEA is the precursor used by your body in producing sex hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. It is produced in large quantities in youth but it production dwindles with age.


Remember, most hormones decline with age but cortisol actually increases with age. Cortisol then plays havoc your body. Your body need not worry about long-term maintenance like building your immune system or laying down new bone or muscle when you are running from a lion.


When you are under stress cortisol tells your body “just get through the moment, damn tomorrow.” Since it inhibits mainte¬nance and repair, cortisol accelerates aging. It’s like burning your candles at both ends. DHEA is the natural counter to cortisol.
You secrete DHEA when times are good – when you are well feed, secure and free of stressors. The more DHEA in your body, the less effect stress will have on you. The problem is your adrenal capacity to produce DHEA declines with age. Yet the modern environ¬ment stresses your body everyday. Cortisol is overproduced and aging is accelerated.


Levels of sex hormones decrease as you age. DHEA boosts the production of sex hormones and creates a slew of health ben¬efits. It is a crucial part of being youthful. Like hormones, DHEA declines with age.


Declining DHEA


People with DHEA deficiency have been documented to experience:


Shortened life spans

Immune deficiencies

Inflammatory diseases

Cancer

Heart disease

Osteoporosis

Depression

Cognitive decline

Aged appearance


A 1998 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society studied DHEA’s effects on aging. People between the ages of 60 and 80 were tested for DHEA levels. The participants also took cognitive and strength tests.
Researchers found that those with the highest levels of DHEA performed bet¬ter on both the cognitive and physical as¬sessments. Study authors admitted that those with higher levels of DHEA seemed younger. 9


DHEA and Youth


As I said before, DHEA levels decline as you age. The rate of decline is surprising. By the time you are 65 years old, you’ll only have about 10% of the DHEA that you had when you were 20. 10

People with higher levels of DHEA ex¬perience:


Less stress

Enhanced energy

A boost in immune system function

Reduced body fat

Increased libido

Sharper memory

Halt in wrinkles and signs of physical aging 11


You can raise you levels two ways:

1. by reducing levels of Cortisol, and

2. by DHEA supplementation.



DHEA is becoming more popular as a supplement. I use DHEA at my Wellness Clinic regularly. DHEA therapy has suc¬cessfully treated many of my patients who suffer from lack of energy, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
It is important for you to get your DHEA levels checked. Your doctor can perform the simple test. Youthful levels of DHEA for men range from 400 to 560.


After your levels have been checked, you can determine optimal dosing. A com¬mon starting dose that I use is 10 mg daily. DHEA is absorbed well and can be taken at any time but best mimics the natural daily fluctuation when taken first thing in the morning.


Restoring Masculinity


We men have always known that our bodies dramatically change as we age. It wasn’t until recently that science revealed that nearly all of these changes are inten¬tionally “signaled” to occur by changing hormones.


As you get older, genes turn on and off, partly according to a preprogrammed se¬quence and partly in response to your en¬vironment. Which genes are turned on determine hormone levels and they affect your metabolism and capabilities. They can even affect your physical form. It is the principle reason that you are physically dif¬ferent at 60 than you were at 18.


Hormones also affect mood, memory, mental clarity and energy. The most im¬portant hormones for male health and masculinity are:


DHEA

Androstenedione

Testosterone


We all know that testosterone is the hor¬mone that makes a man, a man. But this hormone does much more than that. Tes¬tosterone helps to control body fat, mood, energy, sexual desire, cognitive function, and aging.


Testosterone doesn’t decline all of a sudden like female hormones do at meno¬pause. The decline is gradual but over time just as profound. Testosterone levels are at their peak in your twenties. By the time you reach 80, your testosterone levels de¬crease between 50% and 70%. 12


Testosterone can:


Improve sexual performance

Promote libido

Stimulate muscle growth

Increase energy levels

Improve memory, mood and mental clarity

Build stronger bones

Keep urinary and reproductive sys¬tems healthy


Before tinkering with testosterone, you should consult with your doctor. Have all of the male hormones listed above mea¬sured in your blood. Once you do that, it is possible to boost your own levels of male hormones including testosterone naturally.


Restoring Testosterone Naturally


Because you make all of your sex hor¬mones from DHEA, taking a DHEA sup¬plement is often a good place to start. Note: DHEA is a hormone. Hormones always act as “double-edged swords”. Too little or too much can both be bad. Never take any hor¬mone without having blood levels checked. See Health Alert 40 for more information about DHEA.


The athletes call androstenedione “an¬dro”. Like DHEA, it is available over-the-counter at nutrition stores. Andro is the immediate precursor to testosterone. They use it as a sports performance and muscle building aid. It is effective but they don’t measure blood levels and they take too much. If they take too much the excess is converted to estrogen. With the constant exposure to environmental estrogens, this is the last thing aging men need.


If you take “andro”, you must have blood levels checked. My experience is that 5 to 10 mg is all men need to restore youthful levels.


For many men in my clinic, the preferred way to restore testosterone has been with the natural herb Tribulus.


Tribulus terrestris has long been used to boost testosterone in Asia. It has been given to men who have weak muscle and sexual problems. It was reintroduced to the world by East German Olympic athletes. Tribu¬lus gently boosts testosterone levels, which explains both its aphrodisiac effect and its sports performance enhancing effect.


One study analyzed the effect of Tribu¬lus on healthy men. The men experienced an average 30% increase in testosterone levels 13 after just 5 days of oral supplemen-tation. This is about the average rise in testosterone that I have experienced in my clinic. I use a starting dose of 250 mg once a day.


The Most Powerful Anti-Aging Treatment


In 1990, Dr. Daniel Rudman accom¬plished something that had never been done before. He conducted a study that reversed human aging. Wrinkles disappeared. Grey hair began turning black again. Energy levels soared. And seventy-year-olds had re¬surgence in sexual appetite.


He was investigating the effects of a pi¬tuitary protein called human growth hor¬mone on healthy adults. Twelve men, ages 61 to 81 volunteered for the trial. They received injections of human growth hor¬mone for 6 months.


As we age our skin grows thinner, we lose muscle and bone and turn to fat. The men in the study grew thicker skin, devel¬oped bigger muscles and denser bones and lost fat. On average, the participants expe¬rienced:


14.4% decrease in fat tissue mass

8.8 % rise in lean body mass

7.1% increase in skin thickness

1.6% rise in bone density


When Rudman’s study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, he wrote:


“The effects of six months of human growth hormone on lean body mass and adipose-tissue mass were equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging.” 14


Why We Call It the Fountain of Youth
HGH (human growth hormone) is the most powerful weapon in an Anti-aging physician’s arsenal. Your body produces high amounts of HGH as a child but the production declines throughout your adult life. This orchestrated decline causes and controls many of the changes of aging. When you reverse the decline of HGH, you reverse many of the consequences of aging.


Several other studies have now con¬firmed Dr. Rudman’s findings. The ben¬efits of HGH include:


Increased energy

Enhanced sexual performance

Muscle gain

Fat loss

Stronger bones

Diminished wrinkles

Improved immune function

Enhanced mood

Decreased cholesterol

Improved vision


HGH is now FDA approved for growth hormone deficient adults but conventional medicine has been on the fence when it comes to HGH. The concern is that we don’t know its effect with long-term use. But the results of a recent 10-year study concluding last summer helped to prove its long-term effectiveness.


Researchers analyzed a group of men receiving HGH for ten years. The men were compared to a group of men of the same age who did not receive HGH. The men receiving HGH had more lean muscle mass, less fat, more energy, and more stable emotional health than the men who did not receive HGH.


In other words, the benefits seen in the many short-term studies on HGH con¬tinued throughout the 10 years, without any negative side effects. The men taking HGH had appeared to turn back the clock, safely. 15


Restore Your Youth


You can restore HGH to youthful levels. I have researched the effectiveness of HGH through my Wellness Research Founda¬tion. I have found that HGH can be elevat¬ed a few different ways:


Eat more protein: When you eat high amounts of protein, your HGH levels actually rise. This is a mild ele-vation, but none the less, it is effective.


Perform strenuous exercises: Stren¬uous exercise also increases levels of HGH in your body. I’m talking about gut-wrenching exercises here like heavy squats and dead lifts. This is not a tip for the faint of heart.


Take HGH injections: HGH can only be given through injections. Since it is a protein, if you take it by mouth, your stomach acids break it down to its component amino acids. I have also found products given by mouth that claim to increase your body’s production of HGH have little to no effect.


HGH has to be prescribed by a doctor. To be used safely you must have blood lev¬els checked. And you should only deal with a doctor who is familiar with HGH.


I have used HGH for 10 years and treat patients with HGH everyday. Once we have blood levels, patients inject them¬selves. It now comes in a handy self-injec¬tion cartridge without needles.


I’ve used it in patients from 35 to 95 years old. Some use it in short cycles like athletes. Others elect more long-term in¬tervention in the aging process.


I’ve seen some remarkable changes with HGH therapy. Patients come in flabby and frail, and in a matter of weeks, are strong, healthy and active.


If you would like to know more about human growth hormone, you can contact my research center at:
DrSearsResearch@aol.com


Don’t procrastinate with your health. Start applying these strategies today. I’ve seen them work with thousands of patients. Stick with it and you will too experience the difference.


References

1 . Fossel M “Telomerase and the aging cell: implications for human health” Journal of the American Medical Association June 3, 1998, pp. 1732-5

2.Zglinicki T, “Telomeres influencing the rate of aging.” Annals of the New York Acad¬emy of Science Nov 20, 1998, vol 854, pp. 318-27.

3.Xu et al. “Homocysteine accelerates en¬dothelial cell senescence,” FEBS Letters 2000, vol 470, pp. 20-24.

4.Morales CP, et al. “Absence of cancer-as¬sociated changes in human fibroblasts immortalized with telomerase.” Nature Genetics 1999; vol. 21, pp. 111-118.

5.Furumoto K. et al. “Age-dependent telo¬mere shortening is slowed down by enrich¬ment of intracellular vitamin C via sup¬pression of oxidative stress.” Life Science 1998, vol. 63, no. 11 pp. 935-48.

6.Cao S. et al., Genomic profiling in short- and long-term caloric restriction effects in the liver of aging mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 11, 2001; 98(19): 10630-10635.

7.Fozard J, et al., Epidemiologists try many ways to show that physical activity is good for seniors health and longevity: review of special issue of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity: The Evergreen Project. Exp Aging Res 1999; 25: 175-182

8.Klatz, R. Hormones of Youth 1999 Chi¬cago

9.Klatz,R. Ibid p. 93

10.Klatz R. Ibid. p. 93

11.Adapted from Regelson W and Colman C, The Super-Hormone Promise, Pocket Books: New York 1996

12.Wright J. Maximize Your Vitality and Po¬tency, Smart Publications, CA: 1999
Muscle and Fitness, 1996 Sept; 140: 224

13.Klatz, R. Grow Young with HGH Harper Col¬lins, NY: 1997

14.Gibney J. et al., The effects of 10 years of recombinant human growth hormone (GH) in adult GH-deficient patients J Clin

15. Endrocrinol Metab 1999 Aug; 84(8): 2596-2602