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Wisdom Wednesdays: Anti-aging strategies part 1 - how to reduce Genomic Instability · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. And
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  Speaker 1: if you remember from last week, I announced that we're
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  Speaker 1: going to do a series on the twelve major hallmarks
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  Speaker 1: of aging and what we can do to prevent or
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  Speaker 1: reduce the rate of aging from these hallmarks. So this
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  Speaker 1: week is the first one, and we're going to explore
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  Speaker 1: the topic of genomic instability, which is one of the
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  Speaker 1: primary hallmarks of aging. You might be thinking, what the
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  Speaker 1: hell is genomic or genomic instability. The clue really is
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  Speaker 1: in the genome and this is really about our DNA
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  Speaker 1: and managed to maintain the stability of our DNA. So
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  Speaker 1: you probably know our DNA acts as a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a blueprint for everything that happens in the body. Now,
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  Speaker 1: over time, this generic material is constantly exposed to damage
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  Speaker 1: from sources like ultraviolet light, toxins in the environment, and
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  Speaker 1: even the natural process of metabolism and particularly breaking down
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  Speaker 1: oxygen at a cellular level to create energy which then
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  Speaker 1: create oxidative stress. So one way to look at it
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  Speaker 1: is thinking of your DNA as a library of instructions
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  Speaker 1: that basically tail sales what to do and when it's damaged,
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  Speaker 1: it's like the pages in a book, becoming torn or smudged,
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  Speaker 1: and you lose clarity on how things should operate. And
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  Speaker 1: the issue with aging is that our DNA reper systems
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  Speaker 1: think of them as the natural librarians. They actually become
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  Speaker 1: less efficient as you get older, which then allows these
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  Speaker 1: damages to accumulate. And this genomic instability contributes to many
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  Speaker 1: age related diseases, including, but not limited to, cancer, neurodegenertive diseases,
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  Speaker 1: and immune dysfunction. No, what do we do about it? Well,
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  Speaker 1: the first intervention you probably won't be surprised is exercise,
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  Speaker 1: because the coe news is that exercise has a profound
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  Speaker 1: impact on our cellular repair systems, and it does it
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  Speaker 1: by a few different mechanisms. The firstly, I'm sorry. The
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  Speaker 1: first mechanism is that exercise boosts or uplifts are DNA
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  Speaker 1: repair mechanisms. So it's been shown to activate the repair
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  Speaker 1: pathways that DNA repair pathways in the body, particularly the
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  Speaker 1: ones that deal with the broken strands of DNA, and
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  Speaker 1: it does this by boosting enzymes that actually fix these
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  Speaker 1: errors before they become harmful. The next way that exercise
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  Speaker 1: can be helpful in this process is by reducing oxidative stress.
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  Speaker 1: So I hinted at that earlier on and I said,
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  Speaker 1: just the normal process of metabolism can be harmful. Oxidative
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  Speaker 1: stress occurs when there's an imbalance between free radicals, which
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  Speaker 1: are unstable molecules, and our antioxidant defense system in the body.
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  Speaker 1: So that can be our indogenous antioxidant defense system, or
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  Speaker 1: the antioxidants that we get from food. We call those
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  Speaker 1: exogenous antioxidants. And this oxidative stress, we know is a
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  Speaker 1: major contributor to DNA damage. So regular exercise produces the
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  Speaker 1: body's production of antioxidants, and you're indogenous antioxidants, and this
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  Speaker 1: is really really critical, right, I often so we know
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  Speaker 1: that exercise boosts the production of a number of genes
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  Speaker 1: involved in these antioxidant defense and they would be superoxide, dismutis,
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  Speaker 1: glutotherone perioxidase, and the third one is catalyse. Now I
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  Speaker 1: often refer to these antioxide and as the special forces
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  Speaker 1: of your antioxin defense system. We know they are much
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  Speaker 1: more potent than antioxidants that you get from food. So
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  Speaker 1: doing regular exercise really increases the special forces for this
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  Speaker 1: antioxin defense, which is really what you're after. Then the
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  Speaker 1: third mechanism by which exercise is useful is that it
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  Speaker 1: promotes autopogy, or this cellular spring clean that goes on.
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  Speaker 1: So exercise has been known to activate autoplogy, particularly in
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  Speaker 1: the muscle cells. And what that does is it basically
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  Speaker 1: cleans out the damaged cellular components, including those that could
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  Speaker 1: harm DNA. You can think of this as the body's
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  Speaker 1: housekeeping system that is working all the time to ensure
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  Speaker 1: everything stays tidy and functional. And then the last way
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  Speaker 1: that exercise is useful for DNA damage or minimizing dnaamage
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  Speaker 1: is improving your mitochondrial efficiency. And we will do a
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  Speaker 1: deeper dive on this because mitochon damage mitochondria is one
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  Speaker 1: of the major hallmarks. But we know that when our
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  Speaker 1: mitochondria are not working well, it actually increases our DNA damage.
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  Speaker 1: We know that exercise dramatically improves mitochondrial function, not only
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  Speaker 1: the function, but it can also improve the number or
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  Speaker 1: increase the numbers called mitochondria boogenesis, and having good mitochondria
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  Speaker 1: and lots of them indirectly reduces DNA damage by keeping
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  Speaker 1: oxidative stress in check. So they're the mechanisms by which
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  Speaker 1: exercise is useful, and there's lots of research to show
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  Speaker 1: that individuals who engage in regular, moderate to vigorous physical
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  Speaker 1: intense exercise have lower levels of DNA damage and better
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  Speaker 1: overall genomic stability compared to sentary individuals. And one thing
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  Speaker 1: escinating study involving endurance athletes find that regular exercise increases
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  Speaker 1: the expression of genes responsible for DNA repair, suggesting that
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  Speaker 1: staying active can literally rewrite your body's ability to protect
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  Speaker 1: itself at a cellular level. So we know from all
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  Speaker 1: of the research, wes, I'm not going to go through
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  Speaker 1: it at all, but we know that aerobic activities typical
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  Speaker 1: cardio like running, cycling, swimming, they improve our cardiovascar health
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  Speaker 1: and reduce our oxidative stress. We know that lifting weights,
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  Speaker 1: lifting heavy shit as I like to say, has been
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  Speaker 1: linked to enhance DNA repair mechanisms, and also high intensity
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  Speaker 1: interval training. So there's a twenty twenty three study in
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  Speaker 1: Nature Communications that show that regular moderate to vigorous exercise
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  Speaker 1: increases the expression of DNA repair enzymes. And particularly interesting
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  Speaker 1: with the finding that high intensity interval training seem to
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  Speaker 1: be especially effective us up regulating these pathways. SPOT appears
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  Speaker 1: to be that government guidelines that minimum of one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty Well it's actually one hundred and fifty to
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  Speaker 1: three hundred minutes of moderate figure physical activity or seventy
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  Speaker 1: five to one hundred and fifty minutes a week of
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  Speaker 1: vigorous physical activity, and don't forget to incorporate lifting heavy shit.
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  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about nutrition. So there's been several nutrients
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  Speaker 1: that have been shown to support DNA repair mechanisms, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly foliate and vinamin B twelve are crucial for DNA
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  Speaker 1: synthesis and what's called methylation, that ability to switch on
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  Speaker 1: and switch off genes and regulate the expression of our genes,
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  Speaker 1: which is really really key. So we know that green
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  Speaker 1: leafy vegetables lay goomes fortified foods. They are excellent sources,
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  Speaker 1: but animal foods are probably the best source of vinomen
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  Speaker 1: V twelve, which is why if you're vegetarian or vegan,
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  Speaker 1: you've really got a supplement because multiple lines of research
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  Speaker 1: have showing that vegetarians and especially vegans are deficient in
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  Speaker 1: P twelve, So ensure that you're supplementing if you're on
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  Speaker 1: one of those diets. We know that a deficiency in
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  Speaker 1: these nutrients has been directly linked to DNA strand breaks. Now,
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  Speaker 1: just a little thing on folio, and this is where
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  Speaker 1: we get a little bit technical of it and certain
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  Speaker 1: variations of a particular gene, the MTFR gene, which we
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  Speaker 1: call the motherfucker gene. If you have certain variations of it,
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  Speaker 1: you really don't metabolize foliate very very well, and you
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  Speaker 1: need to have an activated form. Now, the best way
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  Speaker 1: to find out that is to actually do a generic test.
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  Speaker 1: Go and see Denise who's been on this podcast. I
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  Speaker 1: will put a link in to her website where you
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  Speaker 1: can go and actually get some testing done. Because if
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  Speaker 1: you're eating folio but you can't youake it done, it
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  Speaker 1: can sometimes do more damage than good. And there's lots
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  Speaker 1: of foods that are fortified in foli it, so you'll
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  Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're actually able to use
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  Speaker 1: the foliate in your diet. So the next thing is zinc.
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  Speaker 1: Zinc actually plays a vital role in DNA repair enzymes,
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  Speaker 1: and studies suggests maintaining optimal zinc levels through foods like
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  Speaker 1: oysters are brilliant sources of zinc. As there's beef and
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  Speaker 1: then to a lesser extent, things like pumpkin seeds. They
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  Speaker 1: can enhance our sales ability to fix DNA damage. But
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  Speaker 1: perhaps the most fascinating nutritional intervention is the role of sulfurifian,
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  Speaker 1: which is the main active ingredient in cruciferous vegetables like
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  Speaker 1: broccoli and cabbage. And you get like ridiculous amounts of sulfurifine,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in broccoli sprouts. So if you can be arked
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  Speaker 1: to sprout your own broccoli, that's ideal, or you can
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  Speaker 1: actually buy broccoli sprouts, but just having lots of cruciferous
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  Speaker 1: vegetables like broccoli, broccolini, cabbage, kale, all of those things
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  Speaker 1: high in sulphurior fain, which activates the NRF two pathway,
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  Speaker 1: and that pathway is really critical in cellular defense against
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  Speaker 1: DNA damage. Now, the next thing I want to talk
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  Speaker 1: about is sleep, and that is our time for cellular maintenance.
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  Speaker 1: When we go to sleep, our sales activate these DNA
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  Speaker 1: reper mechanisms and these are little enzymes. Just want to
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  Speaker 1: think of these little enzymes that run all the way
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  Speaker 1: through your body, checking yourselves looking for cancerous and pre
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  Speaker 1: cancerous sales, and when they find them, they tag them
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  Speaker 1: and then your natural killer sales come along and execute them,
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  Speaker 1: which is pretty cool shit. What we know is that
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  Speaker 1: groundbreak and study from the University of Washington to show
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  Speaker 1: that just one night of poor sleep can alter the
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  Speaker 1: expression of over a one hundred gene involved in DNA
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  Speaker 1: rapper mechanisms. So ensuring that you're getting regular, good sleep
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  Speaker 1: it's hugely important. I've talked a lot of times about
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  Speaker 1: sleep hygiene, but one of the other things that's important
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  Speaker 1: to note around sleep is that if you eat late
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  Speaker 1: at night, the basically your liver and your pancreas will
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  Speaker 1: sense the nutrients and they actually switch on what are
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  Speaker 1: called these peripheral clocks that then turn off our DNA
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  Speaker 1: reper mechanisms. So making sure that you finish eating three
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  Speaker 1: hours before you go to bed is really important for
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  Speaker 1: your DNA rapper right. And I know there's lots of
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  Speaker 1: couples sit and listen to this and one of them go, see,
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  Speaker 1: I told you we should be eating dinner early. Sorry
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  Speaker 1: for the other people, but that is the research. Now
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about some other interventions that show promise but
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  Speaker 1: need a bit more research. One is the whole concept
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  Speaker 1: of core misis. You know, I love this concept. This
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  Speaker 1: is basically mild intermittent stress and that's that what doesn't
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  Speaker 1: kill you makes you stronger, because we know that certain
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  Speaker 1: hormetic interventions are repair or help our cellular repairer systems.
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  Speaker 1: So that's things like exercise, which I've talked about already,
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  Speaker 1: intermittent fasting, which research is showing can entanse your DNA
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  Speaker 1: repair by activating certoons, and I talked about that late
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  Speaker 1: night eating, so avoiding that cold exposure. Some researchers are
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  Speaker 1: showing some evidence that cold regular cold water exposure may
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  Speaker 1: stabilize DNA structure as can solely use. So basically the
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  Speaker 1: staff that is releasing heat shock proteins or cold shop
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  Speaker 1: proteins either or are actually protects our cellular components. So
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  Speaker 1: that intermittent exposure to stressors or toxins, which at high
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  Speaker 1: levels can kill you, at low to moderate levels drive
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  Speaker 1: hormetic mechanisms which, amongst other things, protect your DNA repair.
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  Speaker 1: And the last thing I want to say, I've been
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  Speaker 1: talking about all the stuff that you can do to
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  Speaker 1: improve your DNA repairer and the other obvious thing is
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  Speaker 1: on the other side of the ledger and trying to
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  Speaker 1: minimize your DNA repair damage. So probably three things stand
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  Speaker 1: out here. One is just making sure you don't have
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  Speaker 1: excessive UV exposure from the sun, because we know that
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  Speaker 1: excessive UV exposure actually causes DNA damage, so it's important.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of the Goldilocks effect with some it can't
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  Speaker 1: be too much, can't be too little, it's got to
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  Speaker 1: be just right. And then the next one is chronic inflammation,
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  Speaker 1: so having diseases or conditions, whether their aarable ball syndrome,
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  Speaker 1: dental issues as well, can crosse chronic inflammation or autoimmune conditions.
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  Speaker 1: These things that chronic inflammation can really rekavoc with your
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  Speaker 1: DNA repair mechanisms, so making sure you try and address that.
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  Speaker 1: And then the last one is minimizing your oxidative stress,
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  Speaker 1: so reducing the amount of ultra process shit and exposure
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  Speaker 1: to environmental toxins everything from chemicals in makeup, plastics that
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  Speaker 1: are frigging everywhere. And it's basically just trying to eat
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  Speaker 1: good foods and not exposing yourself to your whole rains
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  Speaker 1: of toxins, which is kind of hard to do in
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  Speaker 1: modern life, but there are certainly things that we can do.
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  Speaker 1: So just to wrap up, remember that genetics, our genomic
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  Speaker 1: stability isn't just about preventing damage. It's also about enhancing
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  Speaker 1: our natural repair mechanisms, and it's making sure that we
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  Speaker 1: are affecting both sides of the Ledger. That's it for
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  Speaker 1: this week. Catch you next week for the next installment.