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Wisdom Wednesdays: Anti-aging strategies part 2 - managing telomere attrition · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. And
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  Speaker 1: today we are continuing our series on the hallmarks abaging
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  Speaker 1: and how to mitigate those hallmarks, and today we're going
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  Speaker 1: to talk about telomere elettrition. Now, by the end of
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  Speaker 1: this episode, I want you to know what telomeres are,
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  Speaker 1: why they're important for our health, and how different interventions
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  Speaker 1: can actually slow down this attrition of telomeres and keep
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  Speaker 1: us biologically younger. So the analogy I've always liked to
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  Speaker 1: use with telemeres is to think of your chromosomes, which
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  Speaker 1: are the parts that contain all of your DNA, So
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  Speaker 1: all your genes are basically held in your chromosomes. You
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  Speaker 1: get your twenty six pers, you get twenty six from mom,
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  Speaker 1: twenty six from Dad. And these chromosomes they've got like
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  Speaker 1: a little end, a little cap that protects it. And
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  Speaker 1: this is kind of like the analogy I use is
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  Speaker 1: as shoelas. So the shoelace is the chromosome, and in
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  Speaker 1: the shoelias is all your DNA, all your genes, and
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  Speaker 1: then the little plastic cap on the end of your
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  Speaker 1: shoelas is the telomere. And what it does is it
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  Speaker 1: actually protects and your obviously your lises from praying are
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  Speaker 1: sticking together, and it basically is protecting the end of
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  Speaker 1: your chromosome from damage. And then what would happen if
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  Speaker 1: that telomere shortens too much, Our DNA on ravels and
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  Speaker 1: that leads to cellular chaos and dysfunction. So each time
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  Speaker 1: your cell divides, it gets a little shorter. And let
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  Speaker 1: me take a step back here. You don't have any
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  Speaker 1: cells in your body that you're born with. I think
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  Speaker 1: the longest liver living cell in the body is the
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  Speaker 1: liver cell. It's about a year and a half to
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  Speaker 1: two years. So our cells are constantly dividing and basically
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  Speaker 1: they're giving birth to daughter cells, and these telomeres get
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  Speaker 1: shown water every time the cell divides, and when it
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  Speaker 1: becomes too short, the cell can no longer divide properly,
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  Speaker 1: and either it becomes sinescent and which is an aging,
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  Speaker 1: non functional kind of zombie cell, or it dies. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this process is a natural part of eugen but when
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  Speaker 1: telling me, are shortening happens too quickly, it then contributes
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  Speaker 1: to diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease, and
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  Speaker 1: cognitive decline. So tell me attrition is caused by a
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  Speaker 1: number of things. So that cell division, as we said,
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  Speaker 1: every time the cell set replicates, to tell me is
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  Speaker 1: use a bit of length. And then the next thing
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  Speaker 1: is oxidative stress. So free radicals, these are unstaable molecules
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  Speaker 1: that are produced by processes like our own metabolism. Just
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  Speaker 1: using oxygen for energy actually produces free radicals and they
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  Speaker 1: can damage our DNA and accelerate, telling me you're shortening.
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  Speaker 1: The other thing that is damaging as well is inflammation.
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  Speaker 1: So this is inflammation at a cellular level, and this
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  Speaker 1: chronic low grade inflammation can increase the rate of telomere loss.
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  Speaker 1: And this can be from having basically mitochondrial dysfunction, or
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  Speaker 1: are having your metabolism go awry, or having certain conditions
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  Speaker 1: inflammatory conditions such as all sort of colitis or these
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  Speaker 1: sorts of things, or just anything where basically your body
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  Speaker 1: is not operating well. There will be this chronic low
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  Speaker 1: grade inflammation that does a whole hYP of nasty stuff.
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  Speaker 1: One of them is increasing the rate of telemere loss.
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  Speaker 1: And then we know that lifestyle factors such as per diet,
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  Speaker 1: a lack of exercise, chronic stress, and smoking, they all
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  Speaker 1: hess and tell me are shortening partly because they create
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  Speaker 1: oxidative stress and inflammation. And there may be some independent
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  Speaker 1: mechanisms that happen as well. Right, Nie, what do we
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  Speaker 1: know that is useful? Well, surprise, surprise. The biggest thing
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  Speaker 1: is exercise. We know that regular physical activity boosts the
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  Speaker 1: body's production of indogenous antioxidants, which neutralize these free radicals,
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  Speaker 1: and then that then protects your telomeres. Right, and so
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  Speaker 1: I think I Mada mentioned last week. You're indogenous antioxidants
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  Speaker 1: such as superoxide, dismutas, glutotheram, perioxidase, and catalas. They are
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  Speaker 1: like the special forces of your antioxidant defense system, and
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  Speaker 1: exercise is the best thing to boost your production of
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  Speaker 1: these things. Secondly is lowering inflammation. So exercise reduces chronic inflammation.
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  Speaker 1: It lowers levels of inflammatory markers like sea reactive protein.
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  Speaker 1: And the reason that exercise does this is because a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the mile kinds that I've talked about before,
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  Speaker 1: these molecules that are produced from contracting muscle are actually
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  Speaker 1: anti inflammatory molecules. Now, the third way that exercise can
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  Speaker 1: be useful for your telomeres is it activates telomerius. Now,
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  Speaker 1: telomerius is an enzyme that helps to maintain and even
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  Speaker 1: rebuild our telomeres, and studies show that regular physical activity
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  Speaker 1: can increase telomerius activity, essentially adding a protective shield to
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  Speaker 1: your DNA. And then the fourth thing is improving your
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  Speaker 1: mitochondrial health. So exercise enhances our mitochondrial efficiency. It can
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  Speaker 1: basically create mitochondrial repair and also mitochondrial biogenesis, which means
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  Speaker 1: brand spanking new mitochondris, especially high intensity inibal training. And
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  Speaker 1: what this does when your mitochondria are more efficient, it
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  Speaker 1: reduces the production of damage in free radicals and creates
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  Speaker 1: a healthy cellular environment for our telomeres. Now, the evidence
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  Speaker 1: around exercise is pretty damn compelling. A study of over
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  Speaker 1: six thousand adults found that those who were physically active
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  Speaker 1: had significantly longer telomeres compared to century individuals, and the
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  Speaker 1: difference in biological aging in the two groups was a
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  Speaker 1: whopping nine years. And another study revealed that in both
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  Speaker 1: endurance training and high intensity interval training were especially effective
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  Speaker 1: at boosting telomera as activity and reducing telomere shortening. Now,
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  Speaker 1: other things that you can do that will help your
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  Speaker 1: telomeres is a healthy diet, particularly one that is rich
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  Speaker 1: in antioxidants and nutrient dense and probably the best studied
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  Speaker 1: one out there would be the Mediterranean diet. It has
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  Speaker 1: been shown to reduce oxidive stress and inflammation, which protects
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  Speaker 1: telomeres so. Foods like leafy greens, nots, berries, fatty fish,
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  Speaker 1: sterol great components of the Mediterranean diet. Next is about
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  Speaker 1: stress management, So anything that you're doing, whether it's exercise,
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  Speaker 1: mindfulness and yoga, cognitive reframing, acceptance, commitment therapy, just managing
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  Speaker 1: stress is really really important because we know that chronic
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  Speaker 1: stress definitely accelerates telling me shortening. And then the next
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  Speaker 1: thing linked to this won't be a surprise, is quality sleep.
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  Speaker 1: We know that per sleep increases inflammation and oxidative stress
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  Speaker 1: and they contribute to telling me or attrition, and we've
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  Speaker 1: done plenty of podcasts on sleep. And then the last one,
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  Speaker 1: really big one, would be avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol.
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  Speaker 1: Both of them are linked to increased oxidative stress and inflammation,
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  Speaker 1: which obviously damages are telemeres so. In terms of practicalities,
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  Speaker 1: exercising regularly, making sure you're at least heading the recommended
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  Speaker 1: guidelines of one hundred and fifty to three hundred minutes
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  Speaker 1: of moderate physical activity or seventy five and fifty minutes
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  Speaker 1: of vigorous activity. Incorporating strength training benefits for those extra things.
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  Speaker 1: Doing stuff that helps to manage your stress, whether it's yoga,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's breath work, cognitive reframing, any of those things.
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  Speaker 1: And or a little icky guy, just a little habit
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  Speaker 1: or a little hobby, sorry I should say not habit,
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  Speaker 1: a little hobby that gets you engaged. Eating that good diet,
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  Speaker 1: particularly all the colleagues of the Rainbow for antioxidant defense
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  Speaker 1: and prioritizing our sleep really really key things to do.
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  Speaker 1: So we know that the telemetrition is a natural part
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  Speaker 1: of aging and you can't do away with it completely,
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  Speaker 1: but it doesn't have to go unchecked by adapting a
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  Speaker 1: lifestyle that includes regular exercise, healthy eating, stress management, good sleep,
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  Speaker 1: all the stuff that we know is really important. It
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  Speaker 1: actually protects our telomeres as well. And one other thing
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  Speaker 1: you can take. I did see some research years ago.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't followed it up, but there is you can
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  Speaker 1: actually buy a supplements that can increase telomery is. But
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  Speaker 1: the last time I looked years ago and they were
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  Speaker 1: very expensive and there wasn't very good quality evidence about them.
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  Speaker 1: But as I said, I haven't checked that, so maybe
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  Speaker 1: just do a quick check around. Stuff that activates to
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  Speaker 1: lomery is that is the enzyme. So that's it for
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  Speaker 1: this week, folks, catch you. Next time we will talk
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  Speaker 1: about another hallmark of aging and how to mitigate it