Is Aging-Reversal Real?

If there’s one thing that’s remained remarkably consistent over time, it would be mankind’s obsession with reversing the aging process. Indeed, myths surrounding the discovery of that “Fountain of Youth” – the mythical spring that restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters – go back thousands of years, and appear as early as the writings of Herodotus (5th century BC). Most famously, of course, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, first Governor of Puerto Rico, was said to have been searching for the same eternal spring when he traveled to what is now Florida in 1513.

But unlike those early myths, scientists are now closer than ever to understanding more about what drives aging, and most importantly, slowing, and in some cases, even “reversing” the aging process. Is there a magical fountain of youth that can suddenly make us “young” or stop us from getting older and dying? No. But today there are numerous treatments, exercise, nutritional regimens, and supplements that can change your body’s biological makeup, in essence, reversing aging to the extent that you can become biologically younger than your actual age. As with everything else, we recommend asking your doctor about taking our functional age test – a way to measure the age at which you actually function –then monitoring your progress after undergoing any aging-reversal treatments or other health regimens.

With that introduction, let’s dive into what we know today about aging reversal advances in various areas. 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

One of the bigger scientific breakthroughs in aging research came from a joint study published in late 2020 by Tel Aviv University and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel, which indicated that hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) in healthy aging adults could stop the aging of blood cells and literally help those cells, in the biological sense, grow younger. The treatments were so successful in helping to stop the shortening of the telomeres on the cells’ chromosomes – one of the main indicators of biological aging – that a new aging-reversal clinic opened in Dubai in 2021 using the same hyperbaric oxygen therapy techniques. 

Supplements

Supplements, like nutrition, have been proven to have a demonstrable effect on the body and the aging of cells. In particular, we’ve seen effective studies of supplements that focus on cell energy, more of which helps improve sleep, productivity, workouts, and even the ability to handle stress. One study we’re familiar with is the recent one conducted by Neurohacker, which provided its Qualia Life supplements to a group of participants in 2021. These individuals first measured their functional capability with our AgeMeter functional age test, with researchers looking at the standard biomarkers of aging such as memory, and other measures. Once those results were in, Neurohacker put the participants on the supplemental regimen, having them take 8 capsules daily, all between 7-to-9 a.m., with a glass of water for five days, followed by two days where no capsules would be taken. After 4 and 8 weeks, the participants returned to retake our AgeMeter test. The study found that individuals had: 

·         A 25% improvement in working memory

·         A 9% improvement in highest tone heard

·         A 13% improvement in speed of response to sounds

·         A 14% improvement in speed of acting on a decision

While the test group was small and there was no placebo control group, the results are promising for how supplements can positively impact and potentially reverse the aging process.

Drug Cocktails

In 2019, a small clinical study in California looked at the possibility of reversing the body’s epigenetic clock – the biological aging process that could be measured in tissues using DNA methylation levels. The study took nine healthy volunteers, which, for one year, took a cocktail of three common drugs —a growth hormone and two diabetes medications. On average the participants shed 2.5 years of their biological ages after completion, measured by analyzing marks on a person’s genomes. The participants’ immune systems also showed signs of rejuvenation. Though there was no control group used, the results were a happy surprise for the trial organizers, but they also caution that findings remain preliminary.

Sleep

It’s well known that getting enough rest is critical to body functioning and the one of the ways the body renews itself. But sleep loss is also related to aging – and indeed has been found to speed up the process. A study done by UCLA researchers in 2015 discovered that just a single night of insufficient sleep can make an older adults' cells age quicker. In addition, lack of sleep has also been shown to increase the signs of skin aging and may impact other body organs as well.

What can you do to get better at sleeping? Harvard Medical School recommends the following:

·         Be consistent.  Train your body to sleep well by going to bed and getting up around the same time each day (even on weekends)

·         Only sleep when you are sleepy. It’s bad to spend lots of time awake in bed.

·         Pay attention to the temperature of your bedroom, which should be cool. A cool room with warm blankets is optimal, according to HMS.

·         Avoid / limit naps. It’s key to be “tired” at bedtime. If you need a daytime nap, do it before 3 PM and for less than an hour.

·         Avoid coffee, cola, chocolate, and cigarettes for four to six hours before going to bed.

·         Limit alcohol intake for four to six hours before going to bed. Alcohol disrupts REM and slow wave sleep, which are important for memory.

Nutrition

Perhaps the one true holy grail of aging, it’s often the least considered by Americans as they go about their daily food routines. As our friend Dr. Layne often says, the key to aging well is “nutrition, nutrition, and nutrition.” And it makes sense. Eating poorly and, in many cases, unnatural foods, can literally age your body. An example? Fried foods heavy in bad cholesterol such as fried chicken, potato chips, French fries, and fried shrimp not only increase your risk of heart disease, but they also are known to cause inflammation (aging is often considered by doctors to be a chronic inflammatory state). It’s well established that changing your diet can change your life, and in this case, add additional years to your life in a good way. Here are some foods recommended by nutritionists and aging experts:

·         Foods in selenium. A critical mineral that helps the body fight infection, selenium can be food in nuts (especially Brazil nuts), eggs, fish, chicken, sunflower seeds, and mushrooms.

·         Blueberries. Though certainly expensive, this versatile fruit can be eaten on its own, with yogurt or in a green smoothie. Just be careful adding extra processed sugar that too can inflate the amount of inflammation in the body.

·         Avocados. With inflammation-fighting fatty acids, avocado consumption will improve your skin, and provide key nutrients that have been shown to prevent the negative effects of aging.

·         Spinach. Popeye eats this for a reason besides strength. First, it’s a super hydrating vegetable, packed with antioxidants that help to fight free radicals in the body (the ones that attack cells). It’s also rich in vitamins A, C, E, K, and magnesium.

Exercise

In terms of biological aging, regular exercise has been known to increase the length of the telomeres of cells, indicating literally that the body is younger than the benchmark for someone’s actual age. The question is what kind of exercise is best? You’ll hear all kinds of advice suggesting one workout or another, whether it’s running, biking, a high-impact workout such as Cross-Fit, or low impact yoga class. The truth is there’s no one exercise that does it better than the other when it comes to anti-aging. The key is simply continuing to move. Even an age-appropriate exercise such as walking regularly has been shown to increase individuals’ lifespans. So, no need to hit the gym and pump iron right away. Just a regular walk will often do.

Friendship and Community

We’ve been following some of the more interesting studies of aging and longevity over the past several years. One of the most interesting came from The New York Times Magazine piece, The Island Where People Forgot to Die,” which focused on several different areas around the world that had populations that lived far beyond the norm. Certainly, in those societies, a good diet and exercise played a big role. But one thing that also linked these communities – a focus on friendship and community. Indeed, one of the common aspects of those longer-living cultures was the social interactions with others. For whatever reason, scientists believe that having others around to talk to, joke with, and even have an occasional drink, helps to sustain longevity, as the desire to interact gives individuals reasons to continue to get up in the morning. More needs to be studied about this particular area, but don’t forget to stay in touch with friends. One drink (remember it’s all about moderation) won’t kill you, but may, in fact, help you live longer.

Conclusion

We hope this has been helpful. This is certainly not an exhaustive list but just a few of the more prominent methods that have been used to combat aging. As always, we recommend asking your doctor about taking our functional age test and monitoring your health regularly.  

Learn more about how functional age testing works or order your AgeMeter today.

Q and A With Dr. Edward Layne: Why Get the AgeMeter for Your Practice

Dr. Edward Layne.

Dr. Layne was the first African American / Barbadian American Gastroenterologist to settle in the Atlanta area. He is the founder of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Clinics LLC, an international referral practice in Digestive Diseases and Nutrition and Integrative Medicine. A graduate of Harvard College, Tulane Medical School, Harvard Medical School Post-grad, he is also currently the Medical Director at AgeMeter. He operates 3 gastro and nutritional clinics in the Atlanta, GA, area. 

Q: Why did you get the AgeMeter for your medical practice?

A: I was excited about the AgeMeter because I’ve been in the field of preventative health for some time. And this was the first truly noninvasive [technology] that came along to measure and monitor functional age. Functional age being how old your body is behaving, as opposed to how old you are from the date of your birth. So, you could be 50 but your body is behaving as if it’s 30.

Q: I wish that we’re the case…

A: [Laughter]. Many of my patients were very excited to learn their functional age was a lot less than their chronological age. We were just beginning to generate that excitement and interest with other doctors when Covid hit. And we had to just battle it. Because [using] the device involved bringing people into the office and we weren’t bringing patients into the office. But once Covid passes, I think this is an exciting device. 

Q: Tell me about your practice and how the AgeMeter fits into it.

A: My medical practice is bifurcated – gastroenterology and nutrition. Nutrition has always been a big part of it because, you know, you are what you eat. All my patients wanted to be young, sexy, and healthy. And I was looking for a way to help these patients understand their functional age, but wanted a noninvasive method. Because the ones that were being offered were all invasive – they wanted blood or something else. Patients don’t want to be stuck.  The exciting thing about the AgeMeter is that you can measure, and also monitor the functional age. So, the patient comes in and gets the measurement and then 3 months later, they want to know how they’re doing, 6 months later they want to know how they’re doing.  So, as a doctor, you put together these “packages” – routines the patient can follow after they had their functional age measured – kind of, “OK, here are things you can try to improve your nutrition, fitness” and so on. And then, we can measure your progress in a few months. So, it’s a continuous revenue source for the doctors and a continual way to keep patients tied into your practice. It’s a fantastic way to keep your patients healthy and happy.

Q: How would you sum up the potential for the AgeMeter in terms of aging research?

A: Well, I think the data gets better and better. Because, at first, you may only have a few hundred 40-year-olds, but by the time you get to a thousand forty-year-olds, you’ve got incredible data. So, you can look at all the parameters we’re measuring and you can see how they stack up. That’s the nice thing about this. As your volume of data increases, your data gets better and better.

Q: When did you first develop your medical practice?

A: I’ve been practicing gastroenterology since about 1980. I’ve had a practice since 1976. In fact, I was the first black gastroenterologist south of Washington and east of LA. So, I’ve been doing this for a long time.

Q: Do your recommend patients do a biological age test and then validate with the functional age test to validate it?

A: My feeling is that there is no such thing as a “biological age” test. Biological age (to me) is when you’re born and then you die. [laughter]. But I know there are several tests around the U.S. and around the world that say they will measure your biological age. But I’d rather use your functional age as to how well your body is behaving and your chronological age as markers. I have no difficulty with folks who are monitoring what we call “biological age,” because what we want to do is correlate what we’re doing [with functional age] with other research available in the field. George Church at Harvard is the big guru in the business and he’s an old classmate of ours. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to compare the two – biological age and functional age – and see where they stack up.

Q: How accurate is a biological age test? Especially if you don’t do a functional age test to validate it?

I can’t answer the question of how accurate it is. There is a lot of promising research in the area of what’s happening inside the cell. But whether you can translate that into a “biological age,” I’m not sure. And don’t think anyone is sure. We’re feeling our way around at the moment. That’s why I’ve settled on functional age versus chronological age and I’m watching to see where the field of “biological age” goes.

Q: What’s the biggest need in the area of preventative health, especially in terms of lowering patients’ functional age?

A: The four areas are really nutrition, nutrition, nutrition and nutrition. We have to understand that we are what we eat. If you can maintain your BMI in an area around 20 to 25, chances are your functional age will improve significantly. So, the number one area is nutrition. We eat ourselves to death in America. For the first in our history, we have more food than we need. That’s the number one problem. Fitness is another thing. But you don’t have to pump iron to be fit. Fitness can be just walking, simple exercises that are age-appropriate. The big elephant in the room, though, is nutrition.

Q: Are you patients older or younger when comparing their functional age to their chronological age?

A: Generally younger. The patients who come into your office are usually health-conscious. There are two age groups. One, those who get to be 40, and they ask: “OMG, something is happening.” [laughter]. Or, the group that gets to be 65 and 70, those who have enough income to be comfortable then, and they say: “You know, I better start taking care of myself or I’m not going to be able to spend this money.” So, those are the two groups that we began to see before Covid. As we see this rollout again [post-Covid], I would imagine it would be the same two groups.

Q: What role does genetics play in aging? Are there ways to reverse what you’re genetically determined to do when it comes to aging?

A: This is a fantastic question. Obviously, genetics plays a huge role. If your parents live to be 100 years old and your grandparents lived to be 100 years old, there’s a good chance, you’ll likely have a good long lifespan. But you can modify that by the environment. You can modify the pre-determined genetic set. You find that people in developed countries tend to live longer, if they take care of themselves, than people in developing countries. Usually, it’s a natural diet of fish or seafood, and fruits, grains and vegetables. It’s the basis for the nutritional regimen that I put my patients on – a combination of seafood protein, which seems to be better managed by the body, and greens and vegetables. I recommend a lot of green smoothies because hemoglobin and chlorophyll are very close molecules. Look at the elephant – it creates hemoglobin from chlorophyll. It doesn’t eat meat and it’s one of the strongest animals in the forest.

Q: How About the New HealthMeter for Covid-19 Monitoring?

A: What the HealthMeter did was take that [existing technology we had with the AgeMeter] and use it to monitor some of the key vital signs of Covid-19. We can now use it in a static or remote monitoring environment the temperature, heart rate, pulse rate, blood oxygen, lung function – some of the key vital signs for Covid-19.

What’s one reason you think other medical practices should get the AgeMeter?

In the year 2021, most patients are not interested in emergency type medicine – that is, I get sick and you treat me. Most patients want you to tell them how they can remain healthy. So, it’s an opportunity to say to them: “OK, I want to know where you are right now, so I can keep you healthy. To keep you even more healthy than you are right now.” We now have the capacity to treat you well, to find out where you are, and show you how we can help you. If you want to be young, healthy and sexy, the AgeMeter allows us to do that. It’s the only noninvasive way that we can do that. And it’s an incredible revenue source. The way I calculated it – I’ve laid out a model for this – the medical practice pays $5,000 for this device. The average practitioner would make over $200,000 per year using this device. The object is to help the doctors earn revenue.  

Learn more about how functional age testing works or order your AgeMeter today.