August 23, 2024
The Weekly Thread: an incremental approach to longevity, why fat cells accumulate with age, and the power of death and rebirth.
In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Eos asked Zeus to grant her husband Tithonus eternal life. Zeus obliged and granted Tithonus eternal life.
However…
She forgot to ask for eternal youth as well.
So Tithonus continued to live on eternally, but in the process, continued aging and aging, and his body withered away.
Longevity isn’t about living as long as possible if it’s strung along, filled with disease and health issues, and at the expense of your relative quality of life.
Longevity is about living as long as possible WITHOUT disease or any major health issues.
Defining Longevity
As many of you may be getting introduced to ‘The Weekly Thread’ for the first time, and many more of you, due to my brief hiatus mentioned above, reintroduced; I want to open this week by more clearly defining “longevity”, which is at the heart of everything I cover in this blog, and also discuss the proper mindset with which to approach “longevity” with.
Most Americans die a slow death that results from complications or the culmination of four diseases: Cancer, Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s/Dementia.
All of the deaths from these conditions are years, oftentimes, decades in the making.
Even if someone dies from a heart attack, which objectively is a fast, tragic death, it was, in most cases, a result from heart disease that was again, years, or even decades in the making. Most heart attack deaths are not from genetic defects.
If you are reading this, chances are, you have cancerous cells somewhere inside your body. I know that as I write this, there’s a decent enough chance that I have cancerous cells somewhere inside my body.
When you get diagnosed with “cancer”, what that really means is that the cancer inside your body has now metastasized to a point where it’s a problem, and potentially life-threatening.
But prior to that, probably years before that, it was a microscopic clump of cancerous cells that weren’t yet a life-threatening problem, but they were there.
They now say they can detect symptoms of Alzheimer’s 25 years, possibly even more in advance, if one is looking/paying attention.
And you don’t just wake up with 100% insulin resistance, and thus, a diabetic. It’s a process of years, decades, that you slowly build up insulin resistance.
This is why people are “pre-diabetic” before they are “diabetic”.
The simple fact is, the way we most often approach medicine in the U.S. is to wait for something to become a problem, then we try to treat it, oftentimes, when it’s too late.
I would call this a “reactive” approach to medicine.
This is great when you break a leg, as there’s no need to fix it until it’s broken.
However, when most of our deaths are a slow, progressive death, waiting for certain conditions to become life-threatening is not exactly the best time to treat it.
So what many call “disease prevention”, could actually be referred to as a “proactive” approach to medicine.
This is what it means to have a focus on longevity.
Life extension through proactive medicine that fights life-threatening diseases, before they become life-threatening.
It’s a mindset.
An approach to life.
And whoever you are, regardless of how old or young you are, it can start, or improve now.
Longevity One Day at a Time
Odds are, the vast majority of you reading this don’t smoke.
And of those of you who don’t smoke, I’d bet the vast majority of you who don’t smoke, don’t do so because you are well aware of the increased health risks it poses.
The dramatic reduction in smoking across our population has undoubtedly extended the lives (without disease) of millions and millions of Americans.
So, if you don’t smoke due to the awareness of the many potentially severe long-term side effects, you are already doing something with a focus on longevity, to extend your life without disease.
You may not have looked at it this way, but ultimately, and probably without even thinking about it like that, you understand longevity, and are probably making “longevity” focused decisions in your everyday life.
I would just posit the question, what other small, incremental changes can you start incorporating into your life that when done with consistency (even relative consistency) over time, will have dramatic effects on your overall longevity?
Apply what Einstein refers to as the 8th wonder of the world, “The Law of Compounding Interest”, to your health.
✔️ Start by taking 1 or 2 cold showers a week. As little as 20 seconds of cold water exposure has been shown to have health benefits, and 3-5 minutes is all you need to maximize the full gamut of life-extending benefits from a cold water exposure session.
✔️ Do you have access to a sauna, or can you afford an infrared sauna membership package? Try incorporating more sauna time into your life.
✔️ Replace even one meal per week that is typically filled with processed food, with whole, organic foods.
✔️ Start a regular, heck, even semi-regular gratitude practice.
✔️ Try to start improving the quality of your sleep.
✔️ Supplement with a whole food-based multivitamin and/or beef organ complex (nature’s multivitamin).
✔️ Go for an extra walk or two each week.
✔️ Drink high quality, mineralized water.
✔️ Spend more quality time with friends and family.
The list could go on and on.
These are all small, incremental changes you can make to your daily life that will pay dividends in the long run in improving your overall longevity, and thus, reducing your risk of the four aforementioned age and lifestyle related diseases most Americans die from, with time.
Apply the same logic as you would to a retirement investment account.
As you chip away with each longevity focused diet or lifestyle addition or change, and as they add up and compound over time, over years, you are left with a body and mind that has aged more slowly, with less risk of disease, and thus, most likely, have added years, possibly another decade or two, of quality life.
However…
She forgot to ask for eternal youth as well.
So Tithonus continued to live on eternally, but in the process, continued aging and aging, and his body withered away.
Longevity isn’t about living as long as possible if it’s strung along, filled with disease and health issues, and at the expense of your relative quality of life.
Longevity is about living as long as possible WITHOUT disease or any major health issues.
Defining Longevity
As many of you may be getting introduced to ‘The Weekly Thread’ for the first time, and many more of you, due to my brief hiatus mentioned above, reintroduced; I want to open this week by more clearly defining “longevity”, which is at the heart of everything I cover in this blog, and also discuss the proper mindset with which to approach “longevity” with.
Most Americans die a slow death that results from complications or the culmination of four diseases: Cancer, Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s/Dementia.
All of the deaths from these conditions are years, oftentimes, decades in the making.
Even if someone dies from a heart attack, which objectively is a fast, tragic death, it was, in most cases, a result from heart disease that was again, years, or even decades in the making. Most heart attack deaths are not from genetic defects.
If you are reading this, chances are, you have cancerous cells somewhere inside your body. I know that as I write this, there’s a decent enough chance that I have cancerous cells somewhere inside my body.
When you get diagnosed with “cancer”, what that really means is that the cancer inside your body has now metastasized to a point where it’s a problem, and potentially life-threatening.
But prior to that, probably years before that, it was a microscopic clump of cancerous cells that weren’t yet a life-threatening problem, but they were there.
They now say they can detect symptoms of Alzheimer’s 25 years, possibly even more in advance, if one is looking/paying attention.
And you don’t just wake up with 100% insulin resistance, and thus, a diabetic. It’s a process of years, decades, that you slowly build up insulin resistance.
This is why people are “pre-diabetic” before they are “diabetic”.
The simple fact is, the way we most often approach medicine in the U.S. is to wait for something to become a problem, then we try to treat it, oftentimes, when it’s too late.
I would call this a “reactive” approach to medicine.
This is great when you break a leg, as there’s no need to fix it until it’s broken.
However, when most of our deaths are a slow, progressive death, waiting for certain conditions to become life-threatening is not exactly the best time to treat it.
So what many call “disease prevention”, could actually be referred to as a “proactive” approach to medicine.
This is what it means to have a focus on longevity.
Life extension through proactive medicine that fights life-threatening diseases, before they become life-threatening.
It’s a mindset.
An approach to life.
And whoever you are, regardless of how old or young you are, it can start, or improve now.
Longevity One Day at a Time
Odds are, the vast majority of you reading this don’t smoke.
And of those of you who don’t smoke, I’d bet the vast majority of you who don’t smoke, don’t do so because you are well aware of the increased health risks it poses.
The dramatic reduction in smoking across our population has undoubtedly extended the lives (without disease) of millions and millions of Americans.
So, if you don’t smoke due to the awareness of the many potentially severe long-term side effects, you are already doing something with a focus on longevity, to extend your life without disease.
You may not have looked at it this way, but ultimately, and probably without even thinking about it like that, you understand longevity, and are probably making “longevity” focused decisions in your everyday life.
I would just posit the question, what other small, incremental changes can you start incorporating into your life that when done with consistency (even relative consistency) over time, will have dramatic effects on your overall longevity?
Apply what Einstein refers to as the 8th wonder of the world, “The Law of Compounding Interest”, to your health.
✔️ Start by taking 1 or 2 cold showers a week. As little as 20 seconds of cold water exposure has been shown to have health benefits, and 3-5 minutes is all you need to maximize the full gamut of life-extending benefits from a cold water exposure session.
✔️ Do you have access to a sauna, or can you afford an infrared sauna membership package? Try incorporating more sauna time into your life.
✔️ Replace even one meal per week that is typically filled with processed food, with whole, organic foods.
✔️ Start a regular, heck, even semi-regular gratitude practice.
✔️ Try to start improving the quality of your sleep.
✔️ Supplement with a whole food-based multivitamin and/or beef organ complex (nature’s multivitamin).
✔️ Go for an extra walk or two each week.
✔️ Drink high quality, mineralized water.
✔️ Spend more quality time with friends and family.
The list could go on and on.
These are all small, incremental changes you can make to your daily life that will pay dividends in the long run in improving your overall longevity, and thus, reducing your risk of the four aforementioned age and lifestyle related diseases most Americans die from, with time.
Apply the same logic as you would to a retirement investment account.
As you chip away with each longevity focused diet or lifestyle addition or change, and as they add up and compound over time, over years, you are left with a body and mind that has aged more slowly, with less risk of disease, and thus, most likely, have added years, possibly another decade or two, of quality life.
Why does our metabolism slow as we age?
A paper I came across titled, “Metabolic changes in aging humans: current evidence and therapeutic strategies” aimed to best answer that question based on a review of data showing changes in fat gain (adiposity), muscle, and hormones related to aging.
Here’s what they found.
As fat cells get older, they begin to “misbehave” so to speak, and this dysfunction does cause them to hold on to fat more tightly.
Furthermore, a newer discovery was made. The authors state in the paper:
“Immune cell infiltration increases with age, and accumulation of age-dependent regulatory cells is seen. This is a newly characterized aspect of fat cell biology.”
This new discovery shows that as you age, this accumulation of immune cells in your fat cells causes the fat cells to misbehave, and this is a new factor for consideration (and further research) as to why your fat cells become more stubborn with age.
As you age, you also have an accumulation of senescent fat cells. If these senescent fat cells don’t go through a process known as “apoptosis” (programmed cellular death) and die, they recruit other functional fat cells to then also act like senescent cells, causing further fat cell dysfunction.
What are senescent cells?
Senescent cells are cells that have entered a state of irreversible growth arrest, meaning they no longer divide and proliferate. They are characterized by changes in gene expression and the secretion of various molecules, collectively known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP).
Senescent cells can accumulate in tissues over time and are associated with aging and age-related diseases. While senescence serves as a protective mechanism to prevent damaged cells from becoming cancerous, the accumulation of senescent cells can have detrimental effects on tissue function and contribute to age-related decline.
Senescent cells are often referred to as “zombie cells”, and are oftentimes at the heart of our autoimmunity, cancer, and now we’re realizing, fat or weight gain.
How do we stop “zombie (senescent) cells” from accumulating?
Through a process known as apoptosis.
Apoptosis, also known as “programmed cell death”, is a natural internal process that eliminates unwanted or damaged cells in a controlled manner. It plays a crucial role in maintaining tissue homeostasis and removing cells that are no longer needed or that pose a risk to the organism.
In relation to senescent cells, apoptosis serves as a mechanism to eliminate these cells from tissues. Ideally, senescent cells should undergo apoptosis and be cleared from the body. However, in some cases, senescent cells evade apoptosis and persist in tissues, leading to their accumulation. This impaired clearance of senescent cells can contribute to the detrimental effects associated with aging and age-related diseases.
What induces apoptosis?
Certain longevity boosting lifestyle habits such as exercise, fasting, and quality sleep induce apoptosis. There are also certain research backed herbs known as “Senolytics” that will induce apoptosis just through consumption.
I know recommending exercise, fasting (both intermittent and periodic extended fasting), and quality sleep probably isn’t super noteworthy or groundbreaking, however, what this research shows us is that there’s far more benefit to exercise, fasting, and sleep from a fat loss perspective, than we may have previously known.
This also shows us that there’s a far greater picture to paint with respect to fat loss being more than just calories in, and calories out.
Gaining a greater understanding of all the mechanisms at play that benefit us from positive lifestyle habits like exercise, fasting, and quality sleep, will help you better understand what’s going on inside the body, and maybe leave you placing an even greater emphasis on implementing said lifestyle habits into your life.
Okay, back to the research findings.
Hormones and Metabolism
Serum DHEA levels in both men and women are found to be lower with age, and this typically precedes menopause in women, and the general lowering of testosterone in men as they age.
The connection to lower serum DHEA and then lower estrogen/progesterone in women, and testosterone in men, is linked to an increase in post-meal fat storage, and a decrease in lipolysis of the fat tissue.
In short, your fat cells are not functioning properly due to the decrease in these hormones, and that causes them to retain more fat, and have a lower propensity to burn fat.
Furthermore, this propensity to accumulate more fat as a result of hormone imbalances, causes greater fat infiltration in organs like your liver, which can then cause health issues, and your pancreas, which can cause insulin resistance, and that can cause a host of issues from weight gain, to diabetes, and inflammatory related diseases.
To sum it up, senescent cell accumulation increases everywhere in the body as we age, (this includes fat cells) simultaneously, key hormones decrease, causing hormone imbalances, and these two key factors cause fat cell dysfunction and misbehavior, and this dysfunction causes fat cells to become more stubborn, thus increasing their propensity for fat storage, and decreasing their propensity for fat burning (lipolysis).
Okay, so we’ve learned from this research that if we can cut down on the accumulation of senescent cells through exercise, fasting, getting more quality sleep, and supplementing with Senolytics (which also reduces risk of all other age related diseases as a result of increased cellular senescence), and gaining a more optimal hormone balance, we can negate some of the negative effects aging has on our body’s ability to burn fat. And if we can negate some of these factors, we can then more easily get back to “calories in vs. calories out” as the main factor affecting our ability to burn fat.
Going back to our definition and ideal approach to longevity, which is incremental, the most important thing here is to just take it one day at a time when trying to get more movement in, incorporating some fasting protocols, and hacking your way to better sleep.
Recently, I shared some research showing how hormone level fluctuations are quite seasonal, and how understanding what is causing this (it all goes back to getting natural light) can help you naturally hack your biology to better optimize your hormones.
Boosting DHEA
As mentioned above, there is a direct link between a reduction of serum DHEA levels preceding a decrease in estrogen/progesterone in women, and testosterone in men.
So, if there is substance to this correlation, this would mean that if serum DHEA levels were increased, estrogen/progesterone would increase in women, and testosterone would increase in men.
This does in fact, appear to be the case for most men and women.
To understand why, we must first understand what DHEA is.
What is DHEA
DHEA, which stands for dehydroepiandrosterone, is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It is a precursor hormone, meaning it can be converted into other hormones such as estrogen and testosterone in the body.
DHEA plays a role in various physiological processes and is involved in the regulation of the endocrine system. It has been recognized for its potential influence on mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. DHEA levels tend to peak during young adulthood and gradually decline with age.
Supplementing with DHEA
DHEA has oral bioavailability, and is inexpensive, so it’s a pretty easy addition if trying to optimize hormones to reduce the effects of aging on the body.
DHEA supplementation for women seems to be most effective starting at perimenopause and beyond, and for men, around the age of 40, when testosterone levels start to decline fairly significantly with age.
Women typically benefit from 2.5mg of DHEA per decade of life, and men from 10mg per decade of life.
So, a 50 year old perimenopausal woman would supplement with 10-15mg of DHEA, and a 50 year old man might supplement with 50mg of DHEA. Although, I’ll typically recommend women start with 5-10mg per day, and men around 25-50mg to see how they feel, and they can always go up from there, as the rule of thumb with DHEA supplementation seems to be the more, the better with increased age.
“People die 1000 times to get to who they are.”
-Zach Bryan, “Spotless”
Ahhh…Death and Rebirth.
A consummate theme of life.
The person you were decades ago, years, heck, for many of us, even months ago, is now a mere figment of imagination, a memory of different times.
No matter how many times life knocks you down, including those times when it’s self-imposed, you only need to get back up one more time than all those knowdowns to keep going.
With each and every time you get back up, you learn.
You grow.
You evolve.
Picking up bits of wisdom all along the way.
You are continually reborn.
And that’s a beautiful thing.
Enjoy and embrace the journey, even the tough times, for the tough times teach.
Amidst the tough times, are opportunities to be reborn, and as Bob Dylan once said, “if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying”.
