IS GET YOUNGER SAME AS LIVE YOUNGER?
THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU
You must have met quite a number of people who wish to live a long unending life. You may have heard just as many with a wish a tad bit more peculiar. i.e. to die with working arms and legs. To die while healthy. Or to live in a state where they do not have to become a burden on themselves or upon others.
This wish isn’t that peculiar if you really think about it. Death comes for all, so wishing for immortality or a delay in its occurrence does not make much sense. Once you accept that, then wanting to live a healthy life which is disease free and not too burdensome makes perfect sense.
Unlike many wishes however, this one is quite a tangible one and can be fulfilled. The big question is How? How can one stay healthy till her/his last breath? To answer that, we must talk about cellular regeneration.
CELLULAR REGENERATION
That is the method our bodies adopt to keep themselves youthful. The concurrent processes of cellular damage and regeneration start while the baby is in the womb of the mother. As long as the regenerative and replicative function dominates over the other one, our bodies grow and our youth is maintained. That is, until we reach the prime age of approximately 30 years. After that, the processes which cause damage to the cells dominate and overwhelm the regenerative capacity of our body.¹
This process however isn’t as time bound as one would think. To explain that, we must understand the concept of cellular health.
WHAT IS CELLULAR HEALTH?
To put it in simple words, cellular health is a measure of structural and functional stability of each individual cell.
As we age, we get exposed to all sorts of toxicity. Some of it comes from our environment in the form of physical or emotional elements. Some of it from what we put inside of our bodies. And some of it from how we live. Since our bodies are ultimately a cluster of microscopic entities called cells, whatever our bodies go through manifests its effects in each individual cell. This consequently, affects the health of the cells. And as they become unhealthy, we start showing signs of ageing and disease.²
Cellular ageing therefore, is not merely temporal i.e. related to the passage of time. It is related more strongly with the state of cellular health. We can infer, therefore, that by reversing the pathological changes in the cells, we can reverse their age. That will of course manifest on the macroscopic level in the entire body. So in a way, unlike time, age can be reversed. And dare I say, youth itself can be restored. And the wish to stay healthy until the last breath can be fulfilled.
WHAT MEASURES TO TAKE?
This is something that scientists and doctors throughout history have tried to work out. Our approach to holistic health combines the ancient knowledge uncovered by obscure cultures with the modern techniques of medical research, to come up with a complete answer to this question.
How to get younger? Simple. Eat right, sleep right, breathe and detoxify.
EAT RIGHT?
As I mentioned earlier, what you put inside your bodies is important when it comes to ageing. The cellular damage that the body accrues overtime is due to the inflammatory processed that take place within our cells. Some of these processes are kicked off by the food we eat. Many of them can be shut down by the food we eat.
You must have heard the term “anti-oxidant”. Well, as it happens oxygen free radicals are the reason for this cellular damage I keep mentioning. What anti-oxidants do is to neutralize these free radicals. Neat, wouldn’t you say?³
“Which foods contain these magic anti-oxidants?” you must be thinking. Well, many fruits do. As do many vegetables. Vitamins are of course famously anti-oxidant, especially vitamin E. Make sure to fix these things into your daily food routine and your body will thank you in time.
SLEEP RIGHT?
You wouldn’t believe how important this is. During deep sleep, cleansing of toxic substances takes place within the brain. Researchers at the University of Rochester have described a glymphatic system that is mainly responsible for this. CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) is pumped into the brain tissue spaces and this washes away the waste material. This happens in cycles and results in what we call Restorative Sleep. ⁴
Moreover, restorative sleep also helps in the process of cellular regeneration and reduces the inflammatory substances which lead to cellular damage. It pays dividends, therefore, to keep a healthy sleep schedule that is balanced and consistent to get the most out of our sleep.
To read about this in more detail, read this article.
BREATHE?
Yes. Breathe. But properly. Literally. But also, metaphorically.
The importance of breathing exercises cannot be overstated. They bring relaxation to both mind and body. Many slow breathing techniques have been shown to bring about psychological well being and a release from anxiety. They also improve emotional control and stabilize the autonomic system. ⁵ ⁶
These effects ensure a healthy mind and by extension a healthy body. Age reversal 101. To learn more, check out my book Lead A Horse To Water. ⁷
DETOXIFY?
This is a complicated word. However, I made it simple to understand in this article.
Briefly, detoxification involves ridding the body of all things whether physical or abstract, that damage it. This can be achieved through careful diet, well maintained sleeping patterns, breathing exercises and most importantly, controlling our perspective of the world around us.
HOW TO MEASURE YOUTH?
Resting heart rate is the best way to go about this. A lower resting heart rate of approximately 50 BPM is what should be targeted. That is what I did when I began my journey. And despite the continuous denial of doctors to accept that achieving such a feat was possible at my age, I did achieve it by following the measures I have outlined above.
Why resting heart rate? The answer is simple. RHR is an indicator of the health of the heart. Blood, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the body, is the fuel of life and the heart is what pumps this fuel. The healthier the heart, the better the pumping. And the better the pumping, the lesser the BPM.⁸
The muscle cells of the heart work together to perform this crucial function of the heart. Therefore, any change in the quality of this function, indicated by RHR, is an indication of changing functional capacity of these cells. This itself is an indicator of the health of these cells. So, in short, change in RHR is equivalent to change in cellular health.
LIVE YOUNGER
Our philosophy is not like the drugs one takes for a limited time to rid himself of disease. No. The idea of age reversal requires not only a complete change in lifestyle but more importantly, a will to maintain the changes and internalize them. The goal isn’t just to get younger, but to live younger. To live disease free and healthy lives that are purposeful and fulfilling. To stay young and youthful in body and spirit until we breathe out our last breath.
Age reversal isn’t about living longer. It is about something much more profound. Something that stands miles above the childish desire of longevity. It is about making the most out of the lives we have without the fear of death.
This is what we hold above all else at LiveYounger.
Bibliography
- AGING AND EXERCISE. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.sportsci.org/encyc/agingex/agingex.html
- da Silva, P. F. L., & Schumacher, B. (2021). Principles of the Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Aging. The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 141(4S), 951–960. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JID.2020.11.018
- Meydani, M. (1999). Dietary antioxidants modulation of aging and immune-endothelial cell interaction. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 111(2–3), 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-6374(99)00067-6
- Not All Sleep is Equal When It Comes to Cleaning the Brain | URMC Newsroom. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/not-all-sleep-is-equal-when-it-comes-to-cleaning-the-brain
- Ferreira, L., Tanaka, K., Santosgalduróz, R. F., & Galduróz, J. C. F. (2015). Respiratory training as strategy to prevent cognitive decline in aging: a randomized controlled trial. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 10, 593–603. https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S79560
- Zaccaro, A., Piarulli, A., Laurino, M., Garbella, E., Menicucci, D., Neri, B., & Gemignani, A. (2018). How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353. https://doi.org/10.3389/FNHUM.2018.00353/FULL
- N.Sakr, “Lead A Horse To Water”, pp.29-30, 2021
- Stessman, J., Jacobs, J. M., Stessman-Lande, I., Gilon, D., & Leibowitz, D. (2013). Aging, resting pulse rate, and longevity. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61(1), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/JGS.12060