"Anti-aging" Author: Yu Guoliang
The so-called anti-aging is to resist aging, and even reverse growth, in the words of the ancients, is to rejuvenate. In real life, some people are indeed well maintained, as if they have been "frozen". So, what exactly are they doing right? I believe that after reading the book "Anti-Aging", we will be able to understand the mystery behind this problem.
The author of this book, Yu Guoliang, holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, USA, and studied under Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the mechanism of telomerase in the process of cellular aging. As a top talent in this field, Yu Guoliang's anti-aging theory has the most cutting-edge academic support behind it.
Yu Guoliang tells us through this book that although the aging of the human body is inevitable, it can effectively slow down this process. Eternal youth is not an unattainable dream, and there is a scientific mechanism behind anti-aging growth. As long as we respect science and exercise self-control, each of us can resist aging and enter a wonderful state of frozen age.
Why does the human body age
Throughout the cultural works of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, aging is always an unpleasant word. If youth is the sun at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, which means infinite hope and vitality, then aging is the sunset hanging in the western woods, even if it looks beautiful and gorgeous, but it will also make people melancholy It is almost dusk, and there is no new possibility to be seen.
For the human body, aging is not only reflected in mental negativity, but also in the deterioration of physical functions. For example, memory decay, always forgetfulness, body deformation, overgrowth, and suffering from the "three highs", or even more terrible cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and so on.
Such a scene is very scary to think about. So, is there a way to slow down the aging process, or stay a little longer in adolescence?
For this Everest in the life sciences, many scholars are trying to climb it. Yu Guoliang and his mentor are among the best. Over the years, they have devoted themselves to the study of the mechanism of telomerase in the process of cell aging, and have successfully cracked the aging code. Through the waist that is no longer straight, the staggering gait, the gray and sparse hair, and the loose and dull skin, they see the aging of human organs and even cells.
The world under the microscope tells us that the aging of the human body and organs begins with cells. Scientific research tells us that the human body is made up of 40 trillion to 60 trillion cells. Of these, all cells except mature red blood cells and platelets have at least one nucleus. It is the center of cells regulating life activities and controlling division, differentiation, heredity, and variation.
The birth, aging, sickness and death of our human body are determined by the "good" and "bad" of cells. To put it simply, if the "bad" cells that should die don't die in time, then the body will get cancer; If the "good" cells that should not die die, then the human body will suffer from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and become confused.
So, taking it a step further, why do "good cells" die?
In fact, the death of human cells can be divided into two ways, one is called cell necrosis, which means that cells are destroyed by the external environment and die; The other is called apoptosis, which means that cells are actively eliminated by living organisms, which is a kind of "suicide", and the disorders caused by the apoptosis process often cause many diseases.
Therefore, the key to anti-aging is to let the "good cells" live well, so we should care about the survival status of the "good cells". For example, are they young, energetic cells that have just been born? Or is it a twilight cell that is already faltering and dying? Or are they not long born, but they are already old and decrepit?
If you want to assess the degree of aging of cells, the key is to look at telomeres. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in every cell in our body, and the chromosomes are shaped like a long rope, and its ends are called telomeres to protect the genetic material inside from being damaged. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become shorter by a fraction, so the telomeres shorten with age.
Humans are born with the longest telomeres, with nearly 10,000 base pairs; Telomeres are the shortest before natural death, and the base pairs are almost all used up. The length of telomeres depends on the activity of telomerase; Therefore, in order to effectively fight aging, we need to maintain the activity of telomerase, ensure the length of telomeres and keep human cells in a young and healthy state.
Read the book of your life code
As we mentioned earlier, telomeres protect the genetic material inside chromosomes, which is the treasure of life and the "life code" that affects our health and longevity. The basic unit of genetic material is called genes, which are the core substances that affect the inheritance and regulation of human life. All in all, the genes hide the ultimate secret of humanity.
The ultimate secret is very complex, knowing that the human genome contains about 25,000 genes, 3 billion base pairs. It is like a mysterious "code book" that no one has been able to understand for thousands of years. It wasn't until after the invention of gene sequencing technology that people found the hidden law and began to crack the ultimate secret in the Book of Heaven.
With the exponential development of sequencing technology, genetic testing is no longer an expensive service today, and is gradually becoming more accessible to the general public. Its principle is very simple, that is, collect body fluids or cells such as blood and saliva of the person being tested, amplify DNA, and then detect and analyze DNA molecular information through sequencers and other equipment.
Genetic testing can help people understand their own life code and do a good job in disease prevention or treatment. For example, neonatal genetic testing is to detect whether a child has a hereditary disease such as chromosomal diseases and hereditary metabolic diseases. In addition, cancers are caused by genetic mutations, and targeted therapy can also detect mutations through genetic testing.
So far, this technology has helped a lot of people. For example, actress Angelina Jolie had her breast removed after genetic testing to reduce the risk of breast cancer. And then there's Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and survived for another 8 years based on genetic testing.
And the approach of Google founder Sergey Brin is even more worth emulating. In 2006, Brin passed genetic testing and found that his gene carried a mutation, which made him suffer from Parkinson's disease with a 20%-80% chance of developing Parkinson's disease. Brin challenged him to reduce his illness to 10 percent through increased exercise, green tea drinking, and medication.
Yu Guoliang also uses this technique to better understand himself. He found himself with the "introverted shy gene", which explains why he was so shy when he was a child and didn't like to deal with outsiders. He also has a "leg shake" gene, and he has been criticized for shaking his legs in class, and now he knows that shaking his legs is also born.
And in terms of health, his genetic status is not optimistic. Judging from his family medical history, he knew that his metabolic function was relatively weak, and the results of genetic testing also confirmed this. Sure enough, in middle age, he began to have "three highs", especially symptoms of high blood sugar, and since then he has focused his health management on blood sugar control.
There are also gene sequencing shows that Yu Guoliang was born with Alzheimer's disease, that is, Alzheimer's disease-related gene APOE4. Knowing this result, Yu Guoliang was also very depressed at first, but he quickly comforted himself that having a disease-causing gene only increased the probability, and it was completely possible to delay or even prevent the occurrence of the disease by adjusting his lifestyle.
And he further pondered, does the "bad" gene have to be a bad side? If so, then why haven't these "bad" genes been eliminated by nature? Later, he read a paper saying that genes like APOE4 can make people have better spatial memory and improve concentration at work.
This article confirms Yu Guoliang's judgment that there are no absolutely good or absolutely bad genes in the world, and when you see the test results "good", don't eat the body's old book, be willful, see the test results "bad", and don't be depressed and pessimistic, and give up on yourself. Genetic testing only allows us to better understand ourselves, accept ourselves, tailor them, and do a good job in health management.
A five-year reverse growth experiment
The so-called health management is to know the health shortcomings of our genes, and to reduce the chance of disease, delay aging, and even reverse growth by changing lifestyles. In order to verify the feasibility of this idea, Yu Guoliang began to conduct a nearly five-year reverse growth experiment with himself as his object on April 25, 2016.
Yu Guoliang first determined the goal of reverse growth, that is, to make his biological age 20 years younger than his actual age. It should be said that this goal is very difficult. Then Yu Guoliang broke it down into some measurable indicators, such as body mass index (BMI), visceral fat, skeletal muscle, and of course, blood biochemical indicators such as blood sugar and blood lipids, and so on.
Yu Guoliang uses an Omron scale, which can not only measure body weight, but also comprehensively evaluate BMI, fat percentage, musculoskeletal muscle percentage, metabolic rate and abdominal fat rate, and finally calculate the biological age of the person being measured. In addition, he has regular blood biochemistry tests and monitors his sleep through his smartwatch.
In terms of experimental measures, Yu Guoliang's method is simple: interval diet + long-term exercise + regular sleep. He adopts the "168 diet", which allows him to eat a variety of foods for 8 hours a day, and for the other 16 hours he does not eat foods with calories, or consumes a small amount of coffee with fat, which promotes fat metabolism and slims down his body.
Then there's the stepping up workout to make sure it's just fat and not muscle that you're leaning in. He advises us to work out the intensity gradually, such as push-ups and sit-ups, three sets of 15 a day, and one more in each set after a week. This can avoid injuries to the body and can also achieve a good effect of muscle building and strengthening bones.
Finally, quality sleep. Yu Guoliang has developed a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early, usually going to bed at half past 10 at night, trying not to make phone calls before going to bed, not looking at mobile phones and computers, and sleeping until dawn. He will monitor the quality of sleep through the smart watch, correct those unfavorable factors that affect sleep, so that every day starts with a full awakening.
In this nearly five-year reverse growth experiment, Yu Guoliang also experienced many failures. It was not until the last year that the quantitative change finally led to the qualitative change. He lost about 24 pounds of weight, and his body fat and visceral fat were greatly reduced. And because of his consistent exercise, his bones are stronger and his muscles are fuller. Omron's electronic scale shows that at the age of 58, his biological age is only 34 years old, and he has successfully completed the goal of 20 years old.
Despite the success of this experiment, Yu Guoliang still needs more experimental samples to evaluate the universality of this method. So he promoted it in the circle of friends around him and recruited multiple groups of experimental subjects. The results of the experiment were very successful, and with this systematic approach, very obvious results can be achieved in 3-6 months or even less.
Of course, due to the differences in each person's innate genetic situation and lifestyle, the degree of reverse growth will also be different. But the results show that we can make ourselves healthier and younger by optimizing our lifestyles.