Natural Way Health Blog

Ageing – Biomarkers

In our last entry on the website we began talking about the 10 accepted biomarkers of ageing. We began to question whether we could delay the process of ageing and thereby life longer and more productive and enjoyable lives. Here are the 10 biomarkers again.

• Biomarker 1: Your Muscle Mass
• Biomarker 2: Your Strength
• Biomarker 3: Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
• Biomarker 4: Your Body Fat Percentage
• Biomarker 5: Your Aerobic Capacity
• Biomarker 6 Your Body’s Blood-Sugar Tolerance
• Biomarker 7: Your Cholesterol/HDL Ratio
• Biomarker 8: Your Blood Pressure
• Biomarker 9: Your Bone Density
• Biomarker 10:Your Body’s Ability to Regulate Its Internal Temperature

If we make some assumptions and conclude that we’ll live relatively free from illness until the age of 65 years and from that point we begin to experience a growing level of disability due to ageing and illness. We may experience 20 years or more of life after the age of 65 years and we’ll  spend 20 years of our lives in the disability zone.

What happens today for most people is that they begin to rely more and more heavily on pharmaceutical drugs to manage the symptoms of physical dysfunction or illness as they get older.What would happen if instead of reliance on pharmaceuticals we focussed on these 10 biomarkers of ageing and sought to improve them. The evidence from around the world is becoming clearer every day. The earlier we begin to address these biomarkers with natural food, exercise and water (and supplementation where required) there is every probability that we can extend the point at which we enter the disability zone by many years.

A recent study published in the Public Library of Medical Science (January 2008) found that basic healthy habits can add up to 14 years to your life – delaying the entrance into the disability zone by many years. Their focus was on cessation of smoking, eating 5 servings of fruit and vegetables, moderate exercise and moderate alcohol consumption. It was nothing extreme.

How Old Are You Really?

Sometimes it make sense to question what we know (or think we know). How often have we heard the saying about “you’re just getting old”. When you go to the doctors and they turn around and say very simply “oh! It’s your age catching up with you”. Those aches and pains that you wake up in the morning with are they just showing you’re getting old or are they simply a symptom of something out of balance.In these next few days we are going to provoke, unashamedly, a discussion about ageing and if we can stop it. Many will disagree, some may get angry, some will dismiss us as crackpots and some will learn things that will change the way that they think as a result may change the outcome of their latter years.

So to start with but look at the 10 biomarkers of ageing proposed by the medical community:

Biomarker 1: Your Muscle Mass

Biomarker 2: Your Strength

Biomarker 3: Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Biomarker 4: Your Body Fat Percentage

Biomarker 5: Your Aerobic Capacity

Biomarker 6: Your Body’s Blood-Sugar Tolerance

Biomarker 7: Your Cholesterol/HDL Ratio

Biomarker 8: Your Blood Pressure

Biomarker 9: Your Bone Density

Biomarker 10:Your Body’s Ability to Regulate Its Internal Temperature

A continuing controversy is whether there exist processes of ageing per se, which can be identified and studied independently of age-related disease. It is clear that there are age-related risk factors for disease, and that these overlap with risk factors for ageing, but there is disagreement about whether diseases to which older persons are vulnerable should be considered merely by-products of ageing, or an essential component of the ageing processes.

In response to “How old are you” He would say, “How you suppose to answer if you didn’t know how old you was?” Paige never knew his exact chronological age because he was born before good records were kept. He used to tell people to use his performance on the pitcher’s mound to estimate his age. But that was almost impossible because Paige’s long heyday as a leading pitcher stretched from the 1920’s to 1950’s.

If you didn’t know your age how would you feel?

I.

Strength Training

The Mayo Clinic lists the following reasons why it is good to add strength training to your exercise regimen. Benefits include:

• Increased bone density: This reduces the risk and impact of osteoporosis.
• Reduced risk of falling: Strength training contributes to better balance, coordination and agility.
• Maintenance of a healthy weight: Pound for pound, muscle burns three times more calories than fat. Increased muscle mass enables your body to burn calories more quickly and efficiently.
• Alleviating back pain: People often experience less pain after strengthening their back and abdominal muscles.
• Making everyday tasks easier: Housework, mowing the lawn or carrying groceries takes less effort. Strong muscles mean you’re less likely to injure muscles, tendons or ligaments.

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