Is Aging natural ? or Is Aging a Disease?.

 


NEERAJ MAHAJAN


ESSAY( Short form)


Is aging a Disease or is it natural? Or Is it just an increase in entropy? I will attempt to answer this question here in this essay's short form. Since our birth, we see old, infirm people all around be it family, society, or wherever we go. And most times the elderly are afflicted with some of the other diseases. Our causating mind automatically links their miseries to old age. But is it not putting the cart ahead of the horse?; although rear-powered engines in supercars are quite in ( pun intended). Jokes apart, why doesn't the counterintuitive thought that it could be the diseases that have led to old age occur in our minds?. Probably due to cognitive bias. In his life-changing book LIFESPAN, Harvard Medical School renowned scientist  David A. Sinclair bares Why we age and we don't have to! And most of this essay is inspired by the genius of David Sinclair.

EVERYTHING IS NOT IN OUR GENES

All of us are used to the above cliche. The epigenetics or epigenome is outlandish! While genes are what we inherit from our biological parents, Epigenes means traits that are heritable, but arent necessarily transmitted through genes. They are produced in all mammalian cells & can be acquired too. Let me illustrate with a chart :


The discovery of epigenome has given a whole new dimension to the theory of aging. We are now aware of why we age. It is due to damage to our DNA caused by epigenetic noise. Epigenetic noise is the disruption of our epigenome due to repeated damage to our DNA. The three key Longevity genes in our bodies are
1) SIRTUINS
2) MTOR   &
3) AMPK      

It is the job of this epigenome or the survival circuits to repair the day-to-day damage that occurs to our cells. It starts in the embryo itself. As soon as they detect a threat to the cells they leave their post to fix the damage. They order the cells to stop reproducing and hunker down. They then fix things up and go back to their posts in the Chromatin. The damage to the genes is prevented and the disease or threat is warded off. But if this warning gets repeated, they have to iterate the same process. Prolonged Repetitive iterations lead to epigenetic noise damaging the Sirtuins/ mTOR/AMPK molecules in the process ( remember they are analog like a VCR CASSETTE AND PRONE TO MEMORY LOSS). These damaged longevity genes are sometimes unable to come back to their original posts messing up the epigenome. The result is catastrophic resulting in permanent damage to the DNA and the onset of deadly diseases. This is the information theory of aging. It is best-depicted in the following chart :


The above theory is inspired by Claude Shannon, the great American scientist who formulated the Theory of Communication which laid the foundation of TCP/ IP. One thing is clear from the above. And that is that aging is a preventable disease. If we can prevent Epigenome disruption we will not have to die from dangerous diseases. We can live 100, beyond, and enjoy a youthful life. We will die, anyway, but, without any sufferings, that is so rampant in the old and the infirm.
How does one deal with this? There are basically 3 ways

      1) Natural        
               2) Pharmaceutical &
                 3) Technology            

 NATURAL

The best response here is Hormesis. What it means is " that doesn't kill me makes me stronger". The best hormesis is

A) Very short distance running at high speed/ Very fast skipping( Heart rate > 70% of the maximum possible for at least 5 minutes. (CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR IF ANY HEART DISEASE)

B) Lift heavy weights equivalent to at least body weight once or twice a week.                             
    
C) Intermittent Fasting 14 to 18 hrs daily. This inhibits the pathway of mTOR resulting in Autophagy( auto cleansing of the body by itself in eating up the bad proteins).

D) Low Protein diets intermittently replicate the benefits of       Autophagy. 
  
E) Daily Exposure to very hot and cold temperatures for 3 minutes.     



        PHARMACEUTICAL 

As the name suggests this refers to the use of drugs to prevent damage to our Epigenome. There is a problem with this approach. As the WHO and medical fraternity don't recognize Aging as a disease, prescribing drugs to preempt it is a moot point. David Sinclair in his book mentions, "While human trials are underway, there are no treatments or therapies for aging that have been through the sort of rigorous long term clinical testing that would be needed to have a more complete understanding of the wide range of potential outcomes." He further writes on the use of drugs," People often wonder when I tell them things like this, why on earth I would subject myself to the potential for unexpected and adverse side effects or even the possibility- low though it may be that I could expedite my own demise." " The answer is simple. I know exactly what will happen to me if I don't do anything at all and it's not pretty. So what do I have to lose?  And so, with all that on the table, what do I do?. ". He further writes

1. I take one gm of NMN, Resveratrol, and one gram of Metmorphin every morning.
2. I take a daily dose of vitamin D, K, and 83 mg of Aspirin.
3.I get my blood tested for biomarkers and moderate them with food and exercise if tested abnormal. All this is in addition to natural ways that I stick diligently to.

TECHNOLOGY
This is going to be the most important in our battle against aging.
What are the technology options before us? Two at least right now. 
1. Cell Regeneration via Gene Therapy
 

Cell Regeneration

The Yamanaka factor was the Nobel prize-winning discovery of the year 2012. It identified four genes in the human body that are biologically correcting. They are OCT4, KLF4, SOX2 & C-MYC. These genes can induce adult or senescent cells to again become stem cells. These stem cells, in turn, can be used to treat/prevent deadly diseases like Glaucoma, muscular dystrophy. Glaucoma-infected mice has already been restored its vision in clinical trials in Dr. Sinclair's lab. This is revolutionary as there are no parallels in biology where a damaged optical nerve has regenerated itself. The Yamanaka factor and a simple shot of Doxycycline led to this scientific breakthrough. It is interesting to watch if this can be replicated in humans in the next couple of years. If that happens we may even be able to treat deadly spinal injuries by regrowing the spinal nerves. Life span will be considerably increased and that too with vitality. I am keeping my fingers crossed till then.
If you shared my enthusiasm and liked my essay do message me

at
neerajmahajan0770@gmail.com

As always many thnx for reading me

NM
(NEERAJ MAHAJAN)

PHOTO CREDIT BY Raoul Croes on Unsplash

                 

                    

 









   
                      


























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