Even though aging is an accepted part of life, what we experience when we age is still perplexing to many. We want answers to our questions about how and why we age so we can perhaps reverse the process or at least look good while it is occurring. Scientists and medical experts have been studying the aging process for many years in an attempt to learn how we can prevent certain diseases which plague us when we age. Cosmetic companies are researching anti aging processes in order to determine how best to thwart the effects of aging on our appearance. Aging is big business and huge sums of money are spent trying to learn more about it.
It is important that we learn the science behind aging. Understanding why we age from a physiological perspective will help us to retain our health longer and enable us to maintain our lives with vitality and vigor. Growing old is tough going on human beings. There are so many expectations on us, many we place on ourselves. We want to enjoy good health for as long as possible so we can enjoy our elder years after a good portion of our lifetime is spent working. Now we wish to enjoy the fruits of our labor without untimely illness and debilitating conditions. Many of us deserve to age well and so, especially of late, we do what we can to age gracefully and in a healthy fashion.
Scientists have determined quite a bit about how and why we age yet there is still so much we do not understand. So we do the best we can with the knowledge science has provided to us so we can do the best we can to accept aging as a fact of life and manage our expectations of aging in a way that keeps us healthy and with the knowledge that not everything about aging is in our control. We can only do the best we can as individuals to eat right, exercise and keep our minds active as we reach the tipping point of our lives.
Genetics and Aging
Scientists have provided us with enough knowledge of our inherent traits and characteristics to understand what impact our genetic makeup has on how we age. Nearly everything mentally and physically about us can be attributed to our genes. From how tall we are to our hair colour and behavior is partially a result of genetics.
Our genes appear to be the key component to understanding the ambiguity of aging. We can thank our genes for the genetic timer we carry within us that can be set off at will. Experts have no idea why certain genetic circumstances occur or what makes us unique. What is known is there are some people who are just innately more able to do better at athletics and look younger, or stay healthier than their peers. If a person’s parents have lived a long and reasonably healthy life, chances are good that their children will do the same. It is also understood that by and large, women will outlive men. They also know that there are genetic oddities that mean a disease such as Alzheimer’s in direct lineage could pre determine the fate of the following generation.
Free Radicals and Aging
There is a theory concerning free radicals, they are damaging by-products of chemical reactions at the cellular level, which are occurring always in our bodies. Free radicals cause untold damage to our bodies and harm our cells. Free radicals assault the elastin and the skins building block, collagen. You need these two elements in order to maintain moist and supple skin. If you lack these components, your skin will droop and cause wrinkling. Free radicals can be somewhat disarmed by vitamins like E and C however, not all will be eradicated.
Antioxidants are the primary way we can defend against free radical damage. We mainly receive our supply of antioxidants from the food we eat. We must maintain an adequate store of antioxidants in our system to achieve healthy aging since our antioxidants levels will begin to decline with age. This is a likely reason why those individuals who eat poorly are going to appear older and feebler than those who enjoy a balance diet.
Hormones and Aging
As we grow older, our bodies begin to lose the ability to reproduce certain chemicals in the body that we have relied on for health to that point in our lives. Both men and women experience diminished hormones as they age. In women, this is referred to as menopause and in men, andropause. Losing these hormones can add significantly to the progression of aging. We can witness this first hand in those suffering from osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
As we age , certain things begin to wane like our energy level, our libido and general zest for life. We become tired and it is more difficult to recover and recuperate from illness and disease. We tend not to have as active a sex life as we once enjoyed and our memory begins to fade if ever so slightly. These symptoms of aging can be drastically improved upon if we take the time to care for our health at an early age. So much of how we age depends upon how we treated our bodies in our more youthful days.
We are all going to grow older, some of us more gracefully than others are. There are numerous genetic factors that will play a role in how we age and also our lifestyle choices will have a bearing on our aging. There is no magic pill to make us younger nor can we do much about who our parents were. What we can do is take good care of our body’s and our minds starting now so we can aid in the natural process of aging well.
Fri, Oct 16, 2009
Anti Aging, Bioscience, Health And Aging