During preparation for this website one of my favorite reads would have to be: Gene Smart by Floyd H Chilton. Which detailed the adaptive stress response that helps the body adapt to the stress it encounters. Something our ancestors adaptive to well back in the day of less stress filled days, less processed foods, pizza and fast foods being thrown at them.
Twenty first century lifestyle will take and also drive the adaptive response to stress toward over ~ reactive inflammation, being over weight with poor health and premature aging. It is with a lack of nutrition that leads to profound and increased susceptibility toward a whole host of diseases that you see it’s impact.
So it’s our shift in lifestyle and food supply, in combination with our ancient genes that puts us at risk. When you consider the times we’re living, much like the catastrophic events causing the dramatic changes in the diets of dinosaurs. Altered weather pattern which in turn altered vegetation and their ecosystem of that time causing their extinction.
Change is needed to prevent a repeat of history and scientist believe an extensive laundry list is needed to prevent a low – level, full – body chronic inflammation state. That contributes to the aging process by eroding the cell’s ability to maintain themselves while causing themselves to grow old before their time.
Therefore it’s important key is to trigger the adaptive stress response with certain types of calories and biochemical compounds (polyphenols, while adding fiber, correcting the good fat to bad fat ratio, with aerobic exercise to fight inflammation and restricting calories that can alter gene expression), thereby, reducing the biomarkers for inflammation, disease and the aging process.
Between 50 and 75 million Americans have the metabolic syndrome defined by the presence of three or more risk factors. Including abdominal obesity, high triglycerides or cholesterol, elevated high blood pressure and abnormal insulin or glucose levels. The components of the Gene Smart Diet have been found in clinical study to prevent and treat cardio arrhythmias, COPD, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, Crohn’s disease, IBS, psoriasis, asthma and even certain cancer.
Cancer for a long time was in a category of it’s own and as far back as the late 19th century, Scientist noticed inflammation in the presence of certain cancers, believed inflammation played a crucial role in turning any pre malignant cells into malignant cells. Cancer starts with a group of cells, gone haywire, reproducing rapidly and then migrating into surrounding healthy tissue.
This marks the transition from pre malignancy to malignancy, scientist suspect that the tumor essentially borrows the body’s natural inflammatory process to aid and a bet this transition. This mechanism was discovered by a researcher at the University of London, who found mice engineered without the ability to produce a particularly inflammatory messenger; called tumor necrosis factor – alpha.
Because it kills cancer cells under certain conditions this inflammatory messenger, when it is chronically present in low levels, essentially creates a breeding ground for pre malignant cells to turn malignant. However, this process isn’t the primary cancer that kills. Metastases: when cancer cells break off and travel to other locations throughout the body while setting up camp.
Here again inflammation plays a crucial role accompanying cancer cells in the journey to the fatal end (know your inflammatory messengers.)
Leptin: under normal circumstances it regulates the amount of fat the body stores, slowing the process if fat becomes over stocked. However, in people who are obese; this system breaks down and the body has seen so much leptin that they don’t respond appropriately to large amounts of it. Michael Rosenbaum MD at Columbia University Medical Center found with weight loss.
Brain activity indicated increasing emotional and cognitive response to food, as well as declining control over eating behavior. In other words, causes you to reach for the cookie jar and explains ‘why’ only 5 to 25 percent of people who had been obese. However, lost 10 percent of their body weight through diet and exercise are able to keep off the excess poundage.
C – reactive protein: high levels of CRP are so closely related to so many health malaise that sometimes it could be a biomarker of disease and aging. Data collected showcases high levels of CRP are associated with important cardio vascular factors including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and diabetes. Research studies also indicate women who obese are more than six times (men twice as likely) to have elevated CPR.
Interleukin – 6: may have anti inflammatory effects in people who are lean and physically active helping regulate metabolism, suppress appetite and prevent weight gain. Whereas people who are over weight or obese, elevated IL – 6 is associated with whole body inflammation and increased CRP production.
Interleukin – 8: our fat cells also produce an inflammatory messenger known as interleukin – 8. (IL – 8) plays a pivotal role in the development of atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases by controlling how and when white blood move into tissues to cause damage. One recent study also showed circulative IL – 8 correlated to obesity – related biomarkers CRP and IL – 6 as well as glucose regulation.
Tumor Necrosis Factor – Alpha (TNF) is an inflammatory messenger made by macrophages. A type of white blood cells that’s quite prevalent in fat tissue and in people that are lean, macrophages make up only 5 to 10 percent of fat tissue; while they account for 60 percent of all cells in the fat deposits of people whom are over weight or obese.
One study found that compared to those of normal weight, that obese release more than seven times as much TNF from their fat tissue. TNF is associated with insulin resistance, diabetes, hardening of the arteries and congestive heart failure. Although it does kill cancer cells in high enough doses it actually promotes tumor growth when present at lower levels over longer periods of time.
Biomarkers of aging…. are things that make us look and feel old, skin elasticity won’t restore, joints stiffen – up, we’re prone to more colds, bones weaken, your balance worsen, glucose regulation is less efficient. While muscle mass declines, heart muscle weakens as exercise becomes more difficult with lower stamina and energy level. Which can also contribute to weight gain, poor endocrine system, cognitive function and lapses in memory.
Therefore ways to combat aging process, in 1934, two Scientist from Cornell University, Clive McCay and Mary Crowell made an interesting observation. Laboratory mice given a diet that was nutritionally sound but severely reduced in calories lived twice as long as they were expected. In the proceeding 70 years of research that has followed their discovery, we find that calorie restriction is the only item that with stood the test over time to extend longevity.
Like human beings, mice begin a downward death spiral after reaching a certain point in their life cycle as well. However, those living on a CR Diet this decline proceeds at a slower pace. The lab mice don’t lose muscle mass, fur don’t thin as it usually does, immune system remains strong and they don’t become susceptible to diseases like cancer, as older mice generally do.
In 2003, a group of Scientists, led by David Sinclair Ph.D. at Harvard, and Leonard Guarente Ph.D., at MIT made several scientific observations. While studying the effect calorie restriction (CR) in the number of times that yeast could reproduce. Finding a switch board for controlling genes that dictate how long yeast cells have and how many times they divide. Actually the switch board is a biological pathway the scientist called Sir2.
Simply put, Sir2 senses how many nutrients are available to an organism in it’s own environment. If nutrients are scarce as they are when restricting calories ~ the switch board lights up and it’s activity increases. This will in turn have a major impact on how long an organism lives and/or how many times it can reproduce. For yeast cells activating this switch board extends the life span by a whopping 30 to 40 percent.
That same increase in humans would have humans living to 120 years. Also in humans, a similar protein called SIRT1 was discovered and the entire family of protein are collectively known as sirtuins. When activated sirtuins offer a super ~ charged protection against inflammation, and therefore, against disease itself as well as the aging process.
Within the French Paradox and laboratory at Harvard, David Sinclair reported that a naturally occurring polyphenol – like compound common in red wine or red grapes. Resveratrol most potently activates SIRT1 and even more astonishing from a paper that appeared in Nature (2006), revealing mice fed resveratrol lived the same length of time. Having the same motor skills wether on a healthy low – fat diet or high – fat diet.
Duplicating CR’s effects, as resveratrol claim in itself that it can mimic a calorie restricted diet or exercising regularly. Dr. John Auwerx Ph.D. at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France. In a paper published in the journal Cell (2006), Dr. Auwerx devised an animal study to test high doses of resveratrol on exercise endurance in mice. Whereas your typical lab mouse can run roughly 1 kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion.
However, when mice where given up to 400 milligrams of resveratrol per kilogram of body weight. They were able to run twice the distance of mice not given resveratrol. Furthermore they found that mice had more energy charged muscles with a lower heart rate – characteristically found in train athletes. The near magical properties of resveratrol and other potent bioactives don’t end there.
They also interfere…. with the three stages of cancer formation and modulate the master regulator NF -kB that control inflammation, thereby, protecting against neuronal cell dysfunction and cell death. Which means in theory it could protect against Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease. Harnessing the power of bio-actives is like finding a treasure map directing us to a fountain of youth. One has to consider the satiety of fiber and also the anti inflammatory properties of Omega – 3 fatty acids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv49yC46e-g