By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Wellness

May 1, 2015

• Turn on your youth factory
• …Ward off aging and disease
• …And live a longer life

If there was a pill to stop aging, I’ll bet you’d want one.

Since that discovery hasn’t been made yet, it’s up to you to take care of your body and mind the best you can. This is why you choose healthy foods, take supplements and try to stay physically active.

These are certainly the right steps toward staying as young as you can, for as long as possible. But if you’re one of those people who frequently wriggles out of the third item – physical activity – you might be aging faster than your counterparts.

This is a problem I encounter quite frequently.

Many patients tell me they try and get a “little exercise in” when they have time. Or that they’re “too busy right now”, and “will start next month”. Physical activity always seems to be last on the list.

However, getting plenty of physical movement is key to warding off age-related health problems like heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. It’s also critical when it comes to maintaining a youthful appearance and turning back the hands of time.

You see, people who get plenty of physical activity have longer telomeres than people who don’t. Telomeres are the protective DNA caps on the end of your chromosomes that shorten each time your cells divide. The shorter they get, the more quickly you age. Having longer telomeres can make you look – and feel – younger than people who are inactive. It can also keep you healthier as you age.

Now you might wonder how I know this.

 

One of the most valuable study groups available to researchers is twins. Not only do they have the same DNA, but they’re also brought up in the same type of environment – eating the same foods, and developing similar habits.

This has given us the opportunity for some wonderful discoveries. Here’s what twins have taught us about physical activity and successful aging…

When one twin regularly exercises and the other one doesn’t, the more sedentary twin ages more quickly. The sedentary twin has lower endurance and higher levels of body fat. The sedentary twin tends to show signs of insulin resistance, a precursor to metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Inactive twins also have less grey matter in certain areas of the frontal lobe in their brains. And we know loss of grey matter can be linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, this may be due to the effect exercise has on your telomeres.

You see, twins with increased physical activity have longer telomeres, especially when compared to those who are least active. This is hugely important when it comes to your anti-aging efforts.

Shortened telomeres open you up to an increased risk of many health issues; including heart disease, cancer, dementia and chronic inflammation. They are also linked to a reduced lifespan. Longer telomeres, on the other hand, are associated with robust health and a longer lifetime.

Let’s take this one step further…

Twins with longer telomeres look younger and live longer. Awhile back researchers showed people pictures of almost 2,000 twins who were over the age of 70. All of the pictures were shown out of order, so that each twins’ photo was shown on separate days. Then, they asked the people to guess the age of each twin.

Guess what happened seven years later when the researchers analyzed the health and death rates among the twins?

The twin who people thought looked younger was less likely to experience dementia or other health problems. However, the twin who looked older was more likely to become ill and die first.

So, what do you say we turn on your youth factory, and get the anti-aging process started?

There are all sorts of workout programs you can participate in. And I recommend many of them. Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi and more all have specific benefits. But even if you join in on these types of programs, I suggest regularly participating in high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Now, don’t let the high intensity part scare you – one thing you’ll find about HIIT is that it doesn’t take very long at all. Depending on your current level of fitness, I’d say you should dedicate between 15 minutes and a half hour toward it each day.

Now, getting started is simple. (Be sure to check with your doctor before starting any type of exercise program, especially if you’ve been sedentary.

HITT involves a burst of short-term high intensity exercise followed by a recovery period. For example, after warming up for a few minutes, do a 30-second sprint—walking or running as fast as you can—followed by 2 to 4 minutes of easy walking. Repeat 4 to 6 times. The workout ends with a 3 to 4 minute cool-down.

As it becomes easier, try increasing the intensity and shortening your rest time. (i.e., a 30 second full-out burst, followed by lesser and lesser minutes of easy walking.)

This same tactic also works great for sprinting up stairs and while bicycling, rowing or swimming. Just dedicate time three days a week to start with.

I won’t kid you, starting a HIIT program is hard at first.

But, regardless of the shape you’re in, the payoff is huge. You’ll look younger and feel younger. Your chances of chronic disease will plummet, and your biological age will literally start reversing itself.

That’s why I want you to stay tuned for the next issue of Advanced Natural Wellness. You have enough here to get started three days a week, but I’ll blow your socks off with a full HIIT workout you can do on other days of the week.

Resources:

Christensen K, et al. “Perceived age as clinically useful biomarker of ageing: cohort study.” BMJ. 2009 Dec 10;339:b5262.

Rottensteiner M, et al. Physical activity, fitness, glucose homeostasis, and brain morphology in twins. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2015 Mar;47(3):509-18.

Cherkas LF, et al. The association between physical activity in leisure time and leukocyte telomere length. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jan 28;168(2):154-8.