Living Longer: The Secret of Vitamins
At least 85% of one’s longevity is determined by lifestyle factors, and some people are willing to do anything to live longer. Some even resort to the calorie restriction method, wherein one feasts on a mere 800 calories or so per day. While this sounds appetizing, there are many of us who would rather be happy, energized centarians. What if you could life longer by taking a pill? As it turns out, you can. It may be that daily vitamins can increase our longevity via telomere protection.
One of the secrets to longevity may have been right under our nose all along. A recent study published in the Americal Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggested that vitamins may help promote telomere length, thereby increasing our longevity. Telomeres protect your chromosomes from being damaged, kind of like the ends of your shoe lace strings keep the shoe lace from being unraveled. The longer your telomere, the longer your life. In fact, it has also been suggested that our real age can be measured by telomere length.
The study showed a significant correlation between Vitamin C and Vitamin E intake and increased telomere length. Vitamins C and E are both powerful antioxidants which protect the cells against free radicals. Those who ingested higher levels of these two vitamins seemed to have significantly longer telomeres, and therefore, greater longevity. The most likely reason for this finding is the fact that free radical damage is often the cause of aging and the beginning of degenerative disease processes.
Let’s go back for a moment to explain this concept. When we eat, breathe, or engage in unhealthy behaviors, free radicals are released that can damage our cells. The top causes of free radical damage are:
- smoking nicotine
- chronic emotional stress
- prescription medications
- environmental toxins
- overexercise (i.e., serious and professional athletes have a 75%ish greater chance of degenerative disease)
- sleep deprivation
- trans fats, refined sugars
- alcohol and substance abuse
These interest me greatly in my line of work because most of these causes are behavioral. In fact, 5-6 of these causes are maladaptive coping behaviors that I often see my clients using when feeling anxious or depressed. Chronic emotional stress alone places an enormous amount of oxidative stress on the body, but the behaviors that people often use such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol or substance abuse increase the free radical load significantly.
Protecting one’s cells against free radicals is probably the best approach to looking younger and increasing longevity. This begins with awareness of the top causes noted above, behavioral modification, a diet high in organic, brightly colored fruits and vegetables, and proper nutritional supplementation. Due to the depletion of mineral levels in our soils, it is impossible to get the optimal amounts of antioxidants and minerals from food alone these days. Nutritional supplementation can fill in the gap, but the quality of the supplement is equally as important as the amount taken.
I have discussed the importance of high quality supplements which contain optimal levels of nutrients as opposed to those established by the RDA in recent articles, but this distinction deserves added emphasis. Those that I use are found here.
Always use a supplement manufactured under pharmaceutical GMPs, and rank your supplement in the third party book called Nutrisearch: The Guide to Nutritional Supplementation. This book is found on Amazon.com, but if you would like to see how your vitamin compares with all others, write to me in the comment section here and I’ll look it up for you.
You can read more about this study and the entire article at:
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/content/view/print/247884
That’s all this morning from the beautiful coast of Pawleys Island, SC. Enjoy your day and remember to get your Vitamin D3 replenishment outdoors in the sunny fall weather today.
