The estimates on just how much the global anti-ageing industry is worth currently range from US$30 to over US$100 billion. Creams, serums and just about anything that can be applied or ingested most likely, it seems, have some form of potential to reverse ageing. For a price, of course.
In this article, we will talk about another form of ageing, internal ageing. More importantly, we will look at your genes and how you can use bioactive ingredients in food to express their potential to reverse ageing. Yep, you might be able to reverse ageing and enjoy delicious food in the process.
Wait, isn’t trying to reverse ageing a waste of time?
Around three years ago, the World Health Organisation helped catalyse a significant change in how science sees ageing. It classified ageing as a disease. Or at least the potential cause of it. To be more precise, the definition is “caused by a pathological process which persistently leads to the loss of an organism’s adaptation and progress in older ages.” [i]
This shift in definition means that even whilst ageing is still a fight against time, the process of ageing, relating to how it can influence the body’s ability to interact with its environment, could be mitigated, or better still, prevented.
Sounds like science fiction? Not for scientists at Harvard, who have restored the vision in blind mice by reversing their biological clocks.[ii] This monumental feat has come about by discovering that the body somehow retains the record of its youth within the DNA. This ledger can be accessed and seemingly activated later in life to regenerate tissues. Just writing this sounds almost inconceivable, but it seems that our genes hold the potential to transcend what appear to be impossible biological constraints when it comes to ageing.
Would you prefer a long life punctuated by illness or shorter life with better health?
Fun fact. If we cured heart disease and cancer, we would most likely increase our life expectancy by less than five years.[iii] That’s even with the absence of two of the biggest causes of death on the globe. In contrast, if we were to reverse ageing, the extension in life expectancy is estimated to be in the decades.
With this said, if you were to interview people in the street and ask them if they’d exchange more years for the ability to live freely, I would wager that most people would prefer fewer years in better health. This better health is commonly known as “healthspan” and more accurately defines the type of ageing we are looking at influencing. This healthspan is where our genes come in. To understand how they help, though, a quick review of the processes that influence ageing will help.
Numerous different functions can contribute to the ageing process.
According to one of our generation’s significant researchers in biological ageing, Leonard Hayflick, “the common denominator that underlies all modern theories of biological ageing is a change in function.[iv]”
Here is a summary of some of these theories:
- Free Radical Theory or commonly known as oxidative stress brought on by oxidation, is an ordinary and necessary process in the body. Still, the byproducts of the process can leave a residual mark on the body that’s akin to a form of rust.
- Immunologic Theory refers to ageing as a prolonged autoimmune response where the immune system slowly ages the body.
- Inflammation Theory refers to a chronic low-grade form of inflammation that degrades the body over time. An easy way of visualising this is to imagine leaving a pot on a small flame on your stovetop. You’d most likely see minimal damage in a day, but that small flame will slowly degrade the pot over time.
- Mitochondrial Theory refers to the breakdown of the ability to create energy within our cells, thus rendering it harder to fuel tissues and organs.
Researchers thought that these functions independently caused ageing at one point, but it’s now agreed that they all have their part to play in the process.[v]
A critical public announcement about your DNA and how your genes work to understand better how particular food can help.
When discussing DNA with patients, I always begin with some mantras or important caveats regarding how genes influence your health to better frame this for your understanding.
For the sake of your time and the length of this article, we’ll discuss the two main mantras, which, if you are interested in genomics (the field of study concerning the genome), you might have already come across.
The first mantra is “genes are a tendency and not a destiny.”
Another particular favourite of mine from a registered dietician, Amanda Archibald, of Culinary Genomics fame, is “one genetic mistake, does not a chronic disease make.”
This mantra perhaps best encapsulates ethical discussions around interpreting genome reports and concerns about associating your DNA with disease risk.[vi] These concerns are around the suggestion that your genes, and their associative spelling mistakes, directly equal a disease outcome and whether, in case of conditions you can’t take action on, the news of this causes more harm than good.[vii]
Genes offering a tendency, not a destiny, directly aims to dispel this by pointing out that your genes turn a function on or off, such as a protein or an enzyme, and the DNA reported back to you via mapping your genome is only referring to these functions.
Not to any diseases they may cause.
Now I’m trying to condense a highly complex subject with varied nuance here. Still, the practicality of knowing your DNA or supporting it via the diet (remember why you started reading this?) is to mitigate deficits in function based on DNA that you’ve inherited from generations before you. The destiny occurs when these deficits are left unmitigated over decades, hence how the disease associations begin in the first place.
Once you are aware of the unique combination of genes and the personal deficits in function intrinsic to you, modifications to your lifestyle can be made in response, increasing or beginning herbal or nutritional supplementation, or making dietary changes, as in the case of what we’re looking at in this article. Changes that over decades shift what might seem a predestined outcome.
Epigenetics – “The genes load the gun, and the environment pulls the trigger.”
This second mantra holds the key to the action items we discussed above. The term environment, in this case, can relate to an internal landscape, such as the microbiome, or external environmental elements, such as pollution, stress or even your dietary choices. These environments have the power to pull the trigger on our genes, and you can be the architect of decisions that influence them all.
DNA is what it is and always will be. Still, there are ways you can take control and behave in a manner aligned with this second mantra, behaviour aligned with one of our fundamental principles here at Philip Watkins Naturopathy, personal sovereignty. This action nicely leads us into why I wrote this article. Hearing the words “it’s just genetic” suggests that there’s nothing that you can do; you’ve got no power. It seems that’s very much far from the case.
Bioactive ingredients from food can influence gene behaviour
Bioactive compounds are non-nutrient dietary components found in food. They can directly influence how genes behave and function (remember the second mantra above?). It’s important to note that they are not like vitamins or minerals, such as Vitamin D or calcium and offer no caloric value either. Their rise to prominence is primarily the result of studies showing the protective effects of a plant-based diet on cardiovascular and cancer risk.[viii]
Amanda Archibald, mentioned above, describes bioactives function as “a switch that, when activated, sets in motion a series of biochemical steps, akin to knocking over a series of dominoes. The result of this cascade is the activation (and sometimes deactivation) of specific genes.”[ix]
Examples of bioactives are either well-known supplements or even pharmaceutical drugs. Some of these are Resveratrol from grapes, aspirin derived from willow bark, metformin derived from French lilacs, epigallocatechin gallate from green tea, quercetin from fruits and allicin from garlic.
Bioactives constituents in food can unlock Nrf2, the key regulator for protection against oxidative stress, one of the causes of ageing.
Ok, get ready for one of those too good to be true statements that we often hear from supplement marketeers.
Ready? Ok, raising Nrf2, which regulates the action of 500 genes no less, has been found to prevent/or treat a large number of long-standing inflammatory diseases in either animals or humans, including various cardiovascular, kidney, lung, autoimmune and inflammatory bowel diseases.[x] Does that not cover pretty much all the things we know that kill people regularly?
It’s crazy to think that diet can affect such a broad spectrum of influence on your genetics, but this is why diet is now considered the cornerstone of prevention and treatment in cardiovascular disease and diabetes.[xi]
Bioactive ingredients in foods that help to raise Nrf2 are as follows:
- Lycopene derived from cooked tomatoes;
- Curcumin derived from turmeric (Fun fact: Did you know that the cooking process enhances the compounds in turmeric?)
- Quercetin from citrus fruits, apples, onions, parsley, sage, garlic and olive oil;[xii]
- Sulforaphane from cruciferous vegetables such as Kale, Broccoli and Broccoli sprouts;[xiii]
One thing that strikes me most about this list is just how commonly occurring these foods are. But also how easy it would be to load them on your plate regularly. This potential backs up the simplicity of nutrigenomics, the study of how specific nutrients and other non-nutritional compounds found in food influence the activity of our genes. You don’t have to be a master recipe writer or someone overly committed to research to influence your genes; you just have to be consistent in choosing foods that help over a long period.
SIRT-1 genes help us to manage inflammation, control blood sugar efficiently, and in the case of fats, affect how the body metabolises, stores and uses them.
SiRT-1, short for sirtuin-1, seems to be the biggest deal of all, especially regarding the longevity and healthspan space. It regulates metabolism, resistance to stress, cell survival, inflammation and immune function, and circadian rhythms[xiv], significant for stress and sleep management.
Here is something for those who are looking to manage their weight. SIRT-1 plays a unique role in the body’s interaction with fat. Early studies have shown that it suppresses another gene called PPAR-G, which shuttles fat into storage when it is activated.[xv] In other words, SIRT-1 can influence fat storage and promote fat burning!
Bioactive ingredients in foods that influence SIRT-1 are as follows:
- Resveratrol from red wine (a popular supplement)
- Quercetin (see foods for Nrf2)
- Curcumin derived from turmeric;
- Berberine is from many commonly used herbs in natural medicine, such as Barberry, Phellodendron and Coptis.
- Fisetin, a compound found in persimmons and strawberries;
Essential foods such as garlic, strawberries, tomatoes and olive oil can unlock your body’s ability to pay significant transactions by promoting critical gene influencers such as SIRT-1 and Nrf2.
The crazy thing is. It’s not that hard! See any overlap between the bioactive ingredients for SIRT-1 and Nrf2?
Yep, Quercetin and Curcumin affect both SIRT-1 and Nrf2, two critical genomic factors regulating all ageing processes discussed in this article. This combination is a fantastic example of natural medicinal compounds that have a wide-ranging effect on the body. Not just acutely for therapy, but over the long-term. especially when it comes to looking to reverse ageing
Spending time to either focus on the right foods or the right supplements can unlock more value for each capsule or food you eat and pay the body’s transactions regardless of the genes you have. Better still, you’re the one in control of reversing ageing!
References
[i] https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f459275392, viewed 4th November 2021
[ii] Lu Y, Brommer B, Tian X, et al. Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision. Nature. 2020;588(7836):124-129. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2975-4
[iii] Olshansky SJ, Carnes BA, Cassel C. In search of Methuselah: estimating the upper limits to human longevity. Science. 1990;250(4981):634-640. doi:10.1126/science.2237414
[iv] Hayflick L. Entropy explains aging, genetic determinism explains longevity, and undefined terminology explains misunderstanding both. PLoS Genet. 2007;3(12):e220. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030220
[v] Liochev SI. Which Is the Most Significant Cause of Aging?. Antioxidants (Basel). 2015;4(4):793-810. Published 2015 Dec 17. doi:10.3390/antiox4040793
[vi] Udesky L. The ethics of direct-to-consumer genetic testing [published correction appears in Lancet. 2011 Mar 5;377(9768):812]. Lancet. 2010;376(9750):1377-1378. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61939-3
[vii] Udesky L. The ethics of direct-to-consumer genetic testing [published correction appears in Lancet. 2011 Mar 5;377(9768):812]. Lancet. 2010;376(9750):1377-1378. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61939-3
[viii] Kris-Etherton PM, Hecker KD, Bonanome A, et al. Bioactive compounds in foods: their role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Am J Med. 2002;113 Suppl 9B:71S-88S. doi:10.1016/s0002-9343(01)00995-0
[ix] Archibald, A. The Genomic Kitchen, 2019, Field to Plate LLC DBA The Genomic Kitchen
[x] Pall ML, Levine S. Nrf2, a master regulator of detoxification and also antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and other cytoprotective mechanisms, is raised by health promoting factors. Sheng Li Xue Bao. 2015;67(1):1-18.
[xi] Pallazola VA, Davis DM, Whelton SP, et al. A Clinician’s Guide to Healthy Eating for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2019;3(3):251-267. Published 2019 Aug 1. doi:10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.05.001
[xii] Li Y, Yao J, Han C, et al. Quercetin, Inflammation and Immunity. Nutrients. 2016;8(3):167. Published 2016 Mar 15. doi:10.3390/nu8030167
[xiii] Schepici G, Bramanti P, Mazzon E. Efficacy of Sulforaphane in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21(22):8637. Published 2020 Nov 16. doi:10.3390/ijms21228637
[xiv] Chung S, Yao H, Caito S, Hwang JW, Arunachalam G, Rahman I. Regulation of SIRT1 in cellular functions: role of polyphenols. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2010;501(1):79-90. doi:10.1016/j.abb.2010.05.003
[xv] Picard F, Kurtev M, Chung N, et al. Sirt1 promotes fat mobilization in white adipocytes by repressing PPAR-gamma [published correction appears in Nature. 2004 Aug 19;430(7002):921]. Nature. 2004;429(6993):771-776. doi:10.1038/nature02583
