Natural Health
Back Clinic Natural Health Functional Medicine Team. This is a natural approach to health care. It is a natural healing practice or a branch of alternative medicine that looks at nature for answers and explanations. There are a few Western forms of alternative medicine that NCCAM has classified as Biologically Based Therapies, as well as, Mind and Body Interventions used in stress management.
There is nothing magical about it. It is about natural healing therapies for prevention and healthy lifestyles. This means eating natural whole foods, nutritional supplements, physical exercise. This is nothing new, but it has evolved over the years within certain prevention parameters, and healthy lifestyles have proven to work repeatedly. There is nothing anti-intellectual or anti-scientific about it. All health, wellness, illness, and healing can be positively affected by simple and inexpensive natural therapies.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Gastro Intestinal Health, Gut and Intestinal Health, Natural Health, Probiotics, Wellness
Breastfeeding has long been linked to a variety of health benefits in babies, and a new study suggests that bacteria transferred from mothers to their nursing infants might be at least partly responsible.
Researchers focused on what’s known as the microbiome, or all of the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in and on the body. They tested 107 mother-baby pairs for organisms on women’s breasts and in their milk, and they also examined babies’ stool as a way of determining what types of organisms were in the infant gut microbiome.
While they found distinct types of bacteria in milk, breast tissue and infant stool, researchers also found infants’ gut microbial communities matched the bacteria in their mothers’ milk and on their mothers’ skin much more than it resembled samples from other women in the study.
That suggests each mother’s milk was a major contributor to her own infant’s gut microbiome.
“We were able to show that there are bacteria in milk and that these bacteria could be traced to bacteria in infant stools,” said senior study author Dr. Grace Aldrovandi, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“This supports the hypothesis that milk microbes are a mechanism by which breastfeeding provides benefit,” Aldrovandi said by email.
Pediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants until at least 6 months of age because it is tied to reduced risk for babies of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, childhood obesity and diabetes.
Mothers may benefit too, with longer periods of breastfeeding linked to lower risks of depression, bone deterioration and certain cancers.
Based on lab tests of bacteria found in milk, on skin and in stool in the current study, researchers estimated that babies who got at least 75 percent of their nutrition from breast milk during the first month of life received about 28 percent of their gut bacteria from their mother’s milk. These babies also got about 10 percent of their gut bacteria from mothers’ skin and 62 percent from sources researchers didn’t determine.
The more babies nursed, the more their gut bacterial community changed to resemble what was found in their mother’s milk.
And in babies who got more of their nutrition exclusively from breastfeeding, microbial communities were slightly more diverse overall and different microbes predominated compared to babies who breastfed less.
One limitation of the study is that researchers didn’t assess the origins of the breast milk bacteria or other bacterial communities from the mother that might have contributed to the infant gut microbiome, the authors note. Nor did they assess any effects on the babies’ health based on differences in their microbiomes.
Still, the results build on previous research suggesting that the infant gut microbiome is different for breast-fed and formula-fed babies, said Dr. Alexander Khoruts, a researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who wasn’t involved in the study.
“We’ve always assumed that most of these microbes come from the mother,” Khoruts said by email. “They found that breastfeeding is the major source of microbial transfer during the early months of life, and I think the study provides supportive evidence for the current recommendations of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and continued breastfeeding to 12 months.”
Many factors can influence the infant gut microbiome, including breastfeeding, whether babies arrived by vaginal or surgical delivery and antibiotic use, noted Jose Clemente, a researcher in the genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
“The beneficial effects of breastfeeding are well known, and this study provides further evidence by demonstrating that probiotic bacteria found in breast milk can be transferred to the infant,” Clemente, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Every little bit helps, so even some amount of breast milk can be a source of beneficial bacteria for babies.”
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Natural Health, Wellness
A Franco-Australian study published this week reports that testosterone protects males against developing asthma, suppressing the production of a type of immune cell that triggers allergic asthma.
An international team of researchers set out to investigate why females are two times more likely to develop asthma than males after puberty.
According to the research, carried out jointly by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and the Physiopathology Center of Toulouse-Purpan, France, the answer could lie in our hormones.
The scientists found that high levels of testosterone had a protective effect against the development of allergic asthma, inhibiting immune cells called type-two innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), associated with the initiation of asthma.
As highlighted by a French study published in PNAS in 2014, these cells, which are found in lungs, skin and other organs, play a role in triggering allergic reactions like asthma.
These cells produce inflammatory proteins that can cause lung inflammation and damage in response to common triggers for allergic asthma, such as pollen, dust mites, cigarette smoke and pet hair.
“Testosterone directly acts on ILC2s by inhibiting their proliferation,” explains Dr Cyril Seillet from Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. “So in males, you have less ILC2s in the lungs and this directly correlates with the reduced severity of asthma.”
This major breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms that drive allergic asthma, as well as key differences between males and females, could lead to new treatments for the disease. These could potentially mimic the hormonal regulation of ILC2 to treat or prevent asthma.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Natural Health, Wellness
Even as life expectancy is rising in many places across the U.S., there are some places where lifespans are getting shorter and geographical inequalities are becoming more pronounced, a new study suggests.
Nationwide in 2014, the average life expectancy was about 79.1 years, up 5.3 years from 1980, the study found. For men, life expectancy climbed from 70 years to 76.7 years, while for women it increased from 77.5 years to 81.5 years.
But the study also highlighted stark disparities: a baby born in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, can expect to live just 66.8 years, while a child born in Summit County, Colorado, can expect to live 86.8 years, on average.
“For both of these geographies, the drastically different life expectancies are likely the result of a combination of risk factors, socioeconomics and access and quality of health care in those areas,” said senior study author Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“We found that risk factors – obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes – explained 74 percent of the variation in longevity in the U.S.,” Murray said by email. “Socioeconomic factors – a combination of poverty, income, education, unemployment and race – were independently related to 60 percent of the inequality, and access to and quality of health care explained 27 percent.”
To examine changes in life expectancy over time, researchers looked at death certificates from each county in the country.
Several counties in South and North Dakota, typically with Native American reservations, had the lowest life expectancy, the study found. Counties along the lower half of the Mississippi and in eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia also had very low life expectancy compared with the rest of the country.
In contrast, counties in central Colorado had the highest life expectancy.
Some of the biggest gains in life expectancy during the study were seen in counties in central Colorado, Alaska and in metropolitan areas around San Francisco and New York.
But there was little, if any, improvement in life expectancy in some southern counties in states stretching from Oklahoma to West Virginia. Many counties where life expectancy dropped the most are in Kentucky.
One limitation of the study is that there might be errors in county death records, the authors note. Researchers also lacked data to explore how much the findings might be explained by migration of certain types of people to certain communities.
“The bottom line is that our life expectancy is increasingly being shaped by where we live within the U.S.,” said Jennifer Karas Montez, a sociology researcher at Syracuse University in New York who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Lifestyle behaviors are not causes, they are symptoms,” Montez said by email. “They are symptoms of the environment and the social and economic deprivation that many parts of the country now endure thanks to decades of policy decisions.”
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Natural Health, Wellness
If you suffer from chronic pain, make sure you get plenty of sleep, say researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who found that sleep loss increases pain sensitivity. Can’t get more sleep? Then drink a cup of coffee, which also can help you cope with pain.
Both getting more sleep and drinking coffee (or taking medications that keep you alert) eased chronic pain better than standard pain-relievers, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.
Pain physiologist Alban Latremoliere, Ph.D. and sleep physiologist Chloe Alexandre, Ph.D. measured the effects of acute or chronic sleep loss on sleepiness and sensitivity to both painful and non-painful stimuli in mice. They then tested standard pain medications, like ibuprofen and morphine, as well as wakefulness-promoting agents like caffeine and modafinil.
“We found that five consecutive days of moderate sleep deprivation can significantly exacerbate pain sensitivity over time in otherwise healthy mice,” says Alexandre. “The response was specific to pain, and was not due to a state of general hyperexcitability to any stimuli.”
Surprisingly, common analgesics like ibuprofen did not block sleep-loss-induced pain hypersensitivity. Even morphine lost most of its efficacy in sleep-deprived mice.
The results suggested that patients using these drugs for pain relief might have to increase their dose to compensate for lost efficacy due to sleep loss, thereby increasing their risk for side effects.
In contrast, both caffeine and modafinil, drugs used to promote wakefulness, successfully blocked the pain hypersensitivity caused by both acute and chronic sleep loss. Interestingly, the compounds had no pain-relieving effects in mice who weren’t sleep-deprived.
Meditation has also been found to be more effective than drugs to ease chronic back pain. Scientists at Seattle’s Group Health Research Institute found that eight weekly sessions of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), such as meditation and yoga, relieved pain and improved ease of movement better than conventional care, such as over-the-counter pain killers.
Cognitive behavior therapy, which taught people to change the way they felt about pain, also helped improve both pain and ease of movement better than conventional care.
According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Natural Health, Wellness
Hundreds of studies show that teas bestow a multitude of health benefits. And with teas ranging from mild green to robust Earl Grey along with a wide variety of herbal teas, you’re sure to find one to suit your taste — and your ailment.
Below are different types of tea along with their health benefits.
Black
A study published in Frontiers of Nutrition found that black tea may reduce blood sugar levels naturally, and that drinking three or more cups a day lowers the risk of Type 2 diabetes and helps those who have the disease keep it under control. Researchers at Framingham State University extracted several types of antioxidants from black tea that block the enzymes responsible for increasing blood sugar.
Another study found that those same three cups of black tea reduced the risk of fractures in elderly women by up to 42 percent.
Green
Researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University found that drinking green tea could help prevent deadly abdominal aortic aneurysms. They believe that the beneficial compounds in green tea are polyphenols, a type of antioxidant that fights free radicals and reduces inflammation. The polyphenols also appear to make arteries stronger and more flexible by regenerating elastin, an essential protein that makes arteries stretchy, yet sturdy.
Australian researchers found that three cups of tea a day reduced the risk of fractures by 30 percent. Experts at Flinders University believe that chemicals in black and green tea called flavonoids accelerate the building of new bone while slowing the breakdown of existing bone.
Green and white teas contain large amounts of EGCG, a powerful antioxidant linked to a lower risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and numerous types of cancer. A study at Japan’s Okayama University found that senior citizens who drank large amounts of green tea slashed their risk of dying from heart disease by as much as 76 percent, and a Chinese study found that drinking green tea cut the risk of lung cancer by two-thirds.
Earl Grey
The distinctive flavor of Earl Grey tea is due to an extract made from the bergamot fruit, which is a bitter citrus fruit. Studies have found it lowers cholesterol naturally and safely by reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, while raising levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. Bergamot lowers an especially harmful type of LDL called LDL-B, and lowers inflammation as well as blood sugar. “That’s a trifecta!” says nationally known nutritionist Jonny Bowden, author of Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now.
Rooibos.
Rooibos tea, also called redbush tea, is an herbal tea made from the South African shrub Aspalathus Lineraris. One study found that rooibos protected the liver against cirrhosis caused by alcohol or the liver toxin carbon tetrachloride as well as N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), the supplement commonly used to treat the condition. Other studies have found it lowers blood pressure, may help prevent diabetes and cancer, and even aids in weight loss.
Ginger.
Ginger contains active phenols, including gingerols and shogaols, and ginger tea has been used to sooth upset stomachs for centuries, relieving gas and diarrhea. Numerous modern studies have found that ginger can help alleviate morning sickness and motion sickness, and can even lessen the nausea caused by chemotherapy. Ginger is anti-inflammatory, and a study published in The Journal of Pain found that ginger eases muscle pain following exercise. Ginger can also suppress the appetite and help with weight loss. An article published in the journal Metabolism found that drinking ginger tea after meals quelled hunger pangs.
Peppermint.
According to a study in the International Journal of Neuroscience, peppermint tea increases concentration and focus. Peppermint oil is a natural stimulant, and merely sniffing a warm cup can boost your energy levels. Numerous studies have found that peppermint oil decreases fatigue, soothes nerves, and sharpens memory.
Peppermint also tackles headaches. A placebo-controlled study published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice found peppermint reduced the pain of migraines. An earlier German study found that peppermint reduced pain as effectively as 1,000 mg of acetaminophen.
Peppermint tea also aids in digestion, and several studies found that peppermint reduced the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome by 75 percent.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Herbs, Natural Health, Remedies, Wellness
Many parents of children with debilitating gastrointestinal disorders may be frustrated by the lack of good treatment options and tempted to try herbal remedies at home, but a new study suggests they should proceed with caution.
Researchers examined data from 14 previously published studies with a total of 1,927 children suffering from problems like diarrhea, dehydration, colic, constipation, abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome. They didn’t have enough data to combine results from multiple small studies to offer definitive proof that herbal remedies might work for any of these health problems.
But some of the small studies did suggest certain herbal medicines might help ease diarrhea, abdominal pain and colic. And the studies didn’t find serious side effects associated with herbal remedies.
“The lack of conclusive research is unfortunately a general problem in pediatrics, but a special problem in herbal medicine is that for many herbal remedies no licensed and standardized products are available,” said lead study author Dr. Dennis Anheyer of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
In other words, even if evidence shows an herb may be safe and effective for a specific health problem, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every single version of that herb available for sale would work as well or be free of side effects.
When researchers looked at four studies with a total of 424 participants, they found some evidence suggesting that a variety of herbal remedies might help diarrhea: a plant in the rose family called potentilla erecta, carob bean juice, and an herbal compound preparation with chamomile.
One study with 120 participants also suggests that peppermint oil might help curb the duration, frequency and severity chronic abdominal pain that doesn’t have a clear medical explanation.
And, fennel might help ease colic symptoms in babies according to a review of five small studies of herbal remedies for infant colic.
While it’s possible herbal remedies might be used in addition to traditional medications or to help reduce reliance on drug therapy, parents should still see a doctor before trying out herbal therapies on their own, Anheyer said by email.
Another reason for caution is that even the studies in the current analysis that found herbal remedies effective don’t show how large the effects are, noted Dr. Peter Lucassen, a researcher at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands who wasn’t involved in the study.
These small studies might get results that find herbs are statistically better than no treatment or alternative therapies, but the difference still might not be big enough to have a meaningful clinical impact on patients’ symptoms, Lucassen said by email.
“I would not advocate any of the herbal medicine because the article does not provide any data about how large the effects are,” Lucassen said.
Often, herbal remedies combine a variety of ingredients and use differing amounts of the main ingredients, which may alter how well they work and how safe they are for kids, Lucassen added. They might also contain chemicals not found in prescription medications that have dangerous side effects or a risk of overdose.
And there’s another reason parents shouldn’t try herbal remedies without seeing a doctor.
“Delayed diagnosis might be the result of herbal medications because parents seek help too late because they try the herbs first,” Lucassen said.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Health, Natural Health, Wellness
Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Alexander Jimenez discusses mitochondria and one’s health.
Mitochondria: you might not know what they are, but they are vital to your health. �Rhonda Patrick, PhD is a biomedical scientist who has studied the interaction between mitochondrial metabolism, aberrant metabolism, and cancer.
She�s also done research on aging at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California.
�I�ve had a variety of experiences doing research on aging, cancer, and metabolism,� she explains. �Now, currently, I�m in Oakland, California, where I�m doing my post-doctoral research, working with Dr. Bruce Ames�
The primary focus of the research is the role of nutrition in preventing age-related diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and different inflammatory-related diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
I�ve been doing a lot of research currently on nutrition, specifically what roles micronutrients play in biological processes; how inadequacies and certain micronutrients can lead to insidious types of damage that can accumulate over decades, [and how they] lead to things like cancer and Alzheimer�s disease.�
Part of her work involves the identification of early biomarkers of disease. For example, DNA damage is an early biomarker for cancer. She then tries to determine which micronutrients might help repair that DNA damage.
She�s also investigated mitochondrial function and metabolism, which is one of my own most recent passions. Dr. Lee Know�s book, �Life � The Epic Story of Our Mitochondria�, is a really good primer if you want to learn more about this topic after listening to this interview.
Your mitochondria have enormous potential to influence your health, specifically cancer, and I�m starting to believe that optimizing mitochondrial metabolism may in fact be at the core of effective cancer treatment.
The Importance Of Optimizing Mitochondrial Metabolism
Mitochondria are tiny organelles, originally thought to be derived from bacteria. Red blood cells and skin cells have very little to none, while germ cells have 100,000, but most cells have one to 2,000 of them. They�re the primary source of energy for your body.
In order for your organs to function properly, they require energy, and that energy is produced by the mitochondria.
Since mitochondrial function is at the very heart of everything that occurs in your body, optimizing mitochondrial function � and preventing mitochondrial dysfunction by making sure you get all the right nutrients and precursors your mitochondria need � is extremely important for health and disease prevention.
For example, one of the universal characteristics of cancer cells is they have serious mitochondrial dysfunction with radically decreased numbers of functional mitochondria.
�The mitochondria can still function in cancer cells. But one of the things that occur [in cancer cells] is that they immediately become dependent on glucose and they�re not using their mitochondria even though they have mitochondria there. They make this metabolic switch,��Patrick says.
Dr. Otto Warburg was a physician with a Ph.D. in chemistry and was close friends with Albert Einstein. Most experts recognize Warburg as the greatest biochemist of the 20th century.
He received a Nobel Prize in 1931 for his discovery that cancer cells use glucose as a source of energy production. This is called the �Warburg Effect� and, sadly, to this day it is essentially ignored by nearly every expert.
I am beyond convinced that using a ketogenic diet, which radically improves mitochondrial health, could help most cancers, especially if used in conjunction with glucose fermentation poisons like 3-bromopyruvate.
How Mitochondria Produce Energy
To produce energy, your mitochondria require oxygen from the air you breathe and fat and glucose from the food you eat.
These two processes � breathing and eating � are coupled together in a process called oxidative phosphorylation. That�s what the mitochondria use to generate energy in the form of ATP.
Your mitochondria have a series of electron transport chains in which they pass electrons from the reduced form of the food you eat to combine it with oxygen from the air you breathe and ultimately to form water.
This process drives protons across the mitochondrial membrane, which recharges ATP (adenosine triphosphate) from ADP (adenosine diphosphate). ATP is the carrier of energy throughout your body.
However, that process also produces byproducts such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are damaging to your cells, and your mitochondrial DNA, which are then transferred to your nuclear DNA.
So there�s a trade-off. In producing energy, your body also ages from the damaging aspects from the ROS that are generated. How quickly your body ages largely depends on how well your mitochondria work, and how much damage can be minimized by diet optimization.
Mitochondria�s Role In Cancer
When cancer cells are present, the reactive oxygen species produced as a byproduct of ATP production normally send a signal that sets in motion a process of cellular suicide, also known as apoptosis.
Since you generate cancer cells every day, this is a good thing. By killing off damaged cells, your body can eliminate and replace them with healthy cells.
Cancer cells, however, are resistant to this suicide protocol, and have a built-in defense against it as articulately explained by Dr. Warburg and subsequently by Thomas Seyfried, who has done extensive research on cancer as a metabolic disease
As explained by Patrick:
�One of the mechanisms by which chemotherapeutic drugs work is they create reactive oxygen species. They create damage, and that�s enough to push that cancer cell to die.
I think the reason for that is because, a cancer cell � which is not using its mitochondria, meaning it�s not producing those reactive oxygen species any longer � all of a sudden you force it to use its mitochondria and you get a burst of reactive oxygen species because that�s what mitochondria do, and boom, death, because that cancer cell is already primed for that death. It�s ready to die.�
The Benefits Of Avoiding Late-Night Eating
I�ve been a fan of intermittent fasting for quite some time for a variety of reasons, certainly longevity and health issues, but also because it appears to provide powerful cancer prevention and treatment benefit. And the mechanism for that is related to the effect fasting has on your mitochondria.
As mentioned, a major side effect of the transfer of electrons that the mitochondria are involved in is that some leak from the electron transport chain to react with oxygen to form the free radical superoxide.
Superoxide anion, the product of a one electron reduction of oxygen, is the precursor of most reactive oxygen species and a mediator in oxidative chain reactions. These oxygen free radicals attack the lipids in your cell membranes, protein receptors, enzymes, and DNA that can prematurely kill your mitochondria.
Some free radicals are actually good and your body requires them to regulate cellular function, but problems develop when you have excessive free radical production. Sadly that is the case for the majority of the population and why most diseases, especially cancers, are acquired. There are two possible solutions to this problem:
- Increase your antioxidants
- Reduce mitochondrial free radical production
I believe one of the best strategies for reducing mitochondrial free radical production is to limit the amount of fuel you feed your body. This is a noncontroversial position as calorie restriction has consistently shown many therapeutic benefits. This is one of the reasons why intermittent fasting works, as it limits the window that you are eating and automatically reduces your calories.
It is particularly effective if you avoid eating several hours before going to sleep as that is your most metabolically lowered state. A review paper1 that provides much of the experimental work for the above explanation was published in 2011, titled �Mitochondrial DNA Damage and Animal Longevity: Insights from Comparative Studies.�
It may be too complex for many laypeople, but the take-home message is that since your body uses the least amount of calories when sleeping, you�ll want to avoid eating close to bedtime because adding excess fuel at this time will generate excessive free radicals that will damage your tissues, accelerate aging, and contribute to chronic disease.
Other Ways Fasting Promotes Healthy Mitochondrial Function
Patrick also notes that part of the mechanism by which fasting works is that your body has to rely on lipids and stored fats for energy, which means your cells are forced to use their mitochondria. Your mitochondria are the only mechanisms by which your body can make energy from fat. So, fasting helps activate your mitochondria.
She also believes this plays a huge part in the mechanism by which intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet may kill cancer cells, and why certain drugs that activate mitochondria can kill cancer cells. Again, it�s because it creates a burst of reactive oxygen species, the damage from which tips the scale and causes the cancer cells to die.
�Of course, there are a lot of very other interesting mechanisms that occur when you�re fasting,� she says. �Your body also clears away damaged cells through a process called autophagy, which basically means when a cell that�s damaged, it can die. But if it doesn�t die, sometimes it becomes what�s called senescent and this happens a lot with aging. What that means is that the cell is not dead but it�s not really alive either. It�s not doing its function.
It�s just kind of sitting around in your body secreting pro-inflammatory molecules, things that are damaging other nearby cells thereby accelerating the aging process because inflammation drives aging in so many different ways. Autophagy clears away those cells that are just sitting there creating damage and not doing much else, which is nice because that�s also a very important biological mechanism for staying healthy.�
Feeding Your Mitochondria
In terms of nutrition, Patrick emphasizes the importance of the following nutrients; important co-factors needed for your mitochondrial enzymes to function properly:
- CoQ10 or ubiquinol (the reduced form)
- L-Carnitine, which shuttles fatty acids to the mitochondria
- D-ribose, which is raw material for ATP molecule
- Magnesium
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- All B vitamins, including riboflavin, thiamine, and B6
- Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA)
As noted by Patrick:
�I prefer to get as many micronutrients as I can from whole foods for a variety of reasons. One, they are complexed with fiber help with absorption. The nutrients are also in the right ratios. You�re not getting too much. The balance is right. And there are other components that are probably yet to be identified in there.
You have to be very vigilant in making sure you�re eating a very broad spectrum [of foods] and getting the right micronutrients. I think that taking a B complex supplement is good for that reason.
It�s the reason I take one, and also for the reason that as we age, we also do not get B vitamins into ourselves as readily, largely due to our cell membranes getting stiffer. This changes the way B vitamins are transported into the cell. B vitamins are water soluble so they�re not stored in fat. There�s not really an upper toxicity associated with them. If anything, you�re going to pee a little bit more out. But I really think they�re beneficial.�
Exercise Helps Keep Your Mitochondria Young
Exercise also promotes mitochondrial health, as it forces your mitochondria to work harder. As mentioned earlier, one of the side effects of mitochondria working harder is that they�re making reactive oxygen species, which act as signaling molecules. One of the functions they signal is to make more mitochondria. So, when you exercise, your body will respond by creating more mitochondria to keep up with the heightened energy requirement.
Aging is inevitable. But your biological age can be quite different from your chronological age, and your mitochondria have a lot to do with your biological aging. Patrick cites a recent study showing how people can age biologically at very different rates. The researchers measured over a dozen different biomarkers, such as telomere length, DNA damage, cholesterol LDL, glucose metabolism, and insulin sensitivity, at three points in people�s lives: ages 22, 32 and 38.
�What was found was that, if you look at someone who was 38, they biologically could look 10 years younger based on their biological markers, or 10 years older. Even though they were the same age, they aged biologically at very different rates.
In fact, if you took a photograph of these individuals and showed it to another bystander and ask them to guess their chronological age, what was interesting, and this is part of the publication, is that people would guess their biological age rather than their chronological age.� �
So regardless of your actual age, how old you look corresponds with your biological biomarkers, which are largely driven by the health of your mitochondria. So the point is that while aging is inevitable, you have enormous control over the way you age, which is really empowering. And one of the key factors is keeping your mitochondria in good working order.
As noted by Patrick, �youthfulness� is not so much about your chronological age, but rather how old you feel, and how well your body works:
�I want to learn how to optimize my own cognitive performance and my athletic performance. I want to also increase the youthful part of my life. I want to be 90. I want to be out there, surfing in San Diego just like I was when I was 20. I would like to not degenerate as rapidly as some people do. I like to stave off that degeneration and extend the youthful part of my life as long as I possibly can so I can enjoy life.�
More Information
To learn more about Patrick�s work, please visit her website, FoundMyFitness.com. She also has a podcast�where she interviews health professionals and scientists on a variety of topics related to health. On her website, you can find videos in which she summarizes key information in clear and easy to understand layman�s terms. You can also sign up for her newsletter, in which she publishes longer, heavily referenced articles.
Click here for the free report, �Nutrigenomics, Epigenetics, and Stress Tolerance: A New Heuristic for Lifestyle Strategy,� which covers some of the topics covered in this interview today, including: the role of DNA damage in aging cells and cancer cells, how blood cells from people show they age at different rates, how intermittent fasting increases autophagy (which clears away damaged cells) and increases genes that produce more healthy mitochondria, and more! You may also want to review her report, �How to Personalize Your Nutrition Based On Your Genes.�
Source:
Dr. Mercola
