I think it’s safe to say you won’t find the fountain of youth in a lotion, potion or pill and it’s quite evident that you are not going to live forever. But, science is really starting to get a fix on what determines the rate at which we age and how a little known biochemical process called “methylation” has the ability to slow your aging thus helping to ensure your each your God given potential age of 120 years (Genesis 6:3states, “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’”)
I’ve been personally studying the process of methylation for years, and every year, as you may or may not know, I dedicate a portion of the AskDrErnst show and newsletter topics to anti-aging. A recent article caught my attention – The researchers went to ask a question: Why do we age? & Can anything be done to slow the process.
Why we age: You’re familiar with a chromosome, right? Every human has 23 pairs. They are EXTREMELY tightly wound bundles of DNA strands.
What keeps them so tightly wound up are methyl molecules that act like little sticky prickles, similar to those that get stuck to your socks/pant legs when walking through afield. These methyl groups help your DNA to loop on itself, staying tightly bound. Methylated DNA is extremely sticky (recall how hard it is to pull off a plant barb?) and that is one key to your aging. The tighter your DNA the slower you age and the less disease you express!
At the ends of every chromosome are portions of your DNA called telomeres. Kind of like the end of a rope, these telomeres get worn out over time–which you might think shouldn’t be a problem because DNA is constantly replicating itself in your body, so any worn out bits should be replaced. Nope! And that’s the big scientific discovery! As your DNA replicates, it basically skips the worn out ends (telomeres)–and that’s the science of aging – the length of your telomeres determines how fast (or slow) you are aging! Here’s an interesting case study to illustrate the effects of this phenomenon.
Do you remember Dolly the sheep? She was the first mammal to be cloned from a somatic cell, meaning she wasn’t cloned from a cell that’s meant for reproduction. It’s just a regular old cell, like from the liver or muscle or the skin. Dolly was created in a lab and grown from a baby to an adult, euthanized because she was suffering from lung disease and terrible arthritis (diseases of old age) when she was only 6.5 years of ager (roughly 1/2 of the potential life span for a normal sheep, 11-12 years.)
Why was Dolly expressing disease of age at only 1/2 her life span? Because the DNA used to clone her was already 1/2 of its original life span. The telomeres were previously worn out and under methylated to the point of a 6 year-old sheep. She was basically born a 6 year-old and six years later, her body was in the state you would expect as an old, aged sheep despite being only 6 years old.
But why do the telomeres get worn out? Insufficient methylation leads to a deceased “stickiness” and upon cellular replication they were “snipped off” – ie shortened. Chances are you are deficient in methylation which means your telomeres are shorting too.
Turning aging around: So, the next logical question any reasonable person might ask is: “Can I do something to and replenish my methyl molecules and stop or slow the aging process?”
The answer is: YES
Researchers at the Salk Institute in California did an experiment with old, aged mice. They essentially bombarded them with the ingredients for genetic methylation and found that these mice healed more quickly from injuries than a control group, they had increased heart function, they lived 30% longer than mice in a control group and, here’s a shocking finding, THEIR SPINES EVEN STRAIGHTENED OUT!
If there was ever a more clear-cut connection between the state of your spine, your overall health and your physical (not numerical) age, I can’t think of it – the power of methylation.
Can you get your hands on these “methylation molecules”? YES! And chances arey ou may have already have you taking them! How convenient, right? Honestly, it wasn’t a big ploy to lead you to understanding the reason behind us designing Methyl-Mend: Our newest Eterna formation of direct Methylation Support.
Methyl Mend is one that you will see on my “take forever list” – after all – it’s involved in energy production, detoxification, immune cell creation, neurotransmitter production and DNA protection (aka anti-aging). Essentially, Methyl-Mend bombards your body with the nutrients required for methylation, which includes folate, Vitamins B6 and Methylated B12, Trimethyl glycine and choline. Pair that with foods naturally high in methylation precursors (Wild Caught Fish, Grass Fed Meat, Free Range Eggs, Cauliflower, Flax Seeds, Spinach, Brazil & Cashew Nuts) and you have a powerful solution to helping your body not only age gracefully but possibly turn back your inner metabolic clock.