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Within the medical community, a field has arisen called biogerentology, in which scientists are studying every aspect of aging.[1] The evidence has shown that as we age, our bodies accumulate errors in the DNA code [2], accumulate waste products both in and out of cells, [3] accumulate damage to cell membranes, [4] lose integrity in body structures, [5] and accumulate damage from oxidative stress. [6] In fact, the story of life played out in our bodies is a constant battle between oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses. Ultimately, oxidative stress wins, and some would contend that it is futile to try to prevent this inevitable outcome.

While reversal of aging is impossible, it may be possible to reduce the risk and delay the onset of age-related diseases. The big three age-related diseases are (1) cardiovascular, (2) cancer, and (3) neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases can make the last years of one's life miserable. But are they necessary consequences of aging, or can people adopt eating and healthy lifestyle changes to prevent these diseases?

Nature designed our bodies at the species level for us to live long enough to reproduce and rear our young. [7] Beyond that point, the body normally starts to decline, and we are left to our own devices as to how quickly that decline occurs. Modern preventive medicine has shown the value of monitoring and maintaining blood pressure and cholesterol levels and screening tests for the early detection of cancer. Beyond medical testing, people can eat foods that promote health. For example, vegetables that lower blood sugar are good. Keeping fasting glucose levels low (80 mg/dL or lower) and stable (postprandial glucose levels that increase no more than 40 mg/dL before dropping back to fasting levels in the low 80s) may be one of the secrets to longevity. Any time there are spikes in blood glucose levels, there are abnormal reactions between sugars and proteins, which produce pro-inflammatory products that accelerate aging in the body.

An Anti-Inflammatory Eating Plan for Life

Nutrition and diet are the foundation for good health and delay the onset of age-related diseases. Everyone seeking to delay age-related diseases should adopt an anti-inflammatory eating plan for life. Inflammation is the way the body sends more nourishment and immune activity to an area that is injured. But inflammation needs to be kept in control. If inflammation persists in areas where it is not needed, then it produces disease. Chronic low-level inflammation is the root cause of each of the age-related diseases. For example, coronary heart disease begins as inflammation in the linings (endothelia) of arteries. [8] Alzheimer's begins as an inflammation in the brain. For cancer, the same hormones that increase inflammation also stimulate cells to divide more frequently, which increases the risk of malignant transformations. [9] Therefore, healthy food consumption aimed at controlling inflammation could stave off age-related diseases across the board.

Our diet has a profound influence on inflammation. Our bodies make prostaglandins, the hormones that regulate inflammation, from polyunsaturated fatty acids. [10] Some of the fats that promote inflammation are margarine, vegetable shortening, and polyunsaturated oils. It is better to cook with and ingest olive oil, which is 75% monounsaturated fat, than the less expensive canola oil, which is typically 58% monounsaturated fat. Foods containing monounsaturated fats – the good form of fat -- include avacados, nuts, seeds, and oatmeal. One exception to the rule of preferring monounsaturated fats over polyunsaturated fats are the essential fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are Omega 3 fatty acids found in certain oily-tasting fish and in fish oil supplements. These two nutrients, but especially DHA, play a vital role in promoting health in the cardiovascular and neurological systems of the body by reducing oxidative stress without adding to inflammation. [11] With the advent of DHA-500 mg supplements, people should strive to get 1,000 mg of DHA/day (approximately equal to ten of the typical discount store 1,000 mg fish oil supplements containing only 100 mg DHA/capsule).

Eat Good Carbs But Avoid Bad Carbs to Control Inflammatory Responses

From fatty acids, we move on to carbohydrates, which are another source of inflammation. As with fats, there are good carbs and bad carbs. Bad carbs digest quickly and rapidly boost serum glucose levels: the high glycemic index fruits (apricots, peaches, watermelon), vegetables (carrots, white potatoes), and especially processed sweet foods such as donuts, cookies, pastries, and other sugar-laden snacks. These sugary complex carbohydrates can promote abnormal reactions with proteins when digested. Cancer cells feed off the excess sugar (high serum glucose levels) in the body. [12] So the next time you give yourself permission to indulge in brownies, cakes, pies, etc., remember that you are directly feeding the cancer cells living within your body.

The abnormal reaction between sugars and proteins also spawns diabetes, which is the perfect model of accelerated aging. Diabetes brings forward by several decades the period of disability and decline in health that we would normally experience in the final year of our lives. Diabetes follows as a pro-inflamatory response to unstable glucose levels. Fasting serum glucose levels, like blood pressure levels, follow an undulating path of highs and lows over the course of a day. To check whether their healthy food consumption plans are controlling glucose levels, Life Extension members should obtain periodic hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) tests with a goal of achieving 5.0% or less of glycated hemoglobin levels to prevent a host of age-related diseases. Lab Corp defines the normal range as HbA1C in the interval [4.8%, 5.6%], increased risk of diabetes [5.7%, 6.4%], diabetic at > 6.4%, and glycemic control for adults with diabetes as < 7.0%. Part of the protocol for keeping HbA1C levels consistently low is choosing good carbohydrates over bad ones.

If fast digesting carbohydrates are bad, then slow digesting carbohydrates are good. These good carbs can be found on an index of glycemic foods: whole grains, sweet potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, etc. In fact, the web site http://glycemicindex.com lists 2,602 foods with glycemic index scores of 55 or less. However, even those foods must be eaten with moderation, particularly fruits and berries, or they will become high glycemic, pro-inflammatory when ingested in large volumes.

Eating Foods Across the Color Spectrum

Another factor to consider in choosing fruits and vegetables to consume, aside from their glycemic index values, is their pigment color. Pigments protect plants from oxidative stress, and when we consume these pigmented fruits and vegetables, our bodies absorb the benefits of these protective phytochemicals. We should eat fruits and vegetables across the color spectrum: bright red foods, orange foods, purple foods, green foods, blue or blackberries. Organic foods tend to have higher pigments than those sprayed with pesticides, because plants left to their own defenses against insects and fungi produce higher levels of pigments and antioxidant compounds as natural defenses, i.e., organic tomatoes tend to have more of the red-pigmented nutrient lycopene than those sprayed with a fungicide/insecticide.

Because most people normally would not consume foods across the color spectrum each day, supplements may be used to fill in the gaps in nutrition. However, supplements are not designed to replace healthy eating. The two herbs with perhaps the most widespread scientific study as anti-inflammatory agents are curcumin (turmeric) and ginger. 6-Gingerol, a natural component of the herb ginger, exhibits anti-inflammatory and antitumorigenic activities. [13] The same is true for curcumin. [14]

Summary

Spikes in blood glucose levels trigger inflammatory responses within the body that over time increase the risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Adopting an eating plan for life that emphasizes low glycemic index foods will help keep fasting glucose levels low and prevent postprandial spikes in glucose levels. That is good news for everyone who wants to delay or even prevent the onset of age-related diseases. By taking an ounce of prevention in avoiding high-sugar content foods, we can save a pound of cure in the form of cost savings that would otherwise be spent on treatment for diseases triggered by chronic inflammatory responses to the food we eat.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerontology#Biogerontology Viewed on Sept. 20, 2010. ("Biogerontology is the subfield of gerontology dedicated to studying the biological processes of aging. . . . Biomedical gerontology, also known as experimental gerontology and life extension, is a sub discipline of biogerontology that endeavors to slow, prevent, and even reverse aging in both humans and animals.") There is even a professional journal called Biogerontology.

2. Schuiling Gerard A, "Reproduce and die! Why aging? Part II," J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol. 26 (2): 147-50 (June 2005); Srivastava, V. K., Miller, S. D., and Busbee, D. L., "Aging and DNA polymerase alpha: modulation by dietary restriction," J Nutr Health Aging 3 (2): 111-20 (1999). These errors could be thought of as entropy or disorder associated with the Second Law of the Thermodynamics.

3. Hirsch, H. R., "The waste-product theory of aging: cell division rate as a function of waste volume," Mech Ageing Dev. 36 (1): 95-107 (September 1986).

4. Pentimone, F, del Corso, L, and Laghi, G., "Vitamin E in the aged," Clin Ter. 144 (6): 521-5 (June 1994)("Aging is a multifactorial process still incompletely known. The role of oxidative damage to cell membranes, as an important phase of the process, is underlined by the recent literature.").

5. Lombardi, G., Di Somma, C., Rota, F., and Colao, A., "Associated hormonal decline in aging: is there a role for GH therapy in aging men?," J Endocrinol Invest. 28 (3 Suppl): 99-108 (2005).

6. Op cit., Ref. 4.

7. Schuiling Gerard A, "Reproduce and die! Why aging? Part II," J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol. 26 (2): 147-50 (June 2005).

8. Manabe, Ichiro, "Obesity and atherosclerosis--two faces of chronic inflammation," Nippon Rinsho. (a Japanese journal) 67 (2): 417-25 (Feb. 2009).

9. Theoharides, Theoharis C., et al., "Impact of stress and mast cells on brain metastases," J Neuroimmunol. 205 (1-2): 1-7 (Dec. 15, 2008); Gumbs, Andrew A., "Obesity, pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer," Obes Surg. 18 (9): 1183-7 (Sept. 2008).

10. Aly, A., Green, K., Johansson, C., "Prostaglandin synthesis in the human gastrointestinal mucosa," Scand J Gastroenterol Suppl. 127: 35-8 (1987).

11. Mori,Trevor A., et al., "Effect of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid on oxidative stress and inflammatory markers in treated-hypertensive type 2 diabetic subjects," Free Radic Biol Med. 35 (7): 772-81 (Oct. 1, 2003).

12. It is a well-known fact that cancer cells have a strong affinity for glucose, with the higher the elevation of serum glucose, the better for the cancer cells to grow. See, e.g., Zhou, Heling, et al., "Dynamic near-infrared optical imaging of 2-deoxyglucose uptake by intracranial glioma of athymic mice," PLoS One, 4 (11) (Nov. 30, 2009) ("It is recognized that cancer cells exhibit highly elevated glucose metabolism compared to non-tumor cells."); Hitosugi, Taro, et al., "Tyrosine phosphorylation inhibits PKM2 to promote the Warburg effect and tumor growth," Sci Signal. 2 (97) (Nov. 17, 2009) ("The Warburg effect describes a pro-oncogenic metabolism switch such that cancer cells take up more glucose than normal tissue and favor incomplete oxidation of glucose even in the presence of oxygen.").

13. Jeong, Chul-Ho, et al., "[6]-Gingerol suppresses colon cancer growth by targeting leukotriene A4 hydrolase," Cancer Res. 69 (13): 5584-91 (July 1, 2009).

14. Saw, Constance Lay Lay, Huang, Ying, and Kong, Ah-Ng, "Synergistic anti-inflammatory effects of low doses of curcumin in combination with polyunsaturated fatty acids: docosahexaen-oic acid or eicosapentaenoic acid," Biochem Pharmacol., 79 (3): 421-30 (Feb. 1, 2010).

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