7 Steps to Slow and Reverse Biological Aging

Have you reached a point in your life where you are starting to consider your mortality?

Has your body taken a beating from the bumps and potholes on the road of life?

Are you ever concerned that your aging process may have been accelerated by life's stressors?

Do you ever wonder if there is anything you can do to put the brakes on the aging process and even reverse it, avoid serious health issues, and even live as longer than you thought possible if you can do it while maintaining a high quality of life?

The good news is that research on the aging process is generating a growing body of evidence that we can become biologically younger and change our current aging trajectory to live longer and healthier than where we are headed right now.

Without getting into the minutiae of the various theories of how the aging process works, my take on the most compelling research to date suggests to me that we should focus on the following seven steps for slowing and even reversing biological aging:

1. Eliminate what I call "aging accelerators".
2. Optimize DNA methylation.
3. Regenerate the thymus gland.
4. Optimize 16 or more key "youth factors" related to the 12 "hallmarks of aging".
5. Possibly use advanced age reversal strategies like parabiosis and eventually therapies based on Yamanaka factors to reset cells to a more youthful state
6. Do all of this with attention to bio-individuality.
7. Track your progress using several means of assessing your biological age.

Eliminate "Aging Accelerators"

Certain biological processes accelerate the aging process, so I call them "aging accelerators". Aging accelerators include ...

1. Oxidative stress
2. Inflammation
3. Imparied energy metabolism
4. Dysregulation (e.g. of methylation, hormones, etc)

Aging accelerators are driven by factors like ...

• Stress
• Unresolved trauma
• Suboptimal lifestyle and dietary habits
• Toxins and Toxicants
• Chronic infections (many of them hidden)
• Intestinal dysbiosis
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Genetic vulnerabilities to any of the above

Pretty obvious so far, right?

The challenge with unwinding what seems so simple on the surface is that sometimes, toxins, infections, and dysregulations go untested and therefore unidentified, untreated and unresolved.

The bulk of the work I do with clients through the Bio-Individual Blueprint program is helping them identify and eliminate known and unknown factors that are causing oxidative stress, inflammation, impaired energy metabolism, and dysregulation that drive their symptoms.

Even when a client has been working by themselves or with other practitioners on something like "detox", they typically have not been using the most effective methods, or have not been doing it in a way that works with their genetic vulnerabilities that make it harder for them to detox.

And even when there are no apparent symptoms or conditions providing a clue that aging accelerators are present, it is still wise to test for aging accelerators that most people have, even if they are currently healthy.

For example, you should test your body's nutrient status and toxic burden, so that you can address deficiencies and toxicities before they cause problems. You would probably also want to stop these deficiencies and toxicities from draining your energy and reducing your vitality right now.

The presence of any aging accelerators will limit your ability to benefit from anything else you do to slow and reverse aging. 

Optimize DNA Methylation

When it comes to more directly intervening in the aging process, at least part of the answer seems to be found in strategies that optimize how your body manages and the expression of your DNA via a process called methylation. 

In DNA methylation, your body adds or removes small molecules called methyl groups to and from your DNA in order to control the expression of genes. Scientists have found that your aging process can be seen in patterns of DNA methylation. These patterns of DNA methylation are like a “clock” that shows you what time it is on the clock of your life, how old you are biologically. 

So scientists have developed what they call “aging clocks” that are based on these patterns of DNA methylation. Tests of DNA methylation based on these aging clocks are now available to consumers to measure biological age.

DNA methylation tests are currently considered the best way to measure your biological age, and your biological age appears to be the single greatest influence on your risk of disease. Conversely, disease and disease processes that have not yet resulted in frank disease increase biological age and unfavorable patterns of DNA methylation.

For example, diabetes is associated with a 6 to 9 year increase in biological age and general dysregulation of DNA methylation, including hypermethylation (suppression) of tumor suppressor genes, antioxidant regulating genes, and an important gene that impacts insulin, PPARGC1A.

Tracking and taking control of your aging process may be the very most important thing you ever do. That's because the research has shown that aging even just slightly more than 1 year biologically per chronological year (calendar year) increases your risk of death by 56% in the next 7 years and increases your risk of a chronic disease diagnosis by 54% over the next 7 years. 

In the research people who were considered “fast agers” were 65% more likely to die during the research period than those who were considered “normal agers” or “slow agers”.

Fortunately, research on the aging process has also begun to show that there are things we can do to shift our DNA methylation toward more healthy and youthful patterns. A pilot study showed that specific lifestyle and nutritional practices reduced the biological age of the already-healthy study participants by an average of more than 3 years in 8 weeks!

The nutritional elements of this study included the following:

1. Foods (and one supplement) rich in methyl donors
2. Vegetables and spices rich in plant phytonutrients that help to optimize methylation patterns
3. Moderate intake of protein and healthy fats and moderately low in take of carbohydrates
4. No legumes or grains, except for vegetarians
5. Avoidance of common food allergens like wheat and dairy
6. Avoidance of toxins, including alcohol, which impairs multiple methylation enzymes 

In addition, the study participants engaged in healthy lifestyle practices like sleeping at least 7 hours of sleep per night, excercising 30 minutes five times per week, and engaging in a relaxation strategy for 10 minutes twice per day.

Personalizing Your Methylation Nutrition

The nutritional elements of the study oriented toward optimizing DNA methylation were appropriate for people with normal methylation or undermethylation, but would not be entirely appropriate for people who "overmethylate". So the nutritional methods used in this study would need to be modified for some people. 

Personalizing nutritional practices to optimize methylation is part of what we do in the Bio-Individual Blueprint program to eliminate aging accelerators and reduce biological age. You can learn more about our overall approach by downloading the Bio-Individual Blueprint Roadmap and watching the walkthrough video. If you want to work on eliminating aging accelerators and current health challenges, while slowing and even reversing biological aging, you can schedule a meeting to chat about the program after you download the document and watch the video.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series on slowing and reversing the aging process.