The Virtuous Cycle of "Mind-Body-Biome Fitness" vs Aging

Table of Contents

This post describes a new overall "fitness" concept I sort of dreamt up. But this fitness concept of mine is a bit different from Jim Carey's.

When I pondered how I might bring together the last four "youth factors" featured in the series of articles on slowing and reversing the aging process, the term "mind-body-biome fitness" came to me.

This is the eighth post in a series about slowing and reversing biological aging. The first seven posts are:

This article discusses the last four "youth factors" from the list in the Combat Aging with 16+ “Youth Factors” article, united under the concept of "mind-body-biome fitness".

These last four "youth factors" include the following:

Microbiome Diversity
Lean Body Mass
VO2 Max, Strength, Flexibility, and Agility
Neuroplasticity, Purpose, Social Connection, And Meaning

Let's get into it ...

Microbiome Diversity

As you probably know, your microbiome is the ecosystem of microorganisms that call your body home. They are in your gastrointestional system, on your skin and hair, in your nose and eyes, and in many internal tissues of your body (even your brain).

While most people experience diminishing diversity of the species of microorganisms (mainly bacteria) in their microbiomes, centenarians maintain microbiome diversity similar to that of much younger people.

So it seems that microbiome diversity is important to longevity. At least one of the reasons for this is probably reflected in the fact that research shows that our bodies "outsource" many functions to the microbiome, even surveillance of other microorganisms that could pose threats to us.

In other words, our first line of defense against opportunistic or pathogenic microorganisms is not even our own immune system. It is beneficial bacteria in and on our bodies.

Your microbiome is in constant communication with your environment and even floating away from your body like a cloud that goes wherever you go and interacts with the microbiome clouds surrounding other people and with the microbiomes in Nature.

In 2015 I had a conversation with David C. Johson, PhD, a soil scientist at New Mexico State University who developed a unique composting "bioreactor" system that he seeded with the microorganisms in forest leaf litter that he collected in New Mexico.

His study of the species in the samples of forest leaf litter led him to conclude that "everything is everywhere". As an example, he mentioned that pelagic (from the ocean) bacteria were present in these samples from a forest in New Mexico.

So if you have lost a lot of your microbiome diversity, take heart. You can probably rebuild it.

You may have heard that you can repopulate your microbiome using fecal microbiome transfers from somebody else's microbiome. And another way to boost your microbiome diversity is to get out into Nature, especially a forest.

Hug some trees, take deep breaths, sniff and smell things, maybe nibble some leaves (or pine needles) that you know are safe to eat, and even roll around on the ground.

The product ION Gut Support (affiliate link) also promotes microbiome diversity. This product is composed of the remnants of microbial metabolism in ancient soil (fulvic acid) that has been treated in a way that restores its "redox" potential.

This re-vitalized fulvic acid seems to form a "communication grid" for the microbiome. And this is what makes it different from other fulvic acid products that have not had the redox potential restored in this way.

Another way to increase microbiome diversity is to "eat the rainbow". Some of the most beneficial bacteria in the microbiome love polyphenols from brightly colored plants. They metabolize polyphenols into "postbiotics" that can have beneficial effects on the body.

For example, urolithin-A is a postbiotic made from ellagitannins and ellagic acid that improves overall mitochondrial function. Pomegranate is especially rich in ellagitannins and ellagic acid.

But not everybody has the right species in their microbiome to convert ellagitannins and ellagic acid to urolithin-A. So now there are supplements like Mitopure (affiliate link) that provide urolithin-A, which does great things to enhance the fitness of your mitochondria.

When it comes to your microbiome, diversity is probably the best measure of its "fitness". Because your microbiome communicates with the systems of your body, the more "fit" (diverse) your microbiome, the more fit your immune system, your mitochondria, and other bodily systems are likely to be.

Postbiotics produced by bacteria in your microbiome can have an effect on the mitochondria in your cells. And this is not surprising when you consider that mitochondria are very much like bacteria and are believed to be descendants of bacteria that formed a symbiotic relationship inside of another single-celled organism, eventually giving rise to the type of cell (eukaryotic cells) found in all higher forms of multicellular life, including us.

Whether you believe in evolution or intelligent design by God, it seems that our microbiomes essentially "communicate" with our mitochondria. At the very least, it is a happy coincidenced that your microbiome can enhance the fitness of key aspects of your physiology.

Lean Body Mass

Lean body mass is not just your muscles. It's also your blood, organs, ligaments, bones, and other tissues. It's basically everything that is not fat. "Non-lean mass" also has very important roles, especially the fat-rich tissue in your brain and in your bone marrow, but lean body mass is what we tend to lose more of as we age. As people lose lean body mass, their muscles shrink, their bones weaken, and their organs and glands lose size and function.

As discussed in several previous articles in this series on slowing the aging process, elevated cortisol is one of the main factors that erodes lean body mass. Another factor is lower anabolic hormones like growth hormone, testosterone, and estrogen.

You might wonder if hormone replacement therapy is part of the answer. Perhaps it is an answer, but other options might be more natural and safer. For example, small molecules called "peptides" and "bioregulators" can stimulate anabolic hormones like growth hormone, and others promote the regeneration of specific tissues and organs.

But we should not forget that exercise, especially resistance training (e.g. lifting weights), promotes the secretion of anabolic hormones. Resistance training absolutely must be part of your age reversal "stack".

Exercise in combination with peptides and bioregulators and other natural pro-anabolic substances may be able to prevent the loss of lean body mass and even restore and maintain lean body mass that you have already lost.

VO2 Max, Strength, Flexibility, And Agility

Physical fitness can be measured in terms of things like VO2 max, strength, flexibility, and agility. VO2 max is the maximum quantity of oxygen your body can utilize in energy metabolism during physical exertion. VO2 max is essentially a measure of the collective power of your mitochondria, your mitochondrial fitness, and your cardiovascular fitness.

Strength, flexibility, and agility are exactly what they sound like, and when it comes to aging, they are essential to minimizing the risk of falls and broken bones. Falls that break large bones, especially hip bones, often hasten the death of an otherwise healthy person within a few years.

This occurs due to complications while recovering from the injury. Reduced mobility can lead to bed sores, blood clots in the legs or lungs, and the loss of muscle mass, which increases the risk of more falls and re-injury.

Pneumonia is also more common among people who have been weakened by the decline in health precipitated by a broken hip.

Maintaining good VO2 max, strength, flexibility, and agility are essential to enjoying an long and active life. Do not lose sight of this even if exercise and other forms of movement have become difficult. Find ways to maintain the various facets of physical fitness.

Neuroplasticity, Purpose, Social Connection, And Meaning

When people retire from their career and working life, they often die sooner than would otherwise be expected by average lifespan statistics. There are many possible explanations for this, and one of them is that in retirement people often lose some of their social interactions, purpose, meaning, and the constructive challenges and learning opportunities that their work provided.

When you are engaged with people, feeling a sense of purpose and meaning, and faced with challenges and learning opportunities, your brain is stimulated to respond and adapt.

The brain responds and adapts to stimulus and challenge by increasing its functional capacity and adaptability. An important part of this functional capacity and adaptability is called "neuroplasticity".

Neuroplasticity is an aspect of brain fitness. It is the brain's version of the strength, flexibility, and agility that characterize physical fitness.

The brain, mind, and body also seem to require something else that holds it all together: meaning and purpose. A sense of meaning and purpose has an almost mysterious ability to promote longevity and resilience in the face of challenge.

It is like a glue that keeps the spirit in the body, instead of giving up on life and allowing death to come sooner than it otherwise would.

If you ever find yourself without a sense of meaning and purpose, and you want to stick around much longer, then find your way to a reinvigorated sense of meaning and purpose to fuel your spirit's drive for a longer, healthier, and happier life.

This is especially important if you are beset with serious health challenges. You must find meaning and purpose, as well as social connection and support, in order to bounce back to a more youthful you.

The Mind-Body-Biome Fitness Virtuous Cycle

In mind-body-biome fitness, your microbiome's fitness is measured largely by its diversity. A diverse microbiome talks to your body in various ways that help to optimize the fitness of your immune sytem, mitochondria, and more.

When your mitochondria are fit, they are efficiently supplying abundant energy to engage in exercise and movement that help to maintain your lean body mass, VO2 max, strength, flexibility, agility, and overall physical fitness.

Being energetic and physically fit support your sense of purpose and meaning to engage with the world, connect socially, and continue to learn and grow, maintaining your brain's neuroplasticity and fitness.

Physical fitness, exercise, healthy mitochondrial function, normal glucose regulation, and a health, happy, low-stress mind and brain in turn support a healthy microbiome. So it's a virtuous cycle.

This is the virtuous cycle of mind-body-biome fitness.

It all seems to interact with microbiome diversity at the center. Without microbiome diversity, symbiotic functions of the microbiome are lost, and inflammation in the gut usually increases.

Inflammation reduces mitochondrial function, dysregulates the immune system, increases cortisol, reduces anabolic hormone secretion, reduces energy and the desire to exercise (causing physical fitness to plummet), short circuits neuroplasticity, and has other age-accelerating influences throughout the body.

Become An Age Reversal "Athlete"

When it comes to slowing and reversing the aging process, there is a lot to do. So, if you are serious about slowing and reversing your aging process, you must approach it with the passion and discipline of an athlete. You need to become an age reversal athlete, pursuing age reversal fitness.

Most of us like the idea of being passionate about something, but some of us have an aversion to the idea of "discipline". It might feel like hard work. But it's actually easy, if you define "easy" as "something I can do". Then, once you know what the steps are, and that you can definitely do them, you can simply apply passion and discipline to do them consistently.

Discipline is simply remembering what you want. When you remember what you want and keep that as your north star, discipline becomes something you do, and do easily.

It can even be something you do with delight because you are excited about where it is taking you. You can even become passionate about discipline. It becomes part of your identify as an age reversal athlete.

If you would like support in moving through the steps of identifying and removing your aging accelerators, doing so in harmony with your bio-individuality, optimizing your youth factors, and learning how to make discipline a delight in service of your passions, then I invite you to check out the Bio-Individual Blueprint Roadmap.