Wednesday, July 02, 2008 Aging before your time By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
BRITISH writer George Orwell said: “At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” This insight teems with so much wisdom, and an understanding on the law of cause and effect. Simply put, what we look like at age 50 is a result of what care or abuse we gave to our mind and body in the spent years of our lives.
With extra care we give to our body comes a degree of beauty that would stay in our old face. The bits of neglect and abuse we subject ourselves results to unsightly image, and worsening health and well-being.
Aging is an inevitable condition of life. Each year that pass can be counted off from our ration of mortal existence. Francis Bacon, in his essay Of Regiment of Health, observed: “Age will not be defied.” No one can. We can simply cooperate graciously and minimize the wear and tear brought about by living life the way we chose to live it.
We know we age, but only in the mid-21st century did we know why.
Reviewing the subject of stress-induced premature senescence (Sips), scientists Masatoshi Suzuki and David Boothman confirmed that premature aging (senescence) is caused by stressors such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation (e.g. sunlight, white lights), hydrogen peroxide (e.g. bleach),
chemotherapeutic agents (e.g. drugs), and ionizing radiation (e.g. X-ray, irradiation to preserve food). Suzuki and Boothman
work at the Laboratory of Molecular Stress Responses of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
These stressors bring irreparable DNA breaks that induce Sips in normal cells. The so-called “weak links” in our body are the fibroblasts — large, flat cells that secrete the proteins that form collagen, elastic fibers, and the substances found between cells of connective tissues. Fibroblasts continuously secrete substances, such as growth factors and cytokines, which affect nearby cells.
Cells undergoing Sips, bringing irreversible growth arrest, damage genetic materials. These materials get out from the fibroblast via its secretions and spread to nearby cells, affecting them also.
By this mechanism, stressors cause aging of cells to spread. And if these cells are malignant, Sips ensures that cancer cells grow fast and spread as rapidly.
Aging may fizz with danger and even irreversible damage from our youthful indiscretions. But good choices still make a big difference.
Willing old dogs can learn new tricks, so to say. Do we still want our lives to radiate positive energy? Or are we so sold out to the temptation of despair?
“Having wrinkles is at once strange and exciting,” Meryl Streep was once quoted in The Independent (London). An upbeat attitude can spell the difference.
