When you think about anti-aging, your goal shouldn’t be just to live a long life. You also want to embrace a concept called compression of morbidity, or delaying the onset of age-related illnesses and chronic conditions until very late in life to ensure you can enjoy and be active in your later years.
If you have a family history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or other conditions, your risk of getting those diseases increases. Likewise, if you have a close relative who lived healthfully to old age, your odds of doing the same go up. However, your genes don’t tell the whole story. Certain lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, can change how you express those genes, influencing whether you develop certain diseases and how severe they are as you get older. In particular, researchers are investigating several “longevity” genes that appear to affect your likelihood of living a long, healthy life. At this point, the best candidates seem to be genes that regulate inflammation, that are involved in the insulin signaling pathway, and that counteract oxidative stress.
As you get older, natural levels of inflammatory substances increase, leaving you with chronic low-grade inflammation that scientists have dubbed “inflamm-aging.” A 2006 study in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences noted that chronic inflammation promotes or exacerbates age-related conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, muscle loss, and type 2 diabetes, among others. The researchers found that the increased inflammation by itself is not enough to trigger those diseases and to shorten life. However, if you have a genetic predisposition to specific age-related diseases and also to strong inflammatory responses, chronic low-grade inflammation can cause real problems.
To keep inflamm-aging under control, eat an anti-inflammatory diet (
25) and maintain a healthy weight as you get older (12). Body fat is hormonally active tissue, and it is one of the main sources of the inflammatory substances such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 that play a role in age-accelerating diseases such as atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, and diabetes.
Insulin controls the processing, storage, and distribution of energy, and disruptions in its production or response can lead to obesity and diabetes, aging of body tissues, and possibly even cancer. Insulin resistance, or problems with insulin response and blood sugar metabolism, promotes oxidative stress and inflammation, both linked to premature aging, according to a 2010 study by Italian researchers. Animal studies suggest that altering genes involved in the insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) signaling pathway can extend animal life span. (IGF-1 regulates cell growth and development, especially in nerve cells, and high levels are linked to cancer.) In humans, studies that have looked at centenarians found that they generally have preserved insulin responsiveness and low levels of IGF-1 in their blood.
Insulin resistance is more common as you get older, thanks in part to shifts in body composition to less muscle and more fat. But you can keep insulin functioning properly and slow aging by avoiding swings in blood sugar (55, 96) and building muscle through exercise—particularly strength training (21).
Exercise also uses glucose for energy so less can build up in your system, and it helps your cells become more sensitive to insulin.
Genes that counteract oxidative stress, such as superoxide dismutase and paraxonase (PON1), may also help you live longer. PON1 activity decreases significantly during aging, while free-radical attacks generally multiply. Unstable free radicals steal electrons from nearby molecules, ravaging them and speeding up aging. Chronic oxidative stress contributes to age-related changes in immune function and other regulatory systems, such as the nervous and endocrine systems, as well as the communication between them, according to a 2009 study in Current Pharmaceutical Design. To decrease oxidative stress and lengthen your life span, the study’s authors suggest getting an abundance of antioxidants through diet (26, 54, 67). Brightly colored fruits and vegetables (aim for five to nine servings per day), red wine, green and black tea, dark chocolate, and beans are all good sources.