Telomeres — Key to Slowing Down Aging?
Is your reflection in the mirror showing visible lines on your face? Do you notice your skin becoming thinner and drier? Do you feel like your days of smooth, radiant, and elastic skin are numbered?
These are just some of the signs of skin aging.
Thousands of studies have been done on aging and many are beginning to point to an inescapable conclusion: our lifestyle choices, what we eat, and what we don’t eat may actually affect our aging process.
Most of us have extremely busy lives and, despite our best efforts to eat healthily, many of our food choices may be less than nutritious.
In fact, up to 90 percent of North Americans are lacking key nutrients in their diets, thus affecting their skin, their overall appearance, and how they feel on the inside.
The good news is, we can actually do something to slow down our aging process! How? By keeping your telomeres long and healthy.
What exactly are telomeres?
In her interview with The Guardian, Berkley professor and Nobel Prize winner in medicine, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, said that if you think of your chromosomes — which carry your genetic material — as shoelaces, telomeres are the little protective tips at the end.
They are made of repeating short sequences of DNA sheathed in special proteins.
What happens to our telomeres as we age?
According to Dr. Blackburn, during our lives, telomeres tend to wear down and when telomeres can’t protect chromosomes properly, cells can’t replenish and they malfunction.
This sets up physiological changes in the body which increases the risks of the major diseases of aging:
• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• A weakened immune system and more
Physiological changes are happening in all of us at some rate, but fortunately, there are things we can do to slow down these changes.
An enzyme called telomerase can add DNA to the ends of chromosomes to slow, prevent, and partially reverse the shortening.
Telomerase replenishes the DNA at telomeres. Thus, depending on cell type, telomerase partially or completely counteracts the progressive shortening of telomeres that otherwise occurs.
Here are some videos of Dr. Blackburn explaining the roles of telomeres and telomerase:
The Roles of Telomeres and Telomerase
Watch Video
The Shaklee Telomere Studies
Watch Video
How can we take care of our telomeres to delay or reverse aging?
To lengthen our telomeres, or at least stop them from shortening, we need to improve our lifestyle by:
• Managing chronic stress
Nobody had any idea that meditation and the like, which people can use to reduce stress and increase wellbeing, would be having their salutary and well-documented useful effects in part through telomeres.
• Exercising
The good news, according to Dr. Blackburn, is that you don’t have to go to the gym three hours a day or run a marathon a week.
People who do moderate aerobic exercise — about three times a week for 45 minutes — have telomeres pretty much as long as marathon runners.
Mixing things up seems to be good too.
One study showed the more different kinds of exercise people did, the longer their telomeres.
• Eating better
Having adequate omega-3 fatty acids really seems to relate to better telomere maintenance and the easiest way to ensure that maybe a supplement.
It is also in foods such as oily fish and flaxseeds.
• Getting enough sleep
Sleep is more closely tied to overall health than most people realize. We all feel bad when we don’t sleep, but that tired feeling is just the tip of the health iceberg.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 48 percent of Americans have occasional sleeplessness; 22 percent experience it most nights. Occasional sleeplessness isn’t usually harmful, but chronic lack of 7 to 8 hours of good quality sleep is highly likely to have a negative impact on your health.
I know many of you will think that these things are recommended already, but what many of us hadn’t understood is that they help you maintain telomeres.
By supporting and maintaining your telomeres with these tips, you can add up to the key nutrients that you are lacking and slow down your body’s aging-clock and stay years ahead of your peers.
Telomeres and Supplementation
You can also try using supplementations to lengthen your telomeres.
There’s actually a study conducted by Shaklee that was designed to explore the effects of long-term supplementation on telomere length.
The study found out that long-term supplement users (over five years), had increased telomere length (11.2 %) when compared to controls who were not supplementing.
This research called The Landmark Dietary Supplement Study conducted in collaboration with the University of California Berkeley is one of the largest studies of long-term users of multiple supplements. The study showed that people who used Shaklee supplements had much better biomarkers of heart, brain, and cognitive health compared to non-supplement or non-Shaklee product single-supplement users.**
They were more likely to have optimal concentrations of chronic disease-related biomarkers and less likely to have suboptimal blood nutrient concentrations, elevated blood pressure, and diabetes compared to non-users and multivitamin/mineral users.
Here are some of Shaklee’s amazing products that can help slow down aging:
Vivix
40% lower rate of telomere shortening!
Vivix key contains a powerful all-natural blend of a broad spectrum of polyphenols, backed by six patents, with key ingredients shown in laboratory studies to protect and repair cellular DNA and combat free radicals. Key Vivix ingredients have been shown in laboratory studies to activate cellular defenses, neutralize free radicals, and slow the development of damaging AGE proteins that may accumulate and lead to cellular aging.*
Shaklee users who took Vivix and other Shaklee supplements for at least 5 years had a 40% lower rate of telomere shortening across the adult age range compared to a healthy control group.
Shaklee Life Strip
Backed by more than 10 patents and breakthrough clinical research, Life-Strip® is the culmination of years of research and quality testing to guarantee every serving delivers pure and potent vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, antioxidants, and phytonutrients to help create the foundation for longer, healthier life.*
Life-Strip provides nutrients that support:*
- Cellular health
- Healthy vision
- Healthy heart
- Healthy brain
- Joint comfort
- Immune support
- Energy
- Strong bones
- Healthy skin, hair, and nails
This comprehensive nutrition system contains the aforementioned Vivix PLUS…
- OmegaGuard® Plus 1,000 mg of pure, ultra-concentrated EPA/DHA omega-3 fatty acids sustainably sourced from wild fish from pure Alaskan waters. Formulated to eliminate fishy aftertaste. Delivers better telomere maintenance. Supports both a healthy heart and a healthy brain.*
- Vita-Lea® Life Advanced Multivitamin: Designed to dissolve in less than 30 minutes in the stomach and to enhance the absorption of folic acid from the patented micro coating. Includes heart-healthy CoQ10* and vitamin E, and eye-healthy lutein and zeaxanthin. Nutritionally supports a healthy heart, joint comfort, immune support, more energy, stronger bones, healthy skin, and healthy vision.*
- Vitamins B+C Complex Shown in a clinical study to provide up to 198% greater absorption of B vitamins over 12 hours. B-Complex helps convert food into energy. It also helps power the brain, heart, lungs, and other organs and promotes cellular energy production.* Vitamin-C has been shown to supports immune health and help maintain natural antioxidant defenses and cell integrity. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps support the immune system and protects against damaging free radicals.
Vitalizer
An all in one product that promotes optimal health!
Based on 12 clinical studies and a first-of-its-kind Landmark Study, Vitalizer provides vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and healthy probiotics — using a patented delivery system specially designed to enhance absorption of key nutrients in your body.
Its custom formulas are created specifically for today’s healthy active man, woman, and adults over 50.
Learn More About Vitalizer Here
Quality supplements can help fill nutritional gaps left by less than optimal food choices, our overworked bodies, and our environment.
One of the benefits of a good supplemental program like what Shaklee offers is that it works for almost everyone. Unlike medications that can work in some people but not in others, vitamins and minerals do the same job in your body that they do in mine. A good multivitamin is almost universally beneficial — especially for filling in those nutritional gaps that can be the cause of shorter telomeres that could speed up your aging.
Thanks for reading!
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
**Percentages reflect Shaklee supplement users compared with non-supplement users. Data for nonusers were obtained from NHANES 2001–2002 and NHANES III 1988–1994. Long-term Shaklee users clearly demonstrated lower levels of the most important heart-health biomarkers recognized by the American Heart Association.
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