Bio-Young: Get Younger at a Cellular and Hormonal Level - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Roxy Dillon has practiced nutritional, orthomolecular, and herbal therapy since 1979, and has studied at some of the world's most prestigious places of learning, including the Burden Neurological Institute and the Institute of Neurology. She holds a BSc in Psychology and a master's degree in Biochemical Pharmacology, and has been featured in numerous publications, including Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Journal. Roxy now lives in England.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Bio-Young

CHAPTER 1

Super Sirtuins! Or, How to Look Great on Your 256th Birthday

ANTI-AGING MECHANISM: Longevity gene activation

USE: Increasing lifespan and energy

STARRING: Berries, green tea, garlic, ginseng, gotu kola

For centuries, nearly every culture has searched for a way to slow and even reverse the aging process. Greek writers pursued the Fountain of Youth as far back as the fifth century BCE. India still recognizes the ancient science of longevity called Ayurveda, which is believed to add years to your life by nourishing and detoxing the body. My favorite success story of all, however, is that of a Chinese herbalist named Li Ching-Yuen, who, according to some records, was born in 1677 and died 256 years later. Regardless of whether you believe Master Li’s story is myth, reality, or a little of both, you have to admit there’s a part of you that when you hear this thinks, “I’ll have what he’s having.”

Cut to the twenty-first century, and we’re just as focused on discovering the mechanisms that prevent and reverse aging as our global ancestors were. In fact, one of the most studied proteins in the past ten years that’s been found to aid the anti-aging process is called sirtuin, or silent information regulator. Sirtuins control the rate at which we age, and the length of our lifespan. They’ve been dubbed “longevity genes,” which is also why I thought it would be a great place to begin our anti-aging program. Stimulate your sirtuins, the thinking goes, and you’ll live longer and look younger.

One of the most studied sirtuins is called SIRT1. Among other sources, it’s found in garlic, Panax ginseng, and Polygonum multiflorum, an herb grown in China that research has shown demonstrates anti-aging properties that activate a variety of biological processes in the body. There has been some controversy recently regarding possible liver damage resulting from the internal use of Polygonum multiflorum, and for that reason I do not recommend that you use it.

But guess what? These three herbs were an integral part of Master Li’s regimen, switching on his SIRT1 when he used them! Even if he lived half the years that sources claim, it’s still an impressive number and one that supports the longevity-enhancing properties of herbs, in a time long before science showed us how.

In this chapter, I’d like to first explain how the body ages and reinforce the importance of addressing anti-aging solutions on cellular and hormonal levels. Then I’ll discuss the power of modern-day sirtuin activators that you can add to your daily routine to help you look and feel young.

Aging Is More Than Skin Deep

Aging affects every part of your body—how you look, feel, and function. It affects your hair, face, and body in more ways than you probably realize. In Bio-Young, you will learn what Master Li seems to have known, too—that you can extend and even reverse your years using natural remedies. Some of the substances that do this are EGCG (found in green tea), turmeric, red grape juice, coffee, hawthorn, ginkgo, hops, fennel, fenugreek, red palm oil, as well as supplements like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), R-alpha-lipoic acid, ubiquinol and CoQ10, vitamins, minerals, and numerous other compounds that have the power to make a real impact on how long you live and how young you look. We will show you how to use these elements and others to improve cellular function and increase hormonal levels to stop and reverse deep changes, at every level of your body, right down to the bones.

We tend to think of aging as an effect on the skin—wrinkles, creases, and sags as far as the eye can see. But as you age, every layer of older skin is depleted and disorganized, from the outermost epidermis to the supporting muscle and the deepest fat layers. Topical preparations, particularly vitamin A derivatives and natural vitamin E, can repair and plump up the epidermis, the top layer of the skin, and make the surface look smoother and less wrinkled. This is very welcome, of course.

But aging does not stop at the upper skin layers. It profoundly depletes the deeper layers, leading to unmistakable signs that no makeup can disguise and only anti-aging at both the cellular and hormonal levels can repair. Not even cosmetic surgery can correct some of these consequences, like pallor due to the loss of capillaries or the loss of youthful lip, eye, complexion, and hair color due to the loss of pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. In Bio-Young you will learn how to repair even these seemingly irreversible changes by using safe, natural substances.

Although using natural substances can help make you look decades younger, please keep in mind that the exciting science that explains the mechanisms that underlie their actions is very young and fresh. The bulk of our knowledge about what happens as we age comes from studies that have appeared in the last ten years and have only been available, for the most part, in scientific journals.

The Ultimate One-Two Punch: Cellular + Hormonal Function

To achieve true anti-aging, you must activate cellular mechanisms, plus biochemical and hormonal anti-aging pathways, and restore them to youthful functioning. So it’s important to understand how the combination of certain herbs, foods, and supplements can promote deep and long-lasting effects.

Why this approach? When you improve cellular function, every one of your cells operates better, and this yields great results. When you improve cellular function through natural means, you reverse your age in a real, biological sense. Your cells are younger, and you look younger.

But cellular improvement isn’t enough. Take the power of vitamin C. Applying this to your face as a serum can increase collagen levels there. Taking it internally will help rejuvenate mitochondrial function in your skin and heart. Cellular function acts on the level of every cell, improving energy production, repair, and clearing of cellular debris. All of these mechanisms become slower and less efficient as we age. Improved cellular function very effectively reverses this decline, making you biologically younger at the cellular level. This is visible on the outside! Because there are many changes that aging causes in your body, some are not corrected, or reversed, by only optimizing your cellular mechanisms. Think of it this way: a healthy thirty-year-old has great cellular function and hormones working at peak performance. So to look truly young past thirty, and to continue doing so, you must rejuvenate at cellular and hormonal levels. And since vitamin C can only increase the muscle and fat atrophy that shrivels our skin as we get older, we have to add hormones to the picture for deep, and highly visible, anti-aging results.

Varicose veins are a great example of an aging concern caused by cellular and hormonal factors and should be addressed that way, as well. With age, your leg muscles atrophy, skin thins, and your blood vessel walls become weaker. Hormonal factors play a part, since women, particularly during pregnancy, are more likely to develop this condition. So thickening the skin, strengthening the muscles, and increasing elastin in the blood vessel walls bring about great improvement. But how do we do this naturally? Bioflavonoids such as lemon peel and bilberry are very helpful, as they work on a cellular level by strengthening the blood vessel walls. But many people do not experience varicose vein relief with bioflavonoids alone—you must cure this at the...