Chapter 25
Downtime and the Pace of Ageing to In Search of the Elixir of Youth
Muscle relaxation takes more time than deep breathing. It is best performed in a quiet, secluded place, comfortably stretched out on a firm mattress or mat. It focuses sequentially on the major muscle groups. Tighten each muscle and maintain the contraction for 20 seconds before slowly releasing it. As the muscle relaxes, concentrate on the release of tension and the sensation of relaxation. Start with facial muscles and then work down the body until you come to relaxing your toes. The entire routine will take 12 to 15 minutes. Initially it should be practised twice daily; expect to master the technique and experience some relief of stress in about two weeks. Yoga is gaining increased popularity as a therapeutic practice with over 6 per cent of Americans being recommended yoga by a physician or therapist. Half of American yoga practitioners themselves reported starting practice explicitly to improve their health. In the United Kingdom, yoga is promoted by the National Health Service as a safe and effective approach, in health and illness, for people of all ages. Yoga originated in India over 2,000 years ago. The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word yuj, meaning ‘to join’ and symbolises the union of body with consciousness. It combines physical postures, breathing techniques, relaxation and meditation. Studies on yoga have increased 50 fold since 2014 and some of the most persuasive research relates to stress, insomnia and anxiety, as well as more established benefits to physical health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease. It is particularly good for improving balance and flexibility. It works through a mix of increase in positive attitudes towards stress, self-awareness, coping mechanisms, control, spirituality, compassion and mindfulness. At a cellular level, it reduces inflammation and thereby slows biological ageing. Yoga increases cannabinoid and opiate levels and affects nervous activity between the brain and the stress control glands (adrenal glands) on the kidneys, which release chemicals that relax blood vessels – all good stuff! I discussed telomeres, the protective coverings at the end of chromosomes which stop chromosomal damage, in the first chapter. With ageing, telomeres shorten and because chromosomes are consequently damaged, cells decay and die. Telomerase is an important enzyme that prevents shortening of telomeres. In a number of studies, yoga affected telomerase and telomere length. One elegant paper from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences showed enhancement in telomerase and an increase in telomere length with yoga practice. Other important indicators of cell ageing that we previously discussed such as cortisol, endorphins, cytokines – and another that we will discuss later, BDNF – also change to a more youthful profile with yoga.
Taken together, evidence is growing that interventions such as yoga, meditation, breathing exercises and mindfulness improve the physiological biomarkers of cell ageing and therefore slow the ageing process. Coupling these with regular periods of separation from our devices and increasing the time we spend with nature will reduce stress and further decelerate biological ageing.
Chapter 7: In Search of the Elixir of Youth
THE THIRST FOR ETERNAL YOUTH HAS PLAGUED MANKIND for as long as we can trace. From ad 618 to 907, the Tang dynasty represented the most prosperous period in China’s history. Chinese culture flourished during an era considered the greatest age for civil society and particularly for Chinese poetry and art. The system of government involved competitive civil service-type posts, ensuring academically able advisors to the dynasty. Emperors were obsessed with immortality and the search for the elixir of youth and yet, despite high levels of sophistication and culture, remarkably 6 of 22 of the Tang emperors died from accidental self-poisoning in the pursuit of eternal youth. According to alchemists of the dynasty, ‘blood-red cinnabar’, ‘fickle volatile mercury’, ‘gleaming gold’ and ‘fiery sulphur’ were the principal ingredients for immortality. They are also deadly poisons responsible for the emperors’ deaths as well as those of noblemen who perished in the bid to achieve perpetuity. Emperors and noblemen were not alone in their obsession, which fascinated scholars and statesmen alike. The famous Chinese poet Po Chu-I spent hours bending over an alembic, stirring concoctions of mercury and cinnabar. However, for some unknown reason, he did not imbibe himself and as a result outlived his unwitting friends and family, writing: ‘At leisure, I think of old friends, And they seem to appear before my eyes… All fell ill or died suddenly; None of them lived through middle age. Only I have not taken the elixir; Yet contrarily live on, an old man.’ I wonder when the penny dropped for Po Chu-I? For others, it took almost 300 years before the connection between the concoctions and deaths were realised and the practice of drinking the alchemists’ concoctions was discontinued. I was reminded of this Chinese story when a US president made reference to the possible benefits of drinking disinfectant as a means of killing the SAR2COV virus. Thankfully, these days, we have learned to be much more discerning and exacting when it comes to prescribing and imbibing. Fast forward from the Tang dynasty to the 21st century and to Larry Page, the co-founder and former CEO of Google, who has established a company to pursue the search for a ‘cure’ for ageing. In 2013, Google launched Calico, which, the company’s website states, is ‘tackling ageing, one of life’s greatest mysteries’. As part of this ambitious and costly venture, Calico has invested in research in many different areas, including into an interesting and strange small mammal, the naked mole rat, which, despite its small size, has an unexpectedly long life. The naked mole rat is the size of your middle finger. Not a handsome mammal, it is a small, hairless (hence ‘naked’) and blind rat that lives underground in east Africa. It has two long protruding hooked teeth which resemble fangs and move independently of each other.
Chapter 7: In Search of the Elixir of Youth
The rat tunnels its way underground by using these two front teeth and can withstand low oxygen concentrations that would kill all other mammals. For example, human brain cells start to die within 60 seconds of oxygen starvation and permanent brain damage typically sets in after three minutes. In contrast, the naked mole rate can survive a full 18 minutes in an environment that has no oxygen without suffering any harm to brain cells or other cells. So, from our scientific perspective, this mammal could provide new treatments for brain damage caused by strokes if we could determine how it withstands such long periods without oxygen. As well as surviving extremes, it lives for 30 years, it never gets diseases of ageing such as cancers or heart disease and does not die from old age as we know it. Death occurs as a result of attacks by other animals or sometimes infection. The queen mole rat, with the assistance of her cohort of males, amazingly maintains a consistent rate of fecundity and she has no menopause – something else which is of interest to scientists. Readers who have struggled through a menopause will appreciate the import of this! In addition, blood vessels remain in good condition throughout life, with negligible loss of elasticity and no ‘hardened arteries’ as is so often the case in other ageing females after the menopause and of course in older men. So, is it possible that, in contrast to the ancient Chinese formula of cinnabar, mercury and sulphur, the recipe for today’s formula for the ‘elixir of youth’ may reside within this obscure small, unattractive mammal, under investigation by Calico? The naked mole rat – sugar cubes to indicate scale. ( Jane Reznick/Gary Lewin, MDC) It is disheartening to learn that more than 99.9 per cent of species that have ever lived are now extinct. But, even with this notable statistic, an estimated 10–30 million distinguishable species currently inhabit the earth. The ‘life sciences’ is the term used for the study of these species. Most of what we know about ageing comes from the combined study of the life sciences, including the biology, medicine, anthropology and sociology of different species. It is humbling to know that the genesis of the contribution of the life sciences to our understanding of why we age dates back over four centuries, when it was realised that how we age exhibits common characteristics across all species.
Chapter 7: In Search of the Elixir of Youth
Georges-Louis Leclerc was the polymath to whom we owe this observation. Leclerc himself has an interesting life story. In the early 1700s, after a Jesuit education in Dijon, France, he studied law. He then went on to study mathematics and eventually medicine. After completing his medical studies, he was lucky enough to inherit a veritable fortune. This left him free to pursue his ambition for a life of science without any pressure to generate an income. Although not a biologist by education, he described the evolutionary theory of biology, which states that ‘the ageing of species is common to all species’. The implications of his observation were far reaching and, as a consequence, biologists today can study genes relevant to ageing in the housefly and apply research findings to human studies because the genes are the same in both species. There is a lovely old Irish expression, ‘Cad é a dhéanfadh mac an chait ach luch a mharú? ’ which translates as, ‘What does the son of a cat do but kill a mouse?’ Leclerc was one of the first to imply that we get inheritance from our parents, in a description based on similarities between elephants and mammoths. Except for Aristotle and Darwin, no other student of the natural world has had as far-reaching an influence and yet we are all familiar with Aristotle and Darwin but less so Leclerc.