Morgan Hill Today 2014 12 Winter | Page 38

{ }

AGING with an Attitude

Reversing the Aging Process … Defying Your Age

By Dorie U . Sugay
Dorie Sugay is the Executive Director of Visiting Angels , a company that provides livingassistance services to seniors and adults-in-need who wish to stay in their own home or receive oneon-one care within a facility .
This article is for informational and educational purposes only . It was written independent of Visiting Angels .

Our cells need energy to function . When the energy engine in our body becomes less efficient in processing physiological fuel like glucose into energy , biology experts point to a lack or absence of oxygen . Dr . David Sinclair , a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School , suggests that the lack of oxygen is what causes cells to deteriorate and eventually die .

In a journal called “ Cell ,” which was published in December of 2013 , Sinclair and his colleagues from the University of New South Wales in Australia found that giving 2-year old mice a chemical compound ( NAD ) for only one week showed some remarkable transformation – their tissues resembled that of a 6-month old mice . Applied to humans , Sinclair likens this to a 60-year old ’ s cells becoming more like those belonging to a 20-year old ! As mammals age , Sinclair posits that levels of NAD drop as much as 50 percent and the more it drops , the more vulnerable we are to consequences of aging ( inflammation , slower metabolism , etc .) With the introduction of NAD , their experiment , in essence , tricked the mice ’ s bodies into thinking it is young again , thereby causing age reversal . ( Please don ’ t share this with Joan
Rivers , lest she harasses Sinclair for these NADs !)
You read it right , folks , it seems that Sinclair may have found the silhouette of the fountain of youth in the horizon . But he is not ready to claim that NAD will bring us immortality . Although the results suggest that “ if a body is slowly falling apart and losing the ability to regulate itself effectively , we can get it back on track to what it was in its 20s and 30s ,” and he sees their discovery helping in cancer research . There is more work to be done . ( In other words , hang on to your request to be one of the first humans to participate in the clinical trial . Besides , I already have a million copies of my request , stamped and ready to go !)
Imagine for a moment what our quality of life could be if as Sinclair says , with the use of NAD , our bodies can continue to better regulate itself despite our age . I think of Virginia L . in Morgan Hill who is 98 years old and should get a speeding ticket as she pushes her walker at high speed . What could she be like with NAD if without it , she is still so sharp and full of life at 98 ? On his 105th birthday , my grandfather danced with a 25-year old . NAD would have had grandpa doing the salsa !
But folks , let ’ s not wait for Sinclair – let ’ s learn from some of the people who have
38
M O R G A N H I L L T O D A Y W I N T E R 2 0 1 4