Senescence or biological aging is the creeping deterioration of living organisms. The word senescence refers to either your cells or your whole body. We’re going to take a close look at cellular senescence, garner some tips, and together, we’ll make the complex simple.
On a microscopic level, your body is in a war of attrition and renewal. Cells are constantly repaired, killed, and replaced. These actions are routine maintenance, and they’re what keeps your organs (and you) healthy and working.
At some point in your life, attrition wins more battles than renewal, routine maintenance is overwhelmed as dying, and defective cells accumulate. This relentless senescence is witnessed at the macro level as our cells die off and our bodies sink into decrepitude.
Senescence isn’t pretty:
No, it’s not, and it’s what OMY’s and life extensionists work to control. Here’s the problem in a nutshell: Aging cells are not the issue; repairing them or killing and replacing them is. It’s a never-ending maintenance challenge.
For the most part, losing the war on senescence begins when your health warranty runs out, somewhere between forty-five and fifty. Up to this point, the tools and mechanisms that keep senescent cells under control are in good working order.
Beyond mid-life, however, your built-in senolytic defense team loses ground to cells that erode, misfire, and won’t die on their own. These renegade cells stick around and create problems for their healthy neighbors and their own “mother” organs.
Before looking at renegade cells, let’s talk about what happens to cells that die.
AUTOPHAGY
- Autophagy means self-eating.
- In a healthy body dead cells are “eaten” by scavenger cells to recover and recycle cell materials. This process is called autophagy.
- Autophagy is an ongoing process that is enhanced in periods without food – fasting.
- Scavenger cells are like coyotes and skunks – they eat dead things and various other kinds of junk.
- Autophagy keeps the space around cells clean. Cells have internal cleaning mechanisms as well. These mechanisms work great when we’re young.
- In time, though, cleaning systems are overwhelmed by increasing senescence.
OK then , what happens to renegade cells that won’t die?
First, cells re-grow themselves by dividing. When they lose this ability, they die from an internal “death wish” triggered by running out of telomeres.
When the cell’s death wish doesn’t work, the cell lives on as a renegade that’s usually caught and destroyed by immune system killer cells.
If these termination techniques don’t work, the cell lives on as a miscreant causing problems with its neighbors, giving off toxic chemicals, or even worse, becoming the mother cell of a cancerous growth.
No wonder senescence is a hot topic for study in aging, cancer research, and other areas.
So what can we do about senescence right now?
First, we can help cells live longer or indefinitely by keeping their telomeres longer. This stabilizing effect would delay their internal death wish and maintain their ability to divide.
Second, we could send out drugs to identify and destroy renegade cells (these drugs are senolytics.)
Third, we could train our immune systems to identify (tag) senescent cells in the early stages of dying and send killer cells after them before they turn into half-dead derelicts.
Note that all three of these options are currently in various stages of an investigation. There are also more options, but these three are closer to bearing fruit.
OK, let’s look at these three senescence control options, and find out what we can do today:
Keep telomeres healthier and keep them working longer:
As an OMY, you plan to live one more year, year after year. Loving your telomeres is one way to stay in your OMYzone. How do you show your love? By strengthening your OMY Three-Legged Stool with lifestyle changes.
I’ve created posts on this blog giving you starting points for diet, exercise, and supplements. These three longevity legs are weapons against senescence and protective shields for your telomeres. Look for more information coming your way.
Poor lifestyle choices damage telomeres and squander future cell divisions. Living the OMYlife and embracing your three-legged stool of longevity is the way to keep your cellular maintenance system working and ensure minimal damage and erosion.
I will continue giving you information about staying in your OMYzone and loving your telomeres.
Senolytics:
Senolytics are “things” that, in various ways, reduce or eliminate the causes of senescence. These might be drugs, supplements, or foods. (I would include lifestyles and behavioral modifications.)
In a broad sense, anything that helps destroy the leftovers of senescence (primarily renegade cells) is a senolytic. Most commonly, however, the term senolytic refers to something you take or some medical treatment.
Right now, working with senolytics is an exciting field of research, and if you Google this word, you’ll see what I mean. Be careful, though; this is a field ripe for hustlers and quacks. There is a long way to go with senolytics, and we’re only standing on the shoreline, a long way from surfing the technological wave.
That said, aside from adhering to my three-legged stool, I take a Senolytic Activator that you can find here:
This supplement requires a once-weekly dose, and it’s inexpensive.
Please understand that because I take this supplement doesn’t mean you should. Go to the website, read the materials, and make your best decision.
Training your immune system:
Some medical science sectors have stepped into the arena of manipulating immune responses to control disease. Cancer treatment is one such arena. This approach makes sense because our immune system keeps cancer at bay during our health warranty.
Cancer starts showing its ugly face after this warranty runs out and the concomitant buildup of renegade cells starts.
Usually, our immune system attacks senescent cells and kills them. (It also does the same thing with cancer cells.) Killing these cells is desirable when we can make it happen. To do this, we have the three-legged stool and one more thing: probiotics.
Most immune cells originate in the gut. Unhealthy lifestyles produce a weak and ineffective gut-biome, leaving the door open for disease and premature aging. See: (TT) GASTROINTESTINAL TRANSIT TIME for more information.
Not only is this situation changed with improved lifestyles, but the gut-biome gets rebuilt using a good probiotic. Do some research and pick the probiotic that’s right for you. Stick with a reputable source.
Give it time:
Don’t expect miracles. Tuning up your three-legged stool of longevity gets you halfway there. Everything else is ready to go once you add your Senolytic Activator and probiotic. At this point, you’re looking at six months or longer before making gains against senescence.
Think of this whole plan as gearing up to fight your long-term battle against senescence.
Be patient.
Senescence is pushing you hard, and you have to push back, it won’t stop pushing, and you can’t either.
Leard how to clean up the senescence mess: AUTOPHAGY AND TRASH RECYCLING
OMY1
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