Human Aging - What Is It, And How Can Antiaging Research Help Me To Live Longer, And Age Gracefully?
Human aging has been defined as the accumulation of changes in the human body over time. We measure our age in years - the amount of time we have been alive.
Currently the average life span of a human being is about 70 years of age. This may differ from country to country, and is a reflection of the world average.
Human aging is a very popular topic today. Everyone wants to look and feel younger. There are many ways to go about this, but first let's examine the human life span, and a growing concern about not just the length of life but also the quality of it - something we can call healthy aging.
We will also examine some emerging anti aging discoveries and antiaging research that shed light on healthy aging, and the desire we all have to either prevent or delay aging, and as we do, to age gracefully.
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Human Aging - Average Life Span Rising
The average age of U.S. citizens has been rising steadily since the early 1800’s. Technological advancements have done much to contribute to this, including improved understanding of sanitation, and advances in medical care and vaccines.
And as we all grow older, it becomes more and more important to extend our human life span, and to have a higher quality of life as we age. This is sometimes called healthy aging.
This increase in the average life span of humans is due largely to increased public health measures. Interestingly, for the last 8 years, the World Health Organization has been assessing the number of years that a person can live in full health.
This reflects a growing trend, and this is a desire not to just to live longer, but to live better as we live longer. This is a view to increasing not just the quantity of life we can have but also the quality as well, for the aging process to be richly enjoyed by all, rather than painfully endured. We like to think of it as aging gracefully in full health, or healthy aging.
There is a new breed of doctors studying human aging emerging as a result, whose specialty is in longevity. Dr. Ronald Klatz, founder and president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, reported in 1999 that “These health professionals believe aging is not inevitable...Fifty years from now when millions of baby boomers start reaching the century mark, we will look back on the medical science of today as though it were the dark ages.”
It is true, that with each passing year, we are learning more fascinating things about the human body and the aging process. Take a peek below at some new developments that could have a dramatic impact on how you age gracefully.
Human Aging - Gracefully In Full Health
To illustrate this, I found some very interesting articles on wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) that you might enjoy hearing about. I wasn't aware of these, but found them fascinating to help illuminate the rising interest in this topic of aging gracefully in full health.
There is a government program that began over 9 years ago by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is called "Healthy People 2010" and it is a nationwide health promotion and disease prevention plan that they plan to be achieve by next year, in 2010.
The two main goals of the program are to "increase quality and years of healthy life" and "eliminate health disparities".
In order to track these objectives, they are gathering data from close to 200 sources and are using the following indicators that reflect the following top 10 major health concerns when it comes to healthy aging:
People everywhere are wanting to experience human aging with good health. Obviously, giving proper attention to the above factors will do much to help one to do so.
The concept of successful aging is also a term that is receiving growing attention. Successful aging is interchangeable with "healthy aging" or "optimal aging". This involves three factors, which include absence of disease or disability, a keen mind and strong body, and the ability to actively engage in the activities of life.
Another interesting term that is gaining growing attention is the term "indefinite lifespan". This is defined as a goal for the longevity of humans, under conditions in which human aging can be effectively and completely prevented and treated.
This too illustrates the desire that humans have to live on indefinitely. This desire is universal to all humans, and we naturally have a desire to live forever from birth on. But in order for humans to achieve this goal, much more still needs to be researched and implemented before this becomes a reality in human aging.
Two fields where this is being researched further are the fields of biogerontology and bioengineering. Much depends on the speed of developments in these and related fields, and also on how well a person uses these technologies in taking care of themselves and their health for successful aging.
It is interesting to note that with human aging, we continue to regenerate new cells and it seems from the genetic blueprint that this process should continue indefinitely. The reason why we stop renewing ourselves, and begin to deteriorate in the process of aging is still a mystery in the scientific sense.
One is still left to wonder though, why man has a desire to keep on living, and seemingly a beautifully designed body to accomplish that, but yet at some point, for some reason, this process becomes interrupted, man succumbs to aging, and eventually dies.
One thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that our levels of a crucial
antioxidant,glutathione,
fall dramatically as we age. Even though the average lifespan of humans is around 70 years, those that do live on into their hundreds, called centenarians, have unusually high levels of glutathione in their cells. Could this hold the key for the growing longevity movement, where we all would like to age gracefully? Is glutathione one of those anti aging nutrients we are all looking for?
Notice what was stated regarding glutathione and human aging in this medical journal:
"It is well known that aging is accompanied by a precipitous fall in glutathione levels. Lower glutathione levels are implicated in many diseases associated with aging including cataracts, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s atherosclerosis, and others."
Source: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 47: 1021-1026, 1994
Why Is This Couple So Healthy? Click on the picture below to find out....
Dr. Jimmy Gutman is the world's most published author on the subject of glutathione. His current bestseller is entitled "Glutathione - Your Key To Health."
Have you every wondered what current research is being conducted on glutathione in the elderly when it comes to cognitive and muscle function? Find out how Dr. Gustavo Bounous' research has had a tremendous impact on the field of glutathione research into aging today, and how one of Canada's leading research centers is now pioneering the way with additional research.
Join Dr. Jimmy Gutman and his faithful assistant John Molson in this 4 minute ImmunoByte as they fill you in on all the details here:
If you liked that, you'll love this. For a further fascinating discussion on telomere length, what it means to you and your health, and how you can live longer by keeping your glutathione levels high, join Dr. Gutman and John Molson once again as they divulge the full details using shoelaces as an analogy. Yes, shoelaces!
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