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THE SCIENCE OF AGEING – EXPLAINED VERY SIMPLY!

November 22, 2019 5 Comments

Look at this picture – what a gorgeous place to talk all things Age-Well! It was a privilege to speak at an intimate workshop at the beautiful Water Lane Farm in Gloucestershire earlier this week.

The hardest thing for me when I’m speaking at events and coaching clients is explaining the science of ageing: what’s happening in our bodies at a cellular level is complex and it’s taken me years to grasp it. But it’s critical that we do get our heads round this. Only then can we understand the relevance of our lifestyle choices to how we age. For me, understanding the science of ageing is empowering, and it’s helped to keep me on track with my own Age-Well project. I took a few props along to this workshop which (hopefully) made things clearer. They were rather unusual for a talk about science: a basket of unpaired socks, a packet of batteries, several pairs of shoe laces and a large fluffy Pac-Man! To explain:

OXIDATIVE STRESS As our cells metabolise oxygen (and digest food) they produce waste in the form of unpaired electrons, known as free radicals. These unstable atoms bomb around our bodies trying to find another atom to pair up with – causing havoc, and ageing. Like a basket of unpaired socks, beside a washing machine (in my house at least) they build up,  causing oxidative damage in our bodies. This free radical theory of ageing has been linked to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, auto-immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION – every cell in our bodies runs on ‘batteries’ called mitochondria. These are structures within cells which convert energy from food into a form that cells can use. As we age, they become less efficient. They’re damaged by free radicals, and they start to leak, just as old batteries do.

TELOMERE DAMAGE DNA, the instruction manual for every cell in our body, is packaged into thread-like structures called chromosomes. If our chromosomes were a shoe lace, telomeres would be the tip which stops it fraying. As we age, telomeres become shorter, causing cells to stop functioning properly and eventually die off. The shorter our telomeres, the older we are – short telomeres have been linked to Alzheimer’s, lung disease, heart disease.

INFLAMMATION Inflammation is both our body’s best friend and worst enemy. If we cut ourselves the body sends an acute inflammatory response and our skin is red and swollen as a cut heals.  But as we age the body is in an almost permanent ‘threat’ state, behaving as if there’s a problem it needs to deal with. This is called ‘low-grade inflammation’ and is a hallmark of ageing – so much so that doctors have coined the term ‘inflamm-ageing’. High levels of inflammation are found in people who become frail in old age. Why does it happen? It’s probably linked to the failure of our telomeres as they wear away and the leaking of our battery-like mitochondria. As we get older our bodies are less good at cleaning up this mess and our autophagy processes start to fail. This is the clean-up process whereby our bodies gobble up old, damaged cells – rather like Pac-Man eating the coloured dots he encounters. (In my mind, anyway!)

 

GUARDIAN MASTERCLASS + MORE WORKSHOPS IN THE NEW YEAR

Would you like to come to one of our workshops and learn how to Age Well? We’re delivering another Guardian Masterclass on January 7th (tickets here) and stay tuned for other workshops in London in 2020.

 

A LONGEVITY LUNCH

At this week’s workshop we enjoyed a ‘longevity lunch’: Water Lane Workshops Wonder Woman, Kate, cooked five of our favourite recipes from the blog: a perfect meal, plus a delicious chocolate-y snack to keep us fuelled up during the morning! Links to recipes, and an explanation of their Age-Well benefits below.

 

CHOCOLATE PEANUT SQUARES – cacao, chocolate’s raw material, is a potent source of bioflavonoids. These antioxidants fight cell damage caused by free radicals. Nuts have been found to reduce cardiovascular disease risk and reduce inflammation.

ROAST RED ONIONS WITH ROSEMARY AND ROCQUEFORT – onions and other alliums, including leeks and garlic are perfect prebiotics, keeping our gut microbiota well-fed and happy. An antioxidant flavonoid, quercetin, found in onions is also anti-inflammatory.

HARISSA ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH TAHINI-YOGHURT UNDERDRESSING – eating more anti-oxidant and fibre-rich vegetables is the single most important dietary change we can make to age well. The wider the variety, and the deeper the colour, the better.

PEA AND BEAN SALAD – peas are a terrific source of biotin, one of the B vitamins which helps the body convert food into energy. It’s also a vital nutrient for the condition of our hair, helping us keep our locks lustrous as we age.

CHIA SEED PARFAIT – these little seeds are powerhouses packed with omega 3 which help reduce inflammation in the body and have been linked to better gut health. The live natural yogurt contains probiotics, also essential for good gut health.

Susan

« THREE SIMPLE BOOSTS FOR GUT HEALTH
WHY WE NEED BOARD GAMES (AND EXERCISE) FOR CHRISTMAS »

Comments

  1. Kath says

    November 25, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    These are wonderful, thank you

    Reply
    • Susan Saunders says

      December 3, 2019 at 11:35 am

      Thanks so much, Kath. Glad you like! x

      Reply
  2. Jenny says

    December 4, 2019 at 3:34 pm

    I love the idea of using props to de- mystify the biology! I have always struggled to to decipher the scientific jargon into plain English and the storytelling angle helps the ideas to stick! As usual ladies, well done! Please can we have some workshops in Hampshire?

    Reply
    • Susan Saunders says

      December 5, 2019 at 10:35 am

      Thanks so much, Jenny! I’d love to do a workshop in Hampshire. I’m very happy to come to Itchen – let’s talk about it! Susan

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. WHAT IF THERE WAS ONE MOLECULE THAT SLOWS AGEING? AND A LONGEVITY-BOOSTING RECIPE - The Age-Well Project says:
    January 29, 2021 at 6:00 pm

    […] linked to one of the key hallmarks of ageing – telomere length. (You can read more about telomeres here but – quick primer – these are the shoelace-like caps on the ends of our chromosomes, which […]

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Welcome to The Age-Well Project

Welcome to The Age-Well Project!
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WHY ‘INFLAMM-AGEING’ COULD START IN THE GUT AND HARISSA-ROASTED VEGETABLE SALAD

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Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock access to a sauna. But Susan found one in a hotel she was staying at recently, there’s one in our local gym and Annabel found plenty on her summer holiday in Finland. 

A growing number of studies attest to the longevity-enhancing benefits of routine forays into a sauna. Much of the research has been instigated in Finland where sauna (pronounced to rhyme with downer) has existed forever.

So how does sauna help us age well? The extreme heat activates heat shock proteins which researchers think can maintain the healthy functioning of our cells.  As we get older, the proteins in some of our cells start to misfold and collapse. They then clump together forming plaques, including the plaques thought to cause Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Heat shock proteins – triggered by a sauna stint and possibly by hot baths – appear to prevent the misfolding and collapsing of cellular proteins, as well as clearing out those that have already misfolded. Which is to say they keep our cells in good shape. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio 

#womenover50 #over50andfit #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalwomen #postmenopausalhealth 
#brainhealth #alzheimers #reducedementiarisk #cognitivehealth #betterbrainhealth #brainfog  #agewell #longevity #ageingwell #agingwell
Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You know we love a good grain and this one is particularly delicious. It’s from our friends @hodmedods and they very kindly gave us a discount code to share with you - it’s valid until the end of September. Code and recipe are on the blog - link in bio (it’s the blog post about reducing dementia risk) #prproduct #recipe #healthyrecipe #discountcode #wholegrains #quinoarecipes #womenover50 #over50 #over50health #postmenopause #over50andfit #dementiaprevention #alzheimers #brainhealth #cognition #agewell
Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the process of resolving it. Please do not respond to, or interact with, a request from our impersonator calling themselves theagewellproject. We are agewell project - no The! 

Thank you!
Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re s Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re so thrilled over 5000 of you have joined us on our mission to age well! Thank you 🙏

If you’re new here, we’re Susan and Annabel, long-time friends turned longevity writers. We started blogging about our quest to age well almost a decade ago (!) - you can find the blog at agewellproject.com or via the link in our bio. 

As working mums, we started looking for simple, science-backed ways to make the best of the second halves of our lives. We wanted to improve our own health and reduce our risk of the chronic conditions of ageing. When we started writing, Susan was caring for her mum, who had dementia, and Annabel has also faced challenges with her family’s health. 

Along the way, the blog became a best-selling book, The Age-Well Project, and further books have followed. You can find out more about us individually @annabelabbs and @susansaundershealth 

The blog is packed with posts on the latest research into the science of longevity, and how we make sense of it in our own lives. And there’s also loads of lovely age-well recipes - all approved by our families! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause
Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a b Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a bank holiday for us 🇬🇧🇬🇧), take time for your feet. They’re mini miracles and looking after them is key to ageing well. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio.

And save this as a reminder to look after your feet! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalhealth #walking #hiking #womenwhowalk #womenwhohike
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