Super Ager. Elise Marie Collins

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СКАЧАТЬ behavior. Yet if you can change one thing at a time, you can increase your confidence. Then you will realize you can change your habits slowly over time. You can make a big difference in your behavior with small, gradual changes. Super Agers cultivate healthy habits as an integral part of their aging plan.

      If you’re lucky, you started life with healthy habits that have continued throughout your life. The truth is not many in the western world begin life this way. Many who live in Blue Zone® areas won the habit lottery by being born into cultures that naturally integrated healthy aging habits. Don’t worry if you didn’t have healthy habits modeled around you by family and community: you are not alone. You can change your habits, and it is never too late!

      There is no “typical” in aging; people age at vastly different rates. As humans increase in life expectancy and achieve better health through diet, lifestyle, and habits, there will probably be even more disparity in how people age. Many will increase their healthspan through good daily, weekly, and seasonal habits. There will be a steep increase in the numbers of outliers, known as Super Agers. The growing population of aging adults and our ability to remain healthy longer has made a mockery of previous stereotypes of aging. Even the World Health Organization has created a campaign to reduce outdated prejudices around aging, stating, “Ageism is everywhere, yet it is the most socially ‘normalized’ of any prejudice, and is not widely countered—like racism or sexism. These attitudes lead to the marginalization of older people within our communities and have negative impacts on their health and wellbeing.” Human bodies are complex, with a myriad of diverse internal biological factors that influence our aging, as well as the external environmental and lifestyle factors that influence aging. Genetics is believed to account for 20–25 percent of the aging process, and the other up to 80 percent is in our hands. This book is about all of the relatively easy and inexpensive lifestyle changes that you can make to become a Super Ager.

      Geroscience

      This is an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand the biology of aging, age-related diseases, and quality of life, as well as other issues of aging. Geroscience spans multiple disciplines, including molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience, endocrinology, and genetics, among others. Traditionally, aging research focuses on single diseases and isolated conditions. Many scientific studies centered around aging fail because of the complexity of aging. “Geroscience” as a discipline was coined in 2007 by aging scientist, Gordon J. Lithgow of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Geroscience was recognized by the US Senate in 2010. “What has come out of our work is a keen understanding that the factors driving aging are highly intertwined and that in order to extend healthspan we need an integrated approach to health and disease with the understanding that biological systems change with age,” according to former Buck Institute CEO Brian Kennedy. The Buck Institute is “focused on the connection between normal aging and chronic disease,” as well as extending the human health span.

      Recoding

      In 2014, Dr. Dale Bredesen of UCLA and the Buck Institute published the results of a small clinical trial on a multipronged protocol for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The study scientifically demonstrated the possibility of the reversal of symptoms of Alzheimer’s, a disease that is presently believed by western medicine to be irreversible. In his book, The End of Alzheimer’s, Dr. Bredesen likens Alzheimer’s to a leaky roof with thirty-six holes. The current medical model can’t cure Alzheimer’s because it only treats one cause at a time, which Dr. Bredesen likens to patching only one of the holes in the roof. If there are thirty-six holes, patching one of them will not do much good. The Bredesen Protocol, also known as ReCODE, is a collection of healthy lifestyle habits, combined with specific supplements that target biomarkers of Alzheimer’s. By following the ReCODE protocol, you patch up many holes at the same time. Both the clinical trials that were published and Dr. Bredesen’s continued work with Alzheimer’s demonstrate that by patching even half of the “holes” in the Alzheimer’s roof, symptoms can be reversed or arrested. Many declared Dr. Bredesen’s protocol was “too complicated,” or simply did not believe that it was possible to reverse or cease the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients, yet the protocol is an oddly familiar set of healthy habits along with more complicated and specific supplements. The ReCODE protocol also divides Alzheimer’s into three categories and uses specific protocols for each type of Alzheimer’s.

      The reason Dr. Dale Bredesen’s work excites many health coaches, integrative doctors, and wellness professionals is because western science almost always focuses on one cause and effect and rarely, if ever, examines the effects of multiple lifestyle changes on chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s. There are many reasons that go into the one cause, one effect scientific model; all you must do is to take a look at the efficacy of Dr. Bredesen’s comprehensive protocol to understand that this will be the future of medicine. Patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s can enroll in online support programs for Dr. Bredesen’s protocol. In many degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s there are multiple holes in the roof. Using one drug is like patching one hole. And Alzheimer’s is no different; if there are thirty-six different ways that brain health and physical health are degrading, you won’t change much by patching up one hole with one drug or one therapy. Dr. Bredesen has found that he can reverse or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s even by patching only half of the holes, so to speak. In a small trial of what Dr. Bredesen calls the ReCODE protocol, promising results were found for reversing or arresting the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Dr. Bredesen’s ReCODE protocol gives hope for more mainstream adaptation of holistic lifestyle protocols for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and many other degenerative diseases.

      Bredesen Protocol, ReCODE:

      •Optimize Diet

      •Eat 3 hours before bedtime

      •Eat during a 12-hour period and then fast for the other 12 hours

      •Enhance autophagy (cellular clean up, especially in the brain) and ketosis (see Chapter 6)

      •Meditate/Reduce Stress

      •Optimize Sleep

      •Exercise

      •Optimize your microbiome

      •Reduce Inflammation

      Start with Small Steps

      As a Yoga Health Coach, I am familiar with helping people to change habits gradually, as I will outline techniques in this chapter. It can take time and it is important to change gradually. I am trained in meeting people where they are and helping them to slowly transform their habits. When you change your habits, early success is important as it creates a momentum. Neuroscience affirms that the way to feel confident and cultivate success in habit change is to start small and build. I feel that this is the crux to changing and altering our habits, especially as we grow older. You start with small steps and things that are very easy to change, building to greater and greater levels of difficulty. Working at your own pace and building to more complicated habits or to habits that you may be resistant to ensures greater success.

      As you read this book, you will be thinking about your own habits. You may read about something that does not appeal to you. Never worry about what you can’t or are not ready to do. Ignore those habits that seem impossible or unappealing. Those are habits you can change later, or never. You are going for low-hanging fruit at first. As you realize the practice of Super Aging, I am imagining you will become emboldened and take on other small steps. Don’t disregard the power of community. One of the biggest factors in healthy aging is strong support and community. Many of us in the western world don’t have the traditional family ties and close knit communities that are a part of every Blue Zone® community. I predict that in the next thirty years, the human race will be rethinking communities. For now, begin to think about how you can look for support around you right now. Maybe you can read this book with a friend or start СКАЧАТЬ