As someone who is passionate and proactive about slowing the signs of aging, you will be interested in the latest approach, which involves targeting aging at a cellular level. Whilst current approaches treat the signs and consequences of aging rather than the root cause, there is increasing evidence that aging is a highly flexible process that can be reversed. This means we are now entering an exciting new era, where we can tackle aging at a cellular level, addressing its root cause.
This article will look at what aging is according to science, and some of the key changes occurring in our cells that drive the aging process. Going into more detail about the role of NAD+ in maintaining the health of your cells, and how you can increase your NAD+ levels with supplements such as Nuchido TIME+.
Humans haven’t evolved to be good at being old
From an evolutionary perspective our body’s purpose is to pass on our DNA to the next generation. But life is very destructive – drinking, smoking, eating, breathing, pollution and exercise all cause stress on our cells, so our body's have had to develop robust repair and maintenance mechanisms to keep everything functioning optimally. However, these repair mechanisms cost a lot of energy.
As a result, when we are young our body's invest lots of energy into repair so that we are able to pass on our DNA. But once we are past childbearing age these repair mechanisms get turned down. Ultimately, this loss of self-repair and maintenance causes aging.
Aging is a new problem
This wasn’t an issue back in the 1800’s when humans were lucky to reach their 40’s. We didn’t live long enough to see the effects of repair getting turned down. However, we are now living longer than ever before, with children born today expected to live into their 80’s. Meaning we are in new territory and experiencing aging in an entirely new way.
Overall, we experience aging because evolution has done a good job of optimising our bodies to be good at being young, but not good at being old.
Aging is a flexible process, that starts at a cellular level
While we associate aging with external changes that we see and feel, it is important to remember that aging starts at a deeper level, within your cells. So, to truly impact the aging process we need to look at what is occurring at a cellular level. This has led to an area of research called biological aging, which aims to understand the decline in cellular processes that ultimately result in the aging process.
Your biological age is the true age at which your cells and your body are functioning, which can be very different from your chronological age (the amount of time since birth). Measuring your biological age can be a good indicator of how well your cells are functioning and therefore your rate of aging.
Multiple factors influence our biological age. Surprisingly, your genetics only accounts for a small proportion - around 20%. The biggest influence, accounting for around 80% of your biological age is your lifestyle – such as diet, exercise, smoking, sleeping habits. Additionally, hormones are also very important, especially in women. Research has shown that the change in hormones during menopause dramatically increases a women’s biological age.
The good news is, that unlike your chronological age, there are things you can do to reverse your biological age.
NAD+ is critical for aging well
Aging research has identified 9 root causes of cellular aging, these are termed the ‘Hallmarks of Aging’. Cellular levels of a molecule called NAD+ are now known to impact these root causes of aging. NAD+ stands for Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide and it is a natural molecule found in every cell in your body. It is so critical that if all your NAD+ was removed you would be dead in 30 seconds. NAD+ helps to power lots of vital cellular reactions but the most important are:
- Cellular energy production. To help convert the food we eat into energy our cells can use.
- Cellular maintenance and repair. NAD+ acts as a signal to switch on and off these vital maintenance processes.
When we are young, we have high levels of NAD+. However, as we age our NAD+ levels decline, by around 50% every 20 years. This decline in NAD+ means cells struggle to sustain critical processes such as energy production, cellular maintenance, and repair. This contributes to the signs of aging that we see and feel.
Studies have shown there are various benefits to increasing NAD+ levels as we age including:
- Support energy production
- Support muscle function
- Support DNA health
- Promote cellular defense
- Maintain cellular health
- Support skin cells which produce collagen and elastin
- Support skin cell maintenance
Nuchido TIME+ increases NAD+
There are several ways to increase your NAD+ levels such as exercise and fasting. These create energy stress in your body which signals to your cells that they need to make more NAD+, so your cells can make more energy, and switch on repair pathways to survive the period of stress.
Another method is via NAD+ supplements such as Nuchido TIME+. NAD+ is a very large molecule so it cannot be taken directly as a supplement. Instead Nuchido TIME+ contains a combination of ingredients designed to address the root causes of NAD+ decline. Youthful cells are very good at making NAD+, but these pathways get switched off as we age. Nuchido TIME+ switches on these NAD+ production pathways to support cellular health. In our clinical trial Nuchido TIME+ was shown to boost NAD+ levels, restore youthful NAD+ production, activate healthy aging pathway, reduce inflammation and reverse biological age.
Overall, the approach to tackling aging is changing. We can now target aging from both the inside and the outside, allowing you to be you for longer.
To learn more about NAD+ supplements click here.