Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, two authors of this book, discovered the role of telomere and telomerase in aging and won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr Ai Lisha Ipal is a psychologist who studies stress, aging and obesity. They wrote a lot of papers and works in the process of research, but in order to better promote the new science of health and longevity, it is necessary to carry out popular science.
After reading the first page, Prajna was attracted. The oldest person in the world is a French lady, Kalman. She lived to the age of 65,438+0.22, began to learn fencing at the age of 85, rode a bike at the age of 90, and traveled all over her hometown at the age of 65,438+0.00. She realized everyone's dream: to die healthily. Prajna announced a few years ago that she would live to 120 years old. At that time, many people thought it was incredible, but if you strongly want to take action, nothing can happen.
With the improvement of living standards and medical standards and the aging of the population, there are many elderly people around us, but has the quality of life of the elderly changed? Some old people can't take care of themselves and are often hospitalized. But some old people have a good appetite, sleep well, take care of themselves and watch TV for entertainment. If you pay attention to retouching, some old models are still very elegant. Everyone wants to be the latter. We hope to be healthy for as long as possible. The key is to maintain healthy cell regeneration.
Then start our telomere tour and healthy anti-aging laboratory:
First of all, we know that telomere shortening is a major cause of human cell aging. Then what is aging? We can define it as the gradual dysfunction of cells and the gradual decline of their ability to respond to environmental stimuli and injuries.
Cell aging can be reflected in three aspects: first, how old you look, such as white hair, senile plaque, hunchback and so on. ; Second, your physical health, such as a series of diseases related to inflammatory reaction; Third, you feel old, such as amnesia, Alzheimer's disease and so on.
How to deal with telomere shortening? Telomerase can be selected, which repairs telomere DNA during cell division and has the function of making and supplementing telomeres. Natural repair can make people less prone to some diseases related to aging, such as heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, but excessive telomerase and uncontrolled cell division also mean that cells are prone to cancer.
We need to know what causes telomere shortening, such as stress. There is evidence that some stress is related to telomere shortening, such as encountering major family problems and being exhausted from long-term work. These conditions themselves do not affect telomeres, but the stress caused by the conditions leads to telomere shortening. So we must try to avoid long-term psychological harm. If you have all kinds of threatening reactions, anxiety, shame, etc. Telomeres are also the shortest, but if we change channels and regard the difficulties in life as challenges that need to be conquered, we can resist the injury of chronic stress and protect telomeres. Challenge reaction will not reduce stress. Your sympathetic nerve is still in a state of high excitement, but it is a positive excitement, which makes you enter a more focused and powerful state. Scientists have also found that some thinking habits are harmful to telomeres, such as cynicism, distrust, anger, pessimism, distraction, regret and so on. Then some people will say, after anxiety, will telomeres be shorter? Studies also show that if you suffered from anxiety long ago, you may have recovered and your telomeres may have returned to normal.
What is the correct method? Dr. Kabajin, the founder of mindfulness decompression, observed that when we let go of our desire for other things at the moment, we can face the present more deeply. The most effective way to use time is to do only one thing at a time and concentrate on it. The book mentions a new therapy-flexible thinking. It is based on "acceptance" and "concentration", which does not change your thinking, but helps to change your relationship with thinking. We can make people feel more peaceful through awareness, and mindfulness meditation will naturally produce a feeling of joy and gratitude. Prajna began to contact mindfulness from 20 17. After several years of practice, it can really relieve stress and make people feel calm. When faced with a lot of work tasks, it's time to learn to stop, rather than bear great pressure. Another way is compassion. Compassion means not belittling yourself, but treating yourself warmly and considerate like a friend.
In addition to physical and mental training-meditation, yoga, qigong, Tai Chi, can increase telomerase. Exercise can also increase telomerase activity, and the most significant effect is two kinds of exercise, moderate aerobic endurance exercise, three times a week, 45 minutes each time, for six months, telomerase activity will double. High-intensity intermittent exercise, strenuous exercise and repair exercise take turns. The richer the exercise content, the longer the telomeres. Diet also has an impact. For example, people with high omega-3 content wear telomeres more slowly, people who eat a certain amount of kelp every day have longer telomeres in their later years, and people with higher levels of vitamin C and vitamin E in their blood have longer telomeres. They eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, such as active diet, antioxidant supplements and telomere health have a weak relationship. Adequate sleep means long telomeres. Seven hours of sleep is the key to telomere health.
After reading this book, it not only gives you theoretical knowledge, but also provides many action guides. I look forward to our action together.