Ever wonder why some people look and act years younger than they are?
I recently went out to dinner and ran into an old friend of my husband’s. We hadn’t seen each other in over ten years. He leaned over to my husband and asked, “what’s up with the fountain of youth sitting next to you?”… I thought, what a compliment! Approaching 50, it’s certainly nice to hear such a sweet gesture. Yes, I own a medspa, which is a huge perk, of course! I take care of my skin, wear sunscreen, and am in the care of the absolute best providers in the industry. That being said, my husband and I put a lot of effort into our health and well-being. Having a good understanding of our epigenetic age helps guide many of our decisions when it comes to lifestyle. The largest aging predictors over anything else.
A person’s Epigenetic Age matters far more than the number of candles on your birthday cake, when it comes to estimating your health and age-related disease risks.
Aging itself is the gradual loss of function at a cellular and molecular level. Epigenetics play a big part in regulating and controlling those functions, so it also plays a big part in aging.
Accelerated epigenetic aging is actually the #1 risk factor for developing most age-related chronic diseases.
What is Epigenetics?
Your DNA is your body’s recipe book. Different areas of the body, like the brain and skin, read different chapters from that book. An epigenetic marker like DNA methylation can act as a biological white-out, changing phrases, sentences, and even entire recipes.
This reversible process is your body’s way of controlling which parts of your DNA are read, without changing the DNA itself. This is called ‘Epigenetics’ and is what your body uses to change gene expression throughout your life. Many studies have found that DNA methylation is highly correlated to aging.
Methylation (and therefore Biological Age measured by methylation) has been observed to change in response to a wide variety of factors. Even in the womb, our mother’s actions and habits influence our initial epigenetic patterns, and the choices we make throughout our life continue to change it.
The major factors that determine this include:
Nutrition (diet)
Exercise Habits
Sleep habits
Daily Stress
Social Relationships
Smoking
Drinking Alcohol
Medications
Environmental pollutants
There are several at-home testing kits that determine where your epigenetic age falls. I recently ordered a test for myself and will follow-up in a future blog to let you know the results. As this is a complicated and ever-evolving topic to try to sum up in a quick anti-aging health-tip blog. But definitely keep these lifestyle aging indicators in mind, and if you want to feel instantly younger… a little Botox will do the trick!