Staying healthy with beautiful and younger😃 skin through Lifestyle Medicine approaches (7-minute read)

Today I am going to introduce you to a scientific concept that is important for our health throughout our life. It depends on a complex intervention between the different pillars of health mentioned in other blogs, which included, as defined by ASLM, to be: 

• Diet and nutrition 🌿 

• Physical activity 🚶 

• Smoking cessation 🚭 

• Alcohol harm reduction 

• Sleep and stress 😴 

• Social connection 🤼 

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Sounds simple enough on the surface, but with over 56,000 evidence-based journal articles, and over 4.5 million searchable links on Google scholar🌐, explaining the effects these pillars can have on our health, its crucially important not to be ignoring the potential health consequences. But the choreography between the dance 💃🕺of our trillions of chemical reactions on a second-to-second basis in our bodies underlines the importance of the emerging specialist medicine training taking place globally. Our present medical system must remain in place; this is agreed upon by all practicing medical physicians, practitioners, scientists, and academics. But it is time to get ahead, and once involved with incorporating the new direction of self-responsibility and management of your health direction, under the guidance of practicing Lifestyle medicine specialists, your journey begins.  

If you start now, you are ahead of many on the planet🌏, and you will be part of the growing group of people experiencing Lifestyle medicine changes in your daily life. Examples, did you know the risk of a heart attack can be reduced by up to 81%? Or that if you were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in the last 6 years, there is a 43% likelihood that your Type 2 Diabetes can be reversed? Considering that approximately 73% of global diseases are chronic diseases, I think you will see where this power is going. So, there is no better time to act than NOW.

 

You have often heard the analogy of the frog 🐸sitting in the water and not being able to tell that the water they are sitting in is rising in temperature without them even knowing. Well, the analogy applies to our health just like it does to climate change, what we do not see often seems of lesser importance. But it is not. The way we embrace Lifestyle medicine principles into our life is hugely important and powerful at the same time. When we make changes in our lifestyle habits, there are underlying physiological changes which are taking place every nanosecond of the day. Benefits of these changes affect our endocrine system and our metabolic health and function on many different complex levels, which is outside the scope of our discussion today.

This can be simply expressed by something we can see, the quality of our skin 😇health. How our skin is presently ageing is determined by a complex cellular level interaction of growing new skin cells, which is controlled by cell division, including our chromosomes. These contain all our genetic material which determine our gene’s expression. They are capped on each end of the chromosome by a structure called the Telomere. This helps protect genetic information and prevents it from being wrongly identified and changed at other cellular levels. Among other functions helping to avoid corruption of the genetic material that we possess, either in the form of mutations or potential cancerous changes to proliferating stem cells. 

But here is the crucial point on the ageing of these cells, therefore inclusive of the skin cells. Each time cell division takes place, these Telomeres shorten slightly, and this is the major way in science that cell ageing is monitored. But depending on how intensely you decide to change your behaviors relating to the pillars of lifestyle medicine, the larger the influence on retarding or reducing of this Telomere shortening process, the younger skin cells remain. In fact, diet and exercise are specifically identified as leading to stalling or lengthening these Telomeres. But the remaining 4 pillars of Lifestyle medicine have an enormous influence on the permutations and combinations of effects on Telomere length. Examples include the poisoning of cells by tobacco smoking 🚭and the neurotoxic effects of alcohol🍻, both of which can influence the speed of Telomere shortening, which means fast aging of the skin cells.

 

Otto Bütschi can be considered the first scientist to identify what is now termed the “chromosome.” They are basically long stands of 3-dimensional DNA in an X type shape, that regulate our gene expression and duplication processes of chromosomes. The “Telomere” as described earlier is a cap keeping all our fascinating data together and intact in systems of protective support by protein structures to stop the chromosome from losing its structural integrity. I mention this again, so you do not lose sight of what you can achieve with your changes. Also note that as we age and Telomeres start shortening, there can be transcription problems, as the reduced integrity of the chromosome leads to partial structural collapse taking place. No good, not what we want. But what can we do? Hello Lifestyle Medicine, and goodbye to any behavioral habits 🈲that may take us away from achieving our “best version of ourselves,” literally! 

But here is where it gets very interesting- 

Our chromosomes are all about how we structurally and physiologically present ourselves in the world. Our skin health is one of the first things that everybody sees👀. The physiological age of a person eating a good diet in combination with other lifestyle medicine pillars, can be physiologically anything between 1 and 20 years younger than their chronological age. How does this work? Let me illustrate a picture in your mind of the building blocks of life as we know it.

Ever noticed how you would swear that someone is at least 10 years younger than they claim to be, but their chronological age tells a different story? Welcome to Telomere length studies.

 

I will now give you a good example that relates to an effective and healthier way of eating. There is a dietary approach to eating referred to as the “Mediterranean diet, which involves eating in the following fashion: 

            A diet rich in whole foods including fruits 🍑and vegetables🍆. 

            Rich in nuts, legumes, and seeds. 

            Moderate quantities of fish🍤. 

            Olive oil is used in some meals including salads🥗. 

            Avoidance and preferably abstinence of meat, chicken 🍗and dairy. 

            Moderate amounts of alcohol🍷, normally wine at mealtimes.  

Now, notice I say: “whole food.” Any form of food that is either processed or refined can have extremely undesirable effects on our health, such as excessive forms of animal based saturated fats, trans fats, or added chemicals or other undesirable oils. Or refined food, where the fiber may have been taken out, or by certain methods of cooking and forming Acetylated Glycation end products, which can lead to Telomere shortening. It is vital to recognize that food is MEDICINE, once you understand this principle you have been empowered to make decisions in your life that are going to change your health. 

An example of telomeres lengthening in research involving dietary intervention has been demonstrated in the “Nurses study,” a famous research project demonstrated lengthening of their Telomeres in specific telomere samples. This evidence-based research example is an excellent one.

  

Some scientists such as David Sinclair have displayed evidence related to substances such as Nicotinic mono nucleotide (NMN) and its effect on retarding or reversing ageing. I cannot comment on this here, as Lifestyle medicine evidence is not based on using such supplements. The other argument would include the question of “what difference would it make if we are not addressing the Lifestyle medicine principles of living anyway?’ Again, this is not a criticism of David Sinclair’s work, as in the future his supplement may well become an example of an accepted adjunct to Lifestyle medicine management. But back to the subject of Telomere lengthening strategies in Lifestyle Medicine. I am discussing the means that are within your reach without requiring any medication or supplements to do it. A brisk walk🏃 around the block will increase your NMN production, so do not miss out on your activities.

  

So, what can we do to influence more Telomere length? We will mention a few simple interventions to start working on: 

            Avoid stress and include good stress reducing habits 🎶 

            Seek treatment for anxiety or possible depression📎 

            Exercise regularly (regular physical activity with planned repetitive movements over an allocated time) 

            Choose your diet wisely (discussed in another blog) 

            Avoid trans fats and processed food, sugar, and saturated fats 

            Give up smoking if you are a smoker 🚭 (absolutely no safe level) 

            Stay socially integrated 🔗 

            Moderate or better still abstain from alcohol consumption🍷 

            Try to get the recommended amount of sleep 

            See nutrition 🌿as crucially important throughout the day 

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I will summarize by making another recommendation. Try to concentrate on the positives 😇in your life and see what difference this makes over time. Keeping a gratitude diary of the things you cherish daily is powerful. If and when you use the power of prayer for change, make careful note to apply some self-compassion in your prayer 🙏. State what it is in life that you are grateful for, and perhaps pray for all of us in this rather small population, which reached 8 billion people on November 15th, 2022 (Small in comparison to the population of some species) on this planet we call Earth🌍! Look forward to our discussion next week. Stay safe, healthy, and happy my friends, to all of you around the world. You remain in my daily prayers always. Bye for now! 

P.S. I shall be on the coal face to create new thoughts for you to consider. Please don’t forget to press “Follow,” and can you also please share us on your chosen social media site, as I want your friends, family, and colleagues to gain the Lifestyle benefits of a healthier, happier, and more connected life. I would greatly appreciate this. And I would love you to leave some comments AND questions below this post. Remember that for every question asked, there may be 100 people who were thinking about asking the same question. No such thing as a silly question.