Looking’ for a way to reverse the aging process?
Want to reset your biological clock to a younger you?
Today I’m going to be talking about one of the Hallmarks of Aging…that’s actually reversible.
So stay tuned.
OK, so I’ve been doing this series on the Hallmarks of Aging for a while now,
and this is the the 4th video in the series.
This one’s about Epigenetic Alterations.
And its kind of a big one.
First off, it’s one of the primary hallmarks…
a lot of the other Hallmarks are downstream from this one,
which means if you can improve this Hallmark you can improve all the downstream Hallmarks.
It’s the Hallmark that all of the methylation-based biological aging clocks,
like the Horvath clock, are based on.
And best of all, it’s one of the Hallmarks that are actually reversible,
right now with current strategies.
OK, to be honest, it took me a while to understand epigenetic alterations.
But I think I get it now, and here’s my understanding of what it is and how it works.
If you break down the word “epigenetic”,
“epi” means “on top of”,
and we all know what genetics mean, right?
That’s our genome, our DNA. Its kind of one in the same.
So epigenetic means on top of our genome.
Something that isn’t our genome, but impacts how our genome works.
And the way that our genome works, is to turn various genes “on” or “off”.
When a cell develops,
it’s which genes are turned on and which are turned off that gives the cell it’s identity,
that tells the cell what it is and how it should function.
Now the genome doesn’t really tell the genes which are turned on and which are turned off.
The genome is identical in every cell.
It’s simply a list of all the “potential” genes that could be turned on or off.
So what is it, then, that tells all of our 22,000 genes which ones should get expressed, or turned on…
and which ones should get turned off?
That would be our epigenome, and it’s made of genetic markers that are added to the DNA.
And these markers change the pattern of the gene expression within a cell.
Now, while these genetic markers do represent a change in the chemical structure of the DNA,
they don’t actually change the DNA coding sequence.
But they can change how your body reads DNA and decides which genes to express.
Think of it like this.
The DNA sequence is like a list of all the potential materials that could be used to assemble,
for example, a specific protein.
The epigenome is like a set of instructions that explains which of those materials should be used
and how to assemble them.
I’d like to talk about epigenetic markers, but first we to dig into chromosome to define a few terms.
We each have 23 pairs of chromosomes, and every cell in our bodies have these 23 pairs.
Each chromosome is essentially a long strand of DNA, packaged into a complex of proteins,
DNA and RNA called “chromatin.”
Digging deeper, this chromatin consists of a long strand of chromatin fiber.
And this fiber is made up of nucleosomes, which look like beads on a string.
Nucleosomes have two components:
the long strand of DNA wound around some basic proteins called histones.
By wrapping the long strand of DNA around histones,
it provides structural support to the chromosomes and enables the DNA to fit within the cell’s nucleus
by giving the chromosomes a more compact shape.
Some of the variants of histones are associated with gene expression.
OK, the epigenone is made from genetic markers.
These markers could be histone modifications, also known as epigenetic variants and epimutation.
But they can also be methylation.
Methylation is the bonding of a methyl group to any type of substrate, in this case…DNA.
A methyl group is an alkyl that contains a single carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms,
and methylation is a form of alkylation.
And when a methyl group is bonded to a site on the DNA, it can change how genes are expressed.
As we age,
epigenetic alterations can occur as methylation patterns change when methyl groups get added to
or removed from the DNA,
or when changes are made to histones.
And these epigenetic alterations can change how genes get expressed,
damaging the fundamental functions of cells and increasing the risk of age-related diseases.
And over time, this damage can accumulate.
But what causes these alterations to the genome?
Well, for one thing, lifestyle choices.
Behavior, nutrition, stress, physical activity (or the lack thereof), working habits,
and smoking and alcohol consumption can all have an impact on epigenetic mechanisms.
But environmental stressors can also influence alterations to the epigenome.
As we age, our cells encounter exposure to environmental factors
that can cause negative changes to the genome through these same epigenetic mechanisms.
These changes can accumulate over time
and have been connected with the decline observed in aging cells.
These changes can lead to alterations in gene expression that can potentially change
and fundamentally compromise cellular function.
An example of this could be an epigenetic alteration to the immune system.
This could inhibit activation and suppress immune cells,
causing an aging immune system that could leave us vulnerable to pathogens
when our immune system fails.
Alterations to the epigenome can also cause inflammation,
along with changes to the metabolism.
Epigenetic alterations, and the damage they cause, accumulate as we age,
and these alterations can be tracked.
As a result, there have been a number of tests developed that measure these alterations,
and can predict not only your biological age, as compared to your chronological age,
but can also predict when you’ll die.
These tests track the methylation of your DNA, and are called “clocks.”
The Horvath Clock is an example of this, and one of the most accurate clocks out there.
But there’s good news.
While genetic changes, also known as “mutations” are permanent,
changes to the epigenome are reversible.
Using the Horvath Clock,
people have turned in biological ages that are much younger than their chronological age,
and have even turn back their clocks over time.
And here’s were we get to the meat of this video…
how to reverse epigenetic alteration and turn back the clock.
Now, I hate to sound like a broken record, but it’s really pretty simple.
Change the way you eat, and exercise.
And there’s a few supplements that’ll also help.
So, changing the way you eat.
Calorie restriction has been shown to impact epigenetic alterations,
particularly histone modification.
So, doing a big fast, or even doing daily intermittent fasting will help.
But you can also take calorie restriction memetics, things like metformin & resveratrol.
In his TRIMM study, in which Dr. Greg Fahy tried to reverse thymic involution,
the Horvath Clock was used to measure the subjects both before and after the trial…
and their biological age after the 1 year trial was 2.5 years younger than it was at the beginning.
While it’s unknown what actually caused this, they were taking metformin.
Then there’s exercise.
A number of studies have demonstrated that exercise can improve methylation.
One study from 2012 found that exercise changed the methylation patterns in test subjects,
and that those who exercised the hardest had the greatest levels of demethylation.
Another study in 2014 had volunteers cycle for 3 months… using only one leg.
So they effectively became their own control group.
The exercised leg showed new methylation patterns, while the unexercised leg did not.
Finally,
there are some supplements that might help with restoring changes to your epigenome.
A study published in 2010
identified several supplements that have been demonstrated to
“reverse or change epigenetic phenomena such as DNA methylation and histone modification.”
Now I’ve already mentioned resveratrol,
but other supplements you might want to try include curcumin, folate, B-12, methionine,
choline, betain and butyrate.
Hope you enjoyed this video.
If you’d like to learn more about other Hallmarks of Aging, check out this playlist.
That’s it for me, I’m outta here.