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People are now living longer, on average 40 years longer, than they did a couple of centuries ago. This raises the question of how our quality of life can be maintained into old age. Scientists have found that only about 25 percent of the variation in human longevity is due to genetic factors, which means that other elements (exercise, diet) play a big role in the aging process.
Scientists have discovered the mechanism of aging
The skin is the largest organ of the body (about two square meters) and makes up about 16% of our body weight. Aging begins with him. So why do we neglect it? Indeed, in addition to our neglect, environmental factors can have a detrimental effect on the body and accelerate the aging process. They induce premature aging, hyperpigmentation, inflammatory reactions such as eczema and even acne.
Scientists say that a significant 80% of aging is due to UV radiation. In addition, environmental factors (ionizing and infrared radiation, increased heat, air pollution and household cleaning products, various plastics and heavy metals, fragrances, cosmetics and pesticides, herbicides and dioxins, phthalates and chlorine) are responsible for accelerating the aging mechanism.
These elements affect the skin through various mechanisms. For example, they can accelerate the process of internal aging. Since it affects the skin cells in every layer, it can induce skin renewal, leaving it thinner, drier, with fine lines. There is strong scientific evidence supporting the influence of environmental factors (solar radiation, smoking and air pollution) on the aging process.
Your skin, like an outer barrier, is in direct contact with various air pollutants. Exposure to particulate matter and visible signs of skin aging (pigmentation spots and wrinkles) have been reported as a result of the interaction. The mechanism by which the environment exerts harmful effects is through the formation of reactive oxygen species that damage collagen. In addition, the particles serve as carriers for organic chemicals and metals, which are then deposited in the vital organs (mitochondria) of skin cells, which leads to skin aging when mitochondria are damaged.
Predisposition to early aging
In some susceptible individuals with the CYP1B1 gene, high exposure to environmental xenoestrogens can lead to upregulation of melanin biosynthetic enzymes and cause hyperpigmentation and melisma. Those with null GSTM1 gene activity have low detoxification capacity and are unable to detoxify solvents, epoxides, heavy metals, and herbicides. Therefore, they may develop premature skin aging more quickly. These patients will greatly benefit from supplements that increase glutathione production.
If you are in a constant state of stress, aging comes faster. However, the growing presence of toxins in the environment increases the need for more specific prevention of their harmful effects, scientists warn. This proves once again that the use of genetic characteristics to create a personalized diet and skin care is an effective method. The key to healthy skin is the adoption of a personalized medical approach that uses nutrition plans, supplements and skin care products that are tailored to each person’s needs.
Beyond the obvious, there is an intrinsic structural difference between male and female aging. Androgen (testosterone) stimulation causes an increase in skin thickness, which explains why men have about 25% thicker skin than women. In addition, the texture of a man’s skin is tougher. Pascal Piedimonte, international training manager at Bioderma’s head office in Lyon, France, suggests that internal differences make human skin physiologically more resilient. However, this does not mean that men should give up their skin care regimen. A good facial, moisturizer and eye cream are vital.
Aging begins with the skin and continues with the muscles
To better understand the link between exercise and aging, biomedical researcher Stephen Harridge of King’s College London and colleagues looked at whether skeletal muscle characteristics changed from the aging process itself or through the consequences of lifestyle choices that are strongly associated with premature aging (for example, the trend adopt a more sedentary lifestyle). Because of the latter, the current perception of muscle structure and age occurs in people whose physical activity is low. In these individuals, a number of characteristics of “typical” older muscles were identified, such as changes in muscle fibers.
Harridge and his group recruited 125 male and female cyclists aged 55-79 who had cycled regularly for about 26 years. The scientists predicted that because these athletes currently have the same high level of physical activity, any changes in their muscles as they age cannot be explained by inactivity, but rather by an inherent natural process.
The biopsies were taken from the large muscle on the side of the thigh that we use while cycling, the vastus lateralis. Some of the material was cut into thin sections for structure evaluation under a microscope, and some of it was processed into a liquid to calculate the protein content.
To explore how muscle structure differs between 55- to 79-year-old cyclists, Harridge needed a set of easily measurable, clear muscle properties: capillaries, muscle fibers, and mitochondria, highly specialized structures in our cells that use oxygen to produce energy. Capillaries supply the muscles with blood – this is necessary for the work of energy in the muscles. Endurance exercise improves oxygen delivery by increasing the number of capillaries that supply it. When their numbers in muscle biopsies were estimated, Harridge and his colleagues found that there was no relationship between the age of female cyclists and capillary density. Only a decrease in the density of substances with increasing age in male cyclists was noted. This finding, published recently in the journal Aging Cell, is one of the most important of the study because it could prove that the change is driven by the aging process, rather than the interaction between this phenomenon and inactivity (lack of exercise).
Sports – for or against aging
Unlike capillary density, the effects of aging and muscle fiber composition were not as closely related. Skeletal muscle is made up of two broad types of fibers: type I, which contract slowly and allow us to perform endurance (long-distance work), fast twitches (type II), which contract quickly, fatigue, and are used for strength training. Older muscle tends to have smaller Type II muscle fibers—partly explaining why older people have a hard time making quick, sudden movements.
The main characteristic of type I muscle is that it uses oxygen, and so it is not surprising that the younger male and female cyclists in this study had more type I fibers compared to type II fibers.
Harridge and colleagues found that this ratio of type I to type II fibers remained the same as in adult cyclists. The scientists found that mitochondria, which perform better in younger master athletes, also did not change with age among study participants. The data shows that using our muscles to train in old age prevents them from deteriorating and retains their function. However, for Harridge and his team, one important question remains: how these properties are actually related to the physiological functions that allow us to perform physical exercises in this case on a bicycle.
In 2015, Harridge and his lab ran another analysis on the same group of cyclists that focused solely on physiological functions, those physical mechanisms associated with muscle endurance, and found no strong relationships between them.
Endurance exercise relies on aerobic metabolism – how the body generates energy by burning carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the presence of oxygen, which can be measured by VO2max – the maximum amount of oxygen that a person uses during intense exercise. Back in 2015, scientists measured VO2max during a continuous progressive test on a bicycle ergometer. Harridge and his group found that the greater the proportion of type I and type II fibers in participants, the better their VO2max. Substance increases linearly with capillary density in males. As you can see, sports still help delay the aging mechanism, but at a certain age, even physical activity will not prevent the natural process.