Last week we discussed important biomarkers that can help you get a sense of your aging and see if your biological and chronological ages match. You can review this info here.
There are two other ways to measure biological aging – telomeres and epigenetic clocks.
Telomeres are essentially the caps on the ends of chromosomes that protect the DNA from damage. When cells divide in order to replicate – the telomeres shorten just a little bit. This infinitesimal shortening adds up and eventually we can actually measure cellular aging. So telomere length can be used as a biomarker for biological aging.
The other aging marker, epigenetic clocks, or DNAm is based on tracking DNA methylation. DNA methylation is a chemical process by which specific genes are either turned on or turned off in the cell.
With aging – the methylation can lose its efficiency and disrupt the normal function of the cell so that it can’t effectively do the job it’s designed for. This decline in efficiency is the underlying cause of what we think of as the signs of aging: changes to hair color, the appearance of wrinkles, increased joint pain, and so on.
Epigenetic clocks evaluate the methylation process in different tissues and using this data they try to estimate aging. To read more about epigenetic clocks click here.
But when it comes to aging there is another really important factor. That is your immune system.
And that is where I really want to focus.
Like biological age, immune age is on a spectrum and differs from person to person. At 60, some people have the immune system of a 40-year-old, others an 80-year-old.
The good news is that there are some simple ways to turn back your immunological clock.
And while immunosenescence (the aging of your immune system) may sound like a far-off threat, it is something that should concern us all.
The decline in your immune system starts surprisingly early in life, during puberty, and can be accelerated by all kinds of lifestyle factors.
Specifically, the butterfly shaped thymus gland that sits on your chest already started shrinking when you were a teenager. The thymus gland is an important part of the production of immune cells.
And there are other lifestyle factors that age your immune system. People who smoke or who are obese are particularly likely to have an immune system that is older than their chronological years. Being sedentary is another risk factor.
Yet all is not lost! You have the power to change the trajectory. You can support your immune system and slow down the process of aging.
What are the specific ways you can slow or maybe even reverse immune system aging?
Stay tuned!!
