"To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living."

- Henri Amiel

Could scientists actually find a way to end aging in our lifetime?

s it turns out, this question may not be quite as nonsensical as it seems. While their work remains mostly hidden from public view, research scientists are currently making great strides in unlocking many of the genetic and biochemical causes of aging. Some gerontological researchers have even begun to envision a time when medical intervention may be able to lengthen the human lifespan to several times its current maximum. Many of these researchers believe that we may see a day when people will live in good health for hundreds of years, if not more. But even by the most optimistic assessments, these sorts of medical strategies, which will allow us to actually reverse the aging process, are at least decades away, and currently remain solely in the realm of science fiction.

So, until such technologies become commonplace, it’s certain that proper diet and lifestyle choices will still represent the cornerstone of any anti-aging plan. We may not be able to postpone aging indefinitely with the foods and supplements we consume, but if our goal is to age gracefully and maintain vitality well into our golden years, we don’t need to wait idly for science to find a “cure” for aging - we can take the most important steps towards a meaningful anti-aging strategy today simply by making more informed choices at our local health food store.

Do Some Foods Really Accelerate Aging?

Junk food marketers are clever - they know to always promote their products with images depicting youth and vitality. But from a purely biological perspective, many of our modern foods impart distinctly pro-aging and de-vitalizing effects upon our bodies; that is, they literally speed up every single manifestation of the aging process. The signs of aging, from skin which wrinkles prematurely, to a memory which fails well before its time, to a progressive hardening of our arteries, aren’t nearly as inevitable as people seem to think, even if their occurrence has become increasingly common.

If we take the time now to understand the fundamental causes of aging, it will become clear exactly how certain foods and nutritional supplements may either worsen or rectify the process. With this knowledge, we’ll be able to intelligently alter our dietary choices and habits well before frailty and disease develop. We’ll find that we won’t have to wait idly for medical technology to “cure” degenerative disease, and we’ll be empowered by the knowledge that the greatest anti-aging strategy of all begins simply with a critical look at the foods and nutritional products we put in our body everyday.

Beyond Junk Food

A quintessential example of an age-accelerating substance common in our modern-day food supply is oxidized cholesterol. Many months ago, we at Integrated Supplements became perhaps the first nutritional supplement company to warn our customers about the potential harm which could be caused by the consumption of food and nutritional supplements containing cholesterol in powdered form. We knew that powdered cholesterol was very much prone to oxidize, and that oxidized cholesterol had been found to be very common in “junk foods” produced with ingredients such as powdered eggs, powdered milk, and powdered cheese.

But we were especially alarmed by the extremely high amounts of cholesterol and fat we began to see in many supposedly “healthy” products like protein powders, protein drinks, and energy bars. We knew that the processing of such products was prone to cause the formation of oxidized cholesterol in them as well. In response to such rapidly declining standards within the nutritional supplement industry, we produced our flagship product, 100% Natural CFM® Whey Protein Isolate, a protein supplement which contains only the highest quality filtered whey protein isolate available, and zero milligrams of cholesterol per serving. We subsequently set out to educate our customers of the harmful nature of oxidized lipids (a term used for fats and cholesterol collectively) in many foods and nutritional supplements.

(Note: Because oxidation occurs in a chemical “chain reaction,” cholesterol and certain types of fats known as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are prone to oxidize each other. As a result, many of their effects are similar and overlapping. This is why we often speak of oxidized lipids collectively. For more on these oxidized lipids, please see the previous Integrated Supplements newsletter.)

As our research continued, we began to see that oxidized cholesterol and certain types of oxidized fat may be significantly more harmful than even we had anticipated. In fact, most researchers in the field now assign oxidized lipids a major role in all aspects of aging and disease. In the most recent Integrated Supplements Newsletters, we’ve looked at the role oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fatty acids play in the phenomenon known as oxidative stress. We’ve seen how susceptible both polyunsaturated fats and cholesterol are to destruction by free radicals, and how the accumulating burden of this damage is central to the aging process itself.

The current thinking is that free radical-damaged lipids easily combine with cellular sugars and proteins and lead to the production of many different types of useless “cellular junk.” A large portion of this junk is so foreign to the body, that we simply don’t possess the biological machinery and enzymes needed to break it down - and not surprisingly, the “junk” which is the most resistant to being broken down has the greatest tendency to accumulate to levels which impair the proper functioning of our cells and our entire body as we age.

Rancid Fats and Oxidized Cholesterol – Major Links Between Food and Aging

Some of the most common and dangerous nutritional myths in our culture revolve around fat - both the fat found in our food, and also the unsightly body fat we too often find layered on our belly, hips and thighs. As an example, most of us tend to think of body fat (what scientists call adipose tissue) as similar to the gas in our car’s gas tank – a substance that simply sits “quietly” waiting to be burned when needed.

But as it turns out, our body fat is far from the inert substance most of us assume it to be. In fact, in recent decades, scientists have been surprised to discover just how active and influential our body fat is to our overall metabolism. And, as you could probably guess, its effects aren’t pretty. It seems that our body fat continually emits chemical, hormonal, and inflammatory substances which cause a vicious cycle of increased insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and progressively greater fat accumulation.

Study Link - Adipose Tissue as an Endocrine Organ

In a nutshell, the more fat we carry, the stronger these chemical messages become, the more body fat we’re apt to accumulate, and the worse our health will be.

To give a real-world example, bodybuilders who purposely “bulk-up” and gain body fat, thinking that they’ll diet it off later with a net gain in muscle, are often surprised by how little actual muscle they gain during these sorts of “bulking” diets. They frequently notice that their body fat, on the other hand, has a tendency to accumulate exponentially. With such diets, these individuals may inadvertently be creating the worst metabolic environment for muscle building, and the optimal metabolic environment for fat accumulation, aging, and degenerative disease.

And it’s not just body fat itself which can do us harm. Many of the fats and oils which are common in our diet serve to amplify this vicious cycle as well. Many of the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) which, as we’ve spoken about in previous newsletters, are found in overwhelming excess in our food supply, can serve as the precursors to pro-inflammatory and tissue-destroying chemicals. They can cause massive increases in our bodies’ burden of oxidative stress, and can accelerate every facet of the aging process.

(Note: The myth that fat is an inert substance probably has roots in the field of nutrition. Most people, who have been taught that all dietary fat contains nine calories per gram, have a tendency to think of all fat sources as equally “fattening.” What these people continually fail to realize is that different types of fats can lead to the production of very different chemical “messages” within the body. Because certain types of fats can increase inflammation, amplify hormonal signals and inhibit thyroid function, the harmful fats we’ve been discussing are in fact, much more “fattening” than more stable, less chemically reactive fats, even though all fats contain nine calories per gram.)

To state the matter simply, it has become very well accepted, that a common thread running through all aging and degenerative processes is the presence and accumulation of harmful substances produced by polyunsaturated fats and cholesterol which have become rancid, oxidized, or otherwise altered.

This fact is important to explicitly recognize because people who think that they can simply “burn off” their dietary indiscretions by spending an extra 45 minutes on the treadmill are seriously and dangerously mistaken. Those fast food French fries, or that morning doughnut we just can’t resist, don’t simply end up stored neatly on our belly, hips, and thighs to be burned later. Over time, the types of reactive fats they contain don’t simply make us fat, but also cause massive damage to every conceivable structure of our body, including our blood vessels, our arteries, and our brain. As we shall see, these lipids are integral to the eventual production of various types of cellular “junk” from the plaques of heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, to liver and age spots we notice on our skin as we age. The cumulative effects of these lipids are, quite simply, the driving force behind the aging process itself.

Lipofuscin And Other Cellular Junk

As an example, the interaction between oxidized fats and cholesterol with other nutritional and metabolic substances is well illustrated by a common component of aging tissue called lipofuscin.

Lipofuscin is somewhat of a “catch-all term” for much of the cellular “junk” that builds up in our cells as we age. Fats and cholesterol, chemically altered by metals and minerals from our diet (things like iron and copper), and from toxic exposure (mercury, aluminum, etc.), combine with cellular proteins and form largely undegradable cellular garbage which builds up in our tissues over a lifetime. This lipofuscin, which was previously assumed to be an inert and harmless substance, is now known to cause major cellular disruption when it accumulates to high enough levels. At advanced stages, the build-up of lipofuscin is easily recognized by “age spots” or “liver spots” visible on the skin of many elderly people; and, by the time lipofuscin becomes evident on the skin, its presence in other tissues has certainly reached a critical point. When lipofuscin is noticeable on the skin, we can assume that the accumulation of this cellular “junk” has already begun to choke the life out of an increasing number of cells throughout our body.

Lipofuscin formation is sometimes associated with specific diseases like age-related macular degeneration (which is basically a fancy term for the vision-loss we often experience as we get older). Damage to the delicate fats so important to our eyes often leads to the production of lipofusin in the retina:

Study Link - Cell loss in the aging retina. Relationship to lipofuscin accumulation and macular degeneration.

But lipofuscin isn’t just related to disease, it’s also a general marker of the aging process often found independent of any diagnosable condition. Its presence is a clear sign of inefficient cellular functioning and increasing levels of oxidative stress in the body as a whole.

Study Link - Lipofuscin and Aging: A Matter of Toxic Waste

It’s interesting to note too, how many substances associated with aging - not just lipofuscin, are produced in large part due to the effects of oxidized fats and cholesterol. Often, seemingly separate manifestations of aging can be united by the common presence of these dangerously altered lipids.

For example, the arterial plaque of heart disease is well-known to contain oxidized fats and cholesterol. In fact, as we’ve mentioned elsewhere, oxidized cholesterol is widely considered to be the sole initiator of plaque formation in heart disease.

Study Link- Role of Oxidized LDL in Atherosclerosis

Alzheimer’s Disease

But not so well known, for example, is the fact that the plaque which builds up in the brain during Alzheimer’s disease is also driven in large part by fats and cholesterol which have become oxidized:

Study Link - Roles of Cholesterol and Lipids in the Etiopathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease

Diabetes

And while most people seem to think of diabetes as merely a disorder of sugar metabolism, many diabetic complications are made worse under the influence of altered fats even more so than under the influence of sugar itself.

For example, substances called “Advanced Glycation Endproducts,” or AGEs, are common in diabetes, and are useful markers of diabetic complications. AGEs are other types of cellular “junk” which often involve the interaction of proteins and sugars, but despite their name (glycation means the addition of sugar molecules), the production of some AGEs has been shown to be significantly increased in the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) rather than sugars. The production of some common AGEs has even been shown to occur in the presence of PUFAs, and in the complete absence of sugar:

Study Link - The advanced glycation end product, Nepsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine, is a product of both lipid peroxidation and glycoxidation reactions.

AGEs form in our body for the same reason crust forms on baked bread, or the same reason a Thanksgiving turkey turns “golden brown” when it’s cooked - because of the complex interactions between fats, proteins and sugars.

Even a novice chef could notice that these “browning” reactions are accelerated by unsaturated oils, and if you’ve ever had to scrub pots and pans loaded with baked-on food, you’ll have an idea of why our body finds AGEs so hard to break down and eliminate.

While they may make for a tasty dishes, these are the sorts of lipid oxidation reactions we should be trying to minimize in our food, and in our body if we want to maintain the suppleness of youth.

And in a separate, but related phenomenon, blood levels of oxidized cholesterol have also been shown to be accurate markers of oxidative stress in diabetics:

Study Link - Cholesterol oxides as biomarkers of oxidative stress in type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus

So, diabetics, who are particularly susceptible to the damaging effects of oxidative stress, would be well served to protect themselves not only from the effects of elevated blood sugar, but also from the harmful effects of oxidized fats and cholesterol as well.

Cancer

It has even been shown that people with elevated blood levels of both VLDL (very low density lipoprotein - a type of “bad,” oxidation-prone) cholesterol, and iron (a well-known oxidizing agent - think rust), possess an astounding increase in their risk of developing cancer:

Study Link - Iron, Lipids, and Risk of Cancer in the Framingham Offspring Cohort

Quote from the above study:

Iron and lipids combine to create oxidative stress, and oxidative stress has a role in the development of cancer. . . The results suggest that elevated serum iron levels coupled with either high VLDL-C or low HDL-C appear to interact to increase cancer risk in this cohort.

So, it’s clear that oxidized fats and cholesterol play a recurring role in every facet of aging and degenerative disease. In essence, reducing their damaging effects as much as possible, while clearing our cells of the cellular “junk” they produce is at the foundation of any attempt to live disease-free well into our golden years.

But to engineer a workable strategy to protect ourselves requires that we gain a little bit of an understanding as to where these oxidized lipids come from and how they are produced.

Oxidized Lipids in Foods

As we’ve touched upon, the most obvious place in which we find oxidized fats and cholesterol is in our food. When a food begins to spoil, it is often the oxidation products of fats and cholesterol which are most responsible for the rancid smell and taste. Bacteria which grow on food are able to liberate free fatty acids which exacerbate oxidative damage and interact with surrounding proteins, starches, and sugars causing the food to progressively “go bad”.

But even foods which have not gone rancid may still contain high levels of lipid and cholesterol oxidation products depending upon how they are prepared. We cook many foods to destroy the bacteria which feed on them, but the high temperatures of cooking can also cause high levels of oxidized lipids to form (heat speeds up oxidation reactions). Fried foods are the most obvious example. The high temperatures and high level of chemically reactive unsaturated oils used in frying cause the production of harmful levels of oxidized fats. And unlike a food which has gone rancid, many cooked foods which contain oxidized lipids don’t exhibit a poor taste at all.

As a general rule, less “intense” cooking methods should be employed to minimize the production of oxidized lipids. Preparation methods like boiling or baking should be used instead of frying whenever possible. (Some fats are so fragile and so easily prone to oxidize, however, that they can even oxidize inside of our body, even if they are consumed “fresh.” Obviously, no cooking methods are appropriate for these fats – more on this below).

Another food-preserving technique which helps to halt the production of bacteria, but which also causes the production of lipid oxidation products, is that of drying or powdering foods. Foods such as powdered eggs, powdered milk, powdered cheese, and even whey protein concentrate (found in many nutritional supplements), will often contain low levels of bacterial contamination due to their low moisture content, but over time their greater surface area as powders will lead to greater exposure of their lipids to the damaging effect of oxygen. The fact that these powders are deemed “shelf-stable” and need no refrigeration only adds to the problem. Many of these powders may be months, if not years old by the time they are actually consumed, and in that time, lipid and cholesterol oxidation products in them can increase to dangerous levels.

Study Link - Cholesterol Oxides in Foods of Animal Origin

Quote from the above study:

COPS [Cholesterol Oxidation Products] have been found in several foods including liquid eggs and dried egg products, milk and milk products, meat and meat products, marine food products, and other processed foods. Compelling evidence demonstrates that several cholesterol oxides are cytotoxic, atherogenic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic. Therefore, the presence of COPS in foods raises questions about the safety of consumption of some products.

It’s probably relatively easy to understand how frying, high-heat cooking and the powdering of foods are prone to cause oxidative damage to fats and cholesterol, but another dietary source of oxidized lipids may surprise you. In recent years within the nutritional supplement and health food industries, we’ve seen the promotion of highly fragile unsaturated oils increase to a fever-pitch. Flaxseed oil, fish oil, canola oil, and a whole host of exotic-sounding “omega oils” are often touted as veritable panaceas for a variety of ills ranging from heart disease, to cancer, to arthritis and beyond. But as a result of this overly effective marketing, many people have taken to consuming these supposedly “healthy” oils in massive excess.

In the marketing frenzy surrounding these oils, as is so often the case with any attempt at marketing nutritional substances, the all-important concepts of balance and moderation are often lost. The fact is that despite the marketing to the contrary, the safe usage of these “omega” oils in the long-run is uncharted scientific territory. Knowing how prone many of these oils are to spontaneous oxidation (many of these oils, like fish oils, for example are oxidized to a great extent before they even reach the blood stream and even additional Vitamin E doesn’t seem to help as we showed in our previous newsletter), it is very easy imagine that any excess of them could increase our bodies’ burden of oxidized lipids and oxidative stress.

A “Muscle” Milkshake, Or Nutritional Disaster?

To show you how out-of-control this current “good fat” craze has become - and to show you how much nutritional science some companies are willing to ignore just to capitalize on a hot trend - in recent years many protein supplements and ready-to-drink protein shakes have actually begun to be formulated with relatively high levels of powdered polyunsaturated fat. Just like cholesterol, these fats are very much prone to oxidize when converted to powdered form.

And that’s not all. In their entirety, these products are produced by combining:

•Powdered (often rancid) fats (including sources of pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fats like safflower oil)

•Powdered Cholesterol (from whey concentrate)

•Denatured Proteins (from caseinate and whey protein concentrate)

•Minerals which catalyze lipid oxidation (like iron and copper)

and subsequently:

•The resulting mixture is heated to high temperatures (all ready-to-drink protein shakes must be pasteurized)

The unsuspecting athlete or weekend warrior is told that these protein shakes will somehow mimic the anabolic action of “mother’s milk,” and that the “designer lipids” they contain will simultaneously help to burn off body fat. Nothing however, could be further from the truth. When looked at in the light of oxidative stress and aging, such drinks are nothing short of a nutritional disaster.

Because refined unsaturated oils in powdered form are very prone to oxidation, and because of the complex interactions between these lipid peroxides, and the proteins and minerals in the product, these “muscle-building milkshakes” are probably some of the most harmful and “pro-aging” “foods” anyone could ever ingest. In fact, they look more like a formula for producing lipofuscin than a nutritious meal.

But judging by the recent popularity of such products, it’s certain that companies will continue to sell these sorts of “age spot-cocktails” to an unsuspecting public for some time to come. If you value your health or your performance, you’ll definitely want to take a pass on these.

“Good Fats” and Tissue Destruction – Oxidized Lipids In Our Body

But while these high fat “muscle milkshakes” are often used by people who don’t much care about their health, even perfectly well-meaning and intelligent experts in the field of nutrition often make the mistake of recommending certain types of “nutritional oils” without being explicit as to what dose is healthy, and what dose may cause harm in the long run. From looking at the published research (and not just marketing disguised as research) it’s clear that our understanding of nutritional oils is far from complete, and that many of the oils currently being widely recommended as “healthy” may carry with them many unforeseen pro-aging effects with continued use.

Confusion often arises because in relatively short-term studies, different oils may have effects which seem beneficial in a limited context. Fats of the omega-6 series, like common vegetable oils (corn, soy, and safflower oil, for example), were touted for decades as tools to lower cholesterol until it was found that their use contributed to both heart disease and cancer.

The fats of the omega-3 series are currently being promoted as tools to reduce inflammation, but their presence in the tissues has often been shown to cause tissue destruction and oxidative stress even in the absence of inflammation.

Study Link - Polyunsaturated (n-3) Fatty Acids Susceptible to Peroxidation Are Increased in Plasma and Tissue Lipids of Rats Fed Docosahexaenoic Acid–Containing Oils

Quote from the above study:

Thus, high incorporation of (omega-3) fatty acids (mainly DHA) into plasma and tissue lipids due to DHA-containing oil ingestion may undesirably affect tissues by enhancing susceptibility of membranes to lipid peroxidation and by disrupting the antioxidant system.

And those of you consuming omega-3 supplements to support joint-health may want to take a close look at the following study:

Study Link - Metabolic and ultrastructural changes in articular cartilage of rats fed dietary supplements of omega-3 fatty acids

Quote from the above study:

Animals fed diets containing the highest amounts of these fatty acids (10% menhaden fish oil) demonstrated a 70% maximum decrease in the linoleic and arachidonic acid content of articular cartilage, a 30-40% decrease in cartilage hexosamine content, with little effect on hydroxyproline levels, and a 32% inhibition of proteoglycan synthesis.

The observed responses of chondrocytes to omega 3 fatty acids may be similar to those commonly associated with the development of early osteoarthrosis. . . These observations suggest that some caution must be taken in the long-term administration of menhaden fish oil or other omega 3 fatty acid-containing preparations in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

To translate the above study into “English” – the animals fed fish oil did have reduced levels of inflammation as indicated by reduced levels of inflammatory omega-6 fats (called linoleic and arachadonic acid) in their tissues. This is evidence of the anti-inflammatory effect you’ll hear about whenever people recommend you take fish oil supplements. But you probably haven’t heard anything about the rest of the study’s findings. In the animals given fish oil, the researchers found a 30-40% decrease in the amount of structural components of cartilage tissue known as hexosamines. The popular nutritional supplement glucosamine, for instance, is an important part of connective tissue, and is an example of a hexosamine. The study also found a 32% decrease in proteoglycan synthesis. The group of compounds called proteoglycans includes another popular joint-supportive substance known as chondroitin sulfate.

So in this study, while fish oils did indeed reduce inflammation, they also caused the massive destruction of some of the most important components of cartilage tissue – exactly what we don’t want if we’re trying to avoid degenerative joint disease. After all, what good is reducing inflammation if we start to fall apart at the seams in the process?

It’s very likely that fish oils are so fragile and so prone to free radical destruction, that their incorporation into our tissues makes our tissues fragile and prone to free radical destruction as well. Despite marketing to the contrary, this sort of effect can only be accurately described as pro-aging in the long-run.

(Note: The dose of fish oil used in this study wasn’t even all that high, either. 10% of calories from fish oil equates to about 1½ tablespoons of the oil per day in a 2000 calorie diet.)

This research should make it clear that the food and nutritional supplements we put in our body everyday can be directly related to the aging process. And as we’ve repeatedly shown, sometimes food and nutritional products which are marketed as “healthy” may come up short when we start to look at the “big picture.”

As a beginning strategy of any anti-aging diet we should aim to reduce our consumption of refined and processed oils as much as possible. Gearing our diet towards plenty of fresh, real food including green vegetables and whole grains will supply us with healthy and balanced levels of the oils we need. We won’t have to worry about consuming these oils in excess, and “fatty acid supplements” will be unnecessary.

Similarly, we should avoid all sources of powdered cholesterol including many protein powders and nutritional products. Obviously, Integrated Supplements CFM® Whey Protein Isolate contains zero milligrams of cholesterol per serving, and the quality whey isolate it contains can impart many anti-aging benefits as well.

In the next issue of the Integrated Supplements Newsletter, we’ll uncover more ways to protect ourselves from the “pro-aging” effects of our modern food supply. We’ll take a closer look at exactly how cellular “junk” builds up during aging, and how making proper food and supplement choices may be able to stall, and even partially reverse the process. Even though we may never be able to fully halt the advances of father-time, we’ll find that following an intelligent anti-aging diet is a simple and effective strategy to keep our body strong and our mind sharp, both now - and for many years to come.