The Ultimate Guide to Cellular Rejuvenation:The Top 17 Best Anti-Aging Supplements and Foods to Help You Stay Young Naturally
Research into health and aging has revealed a special class of anti-aging supplements, foods, and herbs that rewire your body for health and longevity by activating special proteins called sirtuins at the genetic level.
Activating Your Longevity Genes: The Sirtuins
For centuries, nearly every culture has searched for a way to slow and even reverse the aging process. Greek writers pursued the Fountain of Youth as far back as the fifth century BCE. India still recognizes the ancient science of longevity called Ayurveda, which is believed to add years to your life by nourishing and detoxing the body. My favorite success story of all, however, is that of a Chinese herbalist named Li Ching-Yuen, who, according to some records, was born in 1736 and died 256 years later. Regardless of whether you believe Master Li’s story is myth, reality, or a little of both, you have to admit there’s a part of you that when you hear this thinks, “I’ll have what he’s having.”One of the most studied sirtuins is called SIRT1. Among other sources, it’s found in garlic, Panax ginseng, and Polygonum multiflorum, an anti-aging herbal supplement grown in China that research has shown demonstrates anti-aging properties that activate a variety of biological processes in the body. There has been some controversy recently regarding possible liver damage resulting from the internal use of Polygonum multiflorum, and for that reason I do not recommend that you use it.
But guess what? These three anti-aging herbs were an integral part of Master Li’s regimen, switching on his SIRT1 when he used them! Even if he lived half the years that sources claim, it’s still an impressive number and one that supports the longevity-enhancing properties of herbs, in a time long before science showed us how.
In this chapter, I’d like to first explain how the body ages and reinforce the importance of addressing anti-aging solutions on cellular and hormonal levels. Then I’ll discuss the power of modern-day sirtuin activating anti-aging supplements that you can add to your daily routine to help you look and feel young.
Aging Is More Than Skin Deep
Aging affects every part of your body—how you look, feel, and function. It affects your hair, face, and body in more ways than you probably realize. By the end of this article, you will learn what Master Li seems to have known, too—that you can extend and even reverse your years using natural anti-aging remedies. Some of the herbs that do this are EGCG (found in green tea), turmeric, red grape juice, coffee, hawthorn, gingko, hops, fennel, fenugreek, red palm oil, as well as anti-aging supplements like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), R-alpha-lipoic acid, ubiquinol and CoQ10, vitamins, minerals, and numerous other compounds that have the power to make a real impact on how long you live and how young you look. We will use these elements and others to improve cellular function and increase hormonal levels to stop and reverse deep changes, at every level of your body, right down to the bones.We tend to think of aging as an effect on the skin—wrinkles, creases, and sags as far as the eye can see. But as you age, every layer of older skin is depleted and disorganized, from the outermost epidermis to the supporting muscle and the deepest fat layers. Topical anti-aging products and preparations, particularly vitamin A derivatives and natural vitamin E, can repair and plump up the epidermis, the top layer of the skin, and make the surface look smoother and less wrinkled. This is very welcome, of course.
Eat Your Way to Sirtuin Stimulation: 12 Anti Aging Foods for Longevity and Health
So far, seven sirtuin proteins have been identified in the human body, each one with a slightly different mode of action. An easy way to activate your sirtuins every day is to choose anti-aging foods from the following list. All of these contain compounds that will stimulate your sirtuin longevity pathways.
1. Red Grape Juice
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
2. Blueberries
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
3. Cranberries
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
4. Pomegranate JuiceSirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
5. Cacao Powder
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
6. Tart Cherry Powder
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Resveratrol
7. Green Tea
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate
8. Turmeric
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Curcumin
9. Onions (especially red)
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Quercetin
10. Apple Juice
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Quercetin
11. Tomato Paste
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Chalcones
12. Strawberries
Sirtuin-Activating/Anti-Aging Compound:
Fisetin
Eating these special anti-aging foods, drinking the juices, and using concentrated freeze-dried anti-aging supplement powders or other concentrated product will provide you with a much higher concentration of sirtuin-activating compounds than the fresh fruit or vegetable, and do wonders for how young you look, how great you feel, and how long you live. These complex anti-aging plant sources will activate not only a variety of the magnificent seven sirtuins, but many of the other one hundred fifty anti-aging pathways so far discovered. This is the cellular function revolution at its best. By eating a variety of specially chosen, concentrated anti-aging supplements, you achieve a level of mitochondrial rejuvenation that truly reverses aging.
The Top 5 Herbal Anti-Aging Supplements
1. Resveratrol
Resveratrol is a sirtuin-activating, anti-aging compound that’s found in red wine and may provide an explanation to what’s known as the “French paradox”—that is, the finding that the French, who eat a diet full of saturated fat, have surprisingly low levels of heart disease. Resveratrol, one of the most potent sirtuin activators discovered so far, is found in red wine. In March 2013, Harvard researchers found that resveratrol is capable of slowing aging. This has important implications for human longevity as Resveratrol is readily available as an anti-aging supplement.Resveratrol, or trans-3, 5, 4’-trihydroxystilbene, is an anti-aging antioxidant found in the skin of many fruits, including blueberries, peanuts, and, when eaten with the thin, papery red skin, even rhubarb. It is particularly found in the red grape, and in the red wine made from these grapes. Levels of resveratrol in red wine vary according to grape type and country of origin. The highest levels are found in wines from cooler countries, with the highest being from Bordeaux, and lower levels found in red wines from California. The pinot noir grape produces the highest levels of resveratrol, but cabernet sauvignon from the cooler regions and Italian sangiovese are also very high in this anti-aging compound.
Resveratrol supplementation from foods or otherwise activates the sirtuin anti-aging pathway. This pathway is a chain of biochemical reactions, which, when activated, actually slows down aging. This stimulation is complex and appears to require resveratrol in its natural state, with many cofactors intact—as it’s found in plants. It is far less active in its chemically purified form. What’s more, every one of your cells contains an energy-producing factory called a mitochondrion (plural, mitochondria), and optimal mitochondrial function is essential to long life, energy, and a youthful appearance—and sure enough, resveratrol stimulates the sirtuin that affects aging mitochondria.But there is a big problem here: alcohol is aging. It damages your body on every level, from your liver, to your skin, to your brain. It’s wonderful to learn that resveratrol is found in the glass of red wine you might occasionally have to relax, but it’s not an everyday option. Nor can you safely indulge in large enough quantities if you want to achieve dramatic anti-aging effects. Fortunately, resveratrol is found in a whole range of other tasty, easily accessible anti-aging foods, supplements and herbs, all of which are safe to eat every day in effective quantities that give you the anti-aging benefits of sirtuins.
Since sirtuins have such powerful and far-reaching anti-aging effects, and because resveratrol is so highly effective at activating these amazing enzymes, there is, as you would expect, an ongoing and feverish hunt for the most effective resveratrol-type anti-aging drug. Scientists estimate that the effect of such a drug would be an increase in the normal, healthy human lifespan to one hundred fifty years!
And while sirtuin activating anti-aging supplements have become one of the hottest topics in cosmeceuticals, which are cosmetic products with biological ingredients so highly active they require a special category to themselves, purified resveratrol results have been disappointing. One of the problems with resveratrol is that it degrades very rapidly and is metabolized within half an hour or so, which gives it a very short time to act. But if you ingest it from a portion of natural anti-aging food or supplement rather than apply it, you can reap the benefits of resveratrol at any age—even if you begin taking it at middle age and/or add it to a Western high-fat diet. So long as you add resveratrol-rich anti-aging foods to your life every day, you will reap significant anti-aging benefits.
2. Green Tea
Green tea is another powerful sirtuin activating, anti-aging supplement with multiple benefits. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a component of green tea, has been shown to lengthen telomeres—an essential part of human cells that affect how they age—in damaged heart cells. This is an extraordinary finding, since this process prevents cell death. EGCG also protects the skin from UVB- and UVA-induced sun damage and protects collagen from degradation by collagenase, an enzyme responsible for collagen breakdown. Levels of collagenase increase as we get older, leading to a loss of collagen, thinner skin, sagging, and wrinkles. What’s more, EGCG promotes hair growth in hair follicle cultures, depletes fat accumulation, and stimulates lipolysis in human adipocytes. In plain English, this means that the marvelous anti-aging compound gets rid of fat from your fat cells, effectively and safely. It will improve your heart, boost your brain function, and smooth your skin. EGCG has been shown to prevent bone loss, ward off tooth decay, and protect against all kinds of cancer, including leukemia and melanoma, making it one of the best anti-aging supplements.And for anti-aging purposes, here’s what’s truly impressive: compounds from green tea have been shown to stimulate the mitochondria, or energy cells, in your brain, skin, all over. They stimulate cellular function and make every one of your cells young, and in doing so will expand your lifespan. On a hormonal level, green tea’s anti-aging compounds decrease dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a form of testosterone known to increase with age in both men and women. DHT is responsible for many of the signs of old age women hate—thinning hair or baldness, prostate problems, and unwanted facial hair.
3. Garlic
Garlic, known unfairly as the stink bulb, is reputed for its ability to help fight infections, but this herb also activates SIRT1. This means it is a heart protector, energy giver, skin saver, and lifespan extender. One of its primary benefits is as an infection fighter. Steering free of infective illness is vital for a long lifespan. Your immune system declines with age unless you take steps to prevent this, and many people succumb to lung infections and flus that could have been prevented with this common, highly affordable anti-aging food and supplement.4. Gotu Kola
Gotu kola—known in Latin as Centella asiatica or Hydrocotyle asiatica—also activates SIRT1, and with no negative side effects, making it one of the best anti-aging supplements in existence. Gotu kola has been shown to protect the brain, increase collagen production, and strengthen hair follicles. For centuries, gotu kola extract was used topically for hair follicle stimulation, wound healing, and increasing collagen. When taken internally, it activates the sirtuin pathways, exhibiting powerful anti-aging effects for the whole body. It has been shown to be highly neuroprotective, preventing glutamate-induced neurotoxicity, which kills brain cells.
Gotu kola contains ursane triterpenes, complex organic molecules with anti-cancer effects that are also powerful stimulators of collagen synthesis, with or without vitamin C. The ursane triterpenes and many other remarkable compounds make gotu kola one of the most potent wound healers around, and one of the most effective anti-aging wrinkle treatments. It works if you take the anti-aging supplement powder internally, and it works if you apply it as a tea or extracted in an oil base. So you truly can look great, with smooth, firm skin, even at an age when others will be showing theirs.
Ursane and related compounds are also found in rosemary oil, which accounts for many of the plant’s extraordinary neuroprotective and anti-aging properties. Here’s the bottom line: nature simplifies it for you by mixing up many powerful compounds in one plant, and by giving natural substances many varied, beneficial anti-aging actions. So as you read about these compounds, please enjoy the fact that all you have to do is take gotu kola powder or use an anti-aging essential oil like rosemary, mixed into a cream, for all the mitochondrial stimulation, collagen synthesis, and anti-aging power you need!
5. Ginseng
The other Chinese herb I love for SIR1 activation and all around anti-aging supplementation is called Panax ginseng, or Asian ginseng, and known in Chinese as ren shen, man root. It is one of the royal herbs in Chinese herbalism. Once considered so valuable that wars were fought over the right to the areas it grew in, ginseng does deserve its reputation. Among its many anti-aging properties, ginseng is a highly effective activator of SIRT1 in every cell of your body. In fact, this extraordinary root stimulates cellular function, and at the same time increases all hormones, particularly the sex hormones, which are so vital to looking young.Bio-Young Treatments
Fruit sirtuin: Choose resveratrol-packed fruits from this article for daily use. Or you can use four to six teaspoons of an anti-aging fruit supplement powder added to smoothies and yogurts.Gotu kola: Take four capsules of this anti-aging herb a day.
Ginseng: Take two spoonfuls of the tincture or six capsules of the powdered herb daily.
Garlic: Use liberally in cooking, raw, and in salad dressings.
Yeast: Dissolve baking yeast in warm water and apply directly to your skin as mask, but not around your eyes, since the skin here is sensitive and the yeast preparation is drying. I like to use coconut or red palm oil to moisturize the face afterward.
source : https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com (edited)