Aging

Sir Francis Bacon might have been right when he said that life span was determined by how quickly one used up one’s personal store of “vital spirits” One of those “vital spirits” that gets used up is the telomeres. Telomeres get shorter with each cell division. It is believed by some researchers that they become so short that the cell can’t divide anymore. The cell then becomes vulnerable to damage and decay. In scientific terms, the “vital spirits” might be a biological program that runs to only a certain length of time. To prove this cells taken from long lived species when put in a petri dish divide longer than cells of short lived species. It is like there is a clock in that cell tick, tick, ticking only so many times until that cells dies.

Although at present there isn’t anything we can do about this biological clock, the next theory of free radical damage is one which we can have some control of. The theory that is now widely believed is that oxygen molecules become electrically charged. They then can melt part of the cell membranes and damages genetic material. Free radical damage it is believed can be controlled with certain vitamins namely vitamin C and vitamin E are effective when used together. Studies in November 2004 suggest that vitamin E should not be at 400 mg. strength, but instead should be at 200 mg.

Restricted calorie intake by 60% in laboratory mice has caused them to live 50% longer. These mice though show extreme agitation at feeding time because their bodies are requiring more food. This option although viable is not one that is unrealistic because people will be hungry all of the time.

In one study of a hundred nursing-home residents 72 to 98, just ten weeks of weight training more than doubled the participants muscle strength and increased their walking speed and their ability to climb stairs. It seems that exercising seems to induce many of the effects scientists have been trying to deduce using other experiments.

Another theory on reducing aging is to increase oxygen intake which can be done with the Sequal Eclipse .