It has now been recognised some people are ageing so badly that their body is 40 years older than their actual age. Scientists have found some people are growing old surprisingly slowly, and biologically are still in their 20s.
Research led by Dr Eileen Crimmins professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California looked at the rate of change occurring to the DNA of more than 4000 people over the age of 57 and found striking differences between biological and chronological age. The team looked at epigenetic changes which are modifications to DNA that turn genes on or off. With epigenetic changes, the DNA sequence remains unchanged, but cells start to read change differently like switching on a washing machine or dimming a light.
The changes alter how the body functions and can trigger disease. The culmination of these changes can be used as a clock to determine how fast a person is ageing. The thinking is that adverse social experiences can change our genetic profile in ways that may subsequently influence our health adversely. They have found lots of evidence that social factors such as stress, life traumas, smoking, lack of good nutrition, obesity, powerful drugs, pollution, and poor mental health can cause the alterations, contributing to disease and ageing.
In hypnotherapy sessions with many past clients, I found that their physical problems were certainly a result of either trauma, unpleasant incidents, continual stress, poor nutrition or lack of exercise.
So there are certain things we can do to enhance our long term health and slow down the ageing process, such as: learning how to deal with stress, not smoking, eating alkaline foods as opposed to acid foods, providing our bodies with essential nutrition, and taking regular exercise appropriate to our age or fitness level.
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