The Secret to Aging
It’s no secret that the world’s overall population is aging. A quarter of the Japanese population is already over the age of 65 and by 2050 so will all of Europe and North America. We’re living longer now than ever. But how do we keep up with it?
Your Immune system is largely responsible for keeping you healthy. An infection, a cold, bacteria, all send your immune system into overdrive to dismantle and dispose of the foreign invader. Your immune system wipes out damaged or infected cells. At a young age, when your body has plenty of stem cells in reserve, floating throughout your body systemically, it’s no problem to replace injured cells with new replicas of the same healthy functional tissue. But as we age, our free stem cells become depleted as they’re used up over time.
Over time, we run out of stem cells and as we do, injured cells don’t get replaced by stem cells which form like tissue, instead they’re replaced by white blood cells, or the cells in your immune system. These cells form scar tissue (like using duct tape to fix a leak in your sink). Scar tissue will work in the short term, but becomes detrimental to tissue function in the long term.
The key to longevity is two fold. First, don’t get sick. The less stress you put on your immune system the better. Take multivitamins, eat a healthy diet, control your stress level and exercise for starters. Second, find some more stem cells! If we didn’t run out of stem cells, we could continue to replace injured cells and tissue with like functional tissue.
The good news is that physicians and scientists have figured out where your body has extra stem cells. They’re actually all throughout your body. While they’re found in your liver, bone marrow, and even your brain, your adipose tissue (fat) happens to be very rich with stem cells and these cells are easily extracted and isolated. They’ve been shown to differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle, neural tissue and more. They’re also able to be expanded in a laboratory setting, to amplify their numbers far beyond what’s available to your doctors.
This stem cell technology could hold the secret to longevity. By complementing our immune system and providing the necessary healing ability our bodies need, stem cells could help us recover from nearly any cell injury (cold, infection, sports injury, age related cellular degeneration).