When we wish for a long life, we don’t just mean as many years as possible, we also want to spend them mentally and physically fit. The good news is that it is in our hands. It is well known and proven that regular physical exercise and a diet that is as low in meat as possible form the basis of a healthy lifestyle.
Although we have a longer life expectancy than our ancestors, our quality of life is often severely restricted by age-related illnesses in our final years. However, it is also true that we are not forced to resign ourselves to the ailments of old age. Of course, we cannot stop the ageing process, which begins at birth. Nevertheless, we can do a lot to keep our body and mind healthy. Our personal attitude towards a healthy lifestyle is very important.
Below we present a 5-part mindset to help you achieve your goal of getting fit and healthy as you age. As with all resolutions, willpower and perseverance are of course a prerequisite for sticking to them in the long term.
I am not old
Age begins in the mind and the saying “You are as young as you feel” is certainly justified. Anyone who excludes enjoyable activities such as entertainment or the like because of their age will find it difficult to maintain their well-being in the long term. However, if you have a positive attitude to life and are curious about what life has to offer as you get older, you will maintain your physical and mental fitness for longer. You can start doing something good for yourself at any age, for example by changing your established eating habits. If you simply take it for granted that your performance will decline, you have already lost.
I am responsible for myself
Of course, you can take diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity for granted. But if you are honest: Are they really? Or is your excess weight more likely to be due to a lack of exercise? Could too much carbohydrate consumption be behind diabetes? And could a high-fat diet also be causing high blood pressure? If you get to the bottom of your complaints, you will find that many of them are preventable and that you can do something about them yourself. The doctor is not your “repair shop”, because you have to create the basis for preventing the diseases from recurring yourself. Ideally, of course, you should have already adapted your lifestyle so that you don’t get ill in the first place. You cannot delegate this responsibility for your health to anyone other than yourself.
Daily fitness exercises are essential
Daily exercise should become as commonplace as eating, drinking or sleeping. The human body is designed to walk several kilometers a day. The digital world ensures that we do exactly the opposite. Daily training does not mean walking a prescribed number of kilometers in all weathers. For example, skip the elevator more often and take the stairs. Run small errands by bike or on foot. Incorporate push-ups, squats etc. into your daily routine. And if you also feel like exercising from time to time and walking longer distances, that would of course be ideal.
A healthy diet is important
If you look at what the food industry has in store for us, this mindset is sometimes the most difficult. It is extremely difficult to part with something that we have grown to love and that represents a pleasure. Because temptation lurks everywhere. We all prepare ourselves for the fact that we have to expect a loss of performance as we get older. This is because cell renewal slows down and the body no longer regenerates as quickly or as profoundly as it used to. However, you can support your cell renewal enormously in its important work by supplying your body with as few disruptive factors as possible, such as industrial sugar or alcohol.
Fresh fruit, salad and vegetables provide your body with nutrients and vital substances. By using herbs and spices, you ensure that it tastes good even without too much salt. You can prevent deficiency symptoms with a balanced diet. Because trying to compensate for these with food supplements is not a good solution.
I am interested in life and enjoy learning new things
If you take the view that certain things are only reserved for the young or that you have to do without beauty and fun because of your age, you are making yourself old. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to spasmodically trim yourself to a youthful appearance. You would probably feel disguised and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, nowhere does it say that you only have to wear muted colors when you’re a senior citizen, that you can’t have a brisk haircut and that your lipstick has to stay in the drawer. There is also nothing to stop you from learning a new language, catching up on a dance class or getting involved with social networks as you get older. Stay curious, as this will keep you interested in life and keep you young in spirit. As strong personalities, we have it in our own hands to shape our life circumstances in such a way that they bring us closer to our goal – to stay young, healthy and active for longer.
How an optimal supply of vital substances can slow down ageing
What can you do to also enjoy a long life and experience a healthy and vital old age?
To answer this question, we need to take a look at the metabolism in our body cells. After all, the human organism consists of up to around 100 trillion individual cells as the smallest functional unit of our body. All these cells have specific functions that they have to fulfill. They produce hormones, remove harmful substances and provide energy so that we can move and be active. This only works because the individual cells are connected to each other in a complex network and are regulated in a finely tuned way by messenger substances, which in turn are produced by other cells.
The body’s cells only have a limited lifespan. Our red blood cells, for example, only live for around 120 days. However, this makes them virtually long-lived, as the cells of the gastrointestinal tract and many other tissues are renewed after just a few days. Our body is therefore subject to a continuous build-up and breakdown, whereby it is estimated that around 50 to 70 billion new body cells are (or have to be) formed every day. A gigantic achievement that we hardly ever realize.
What does citric acid have to do with our vitality?
But how does the body achieve this performance? A high degree of discipline on the part of the individual body cells is probably the basis for ensuring that the entire “apparatus” runs smoothly. Every cell is a highly organized system which, in addition to the genetic basis that controls cell function, contains various structures that convert the signals emanating from the genes into life processes. Probably the best-known example is the so-called mitochondria. They are responsible for providing energy and are often referred to as the “power plants” in the body’s cells. Their main task is the production of energy. Two processes are important for this: the so-called respiratory chain and the citric acid cycle, also known as the citrate cycle or Krebs cycle after its discoverer. The respiratory chain is made up of enzymes that are strung together like a chain on the inner membrane of the mitochondria.
Negatively charged particles, the electrons, are transported via the enzyme chain, creating a concentration gradient of positively charged particles, the protons. This concentration gradient is used by special enzymes, the ATP synthetases, to produce an energy-rich compound, adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short. Of course, the mitochondria cannot produce ATP from nothing. The small “power plants” are fed by the so-called citrate cycle. It is a kind of metabolic hub in the cells and ensures the build-up and breakdown of important intermediate products in the carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism via eight reaction steps.
Degradation products from the metabolism are virtually recycled in the citrate cycle and energy sources such as acetyl-CoA are formed via the eight biochemical reaction steps. This can be oxidized to carbon dioxide. The energy released in this process is used to form substances such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ and NADH for short (depending on whether the substance is present in oxidized or reduced form), which are then fed into the respiratory chain.
AKG and NAD – two abbreviations you should know
Alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) play a central role in the citrate cycle. Both substances are involved in many important metabolic processes, act as an energy supplier and are important for the biosynthesis of important amino acids and messenger substances for cell regulation.
Against this background, it is understandable that the optimal functioning of the cells in our body is linked to a constantly sufficient supply of these two substances. These are therefore also referred to as vital substances.
AKG is a signaling molecule that is involved in numerous cellular reactions and metabolic processes. The signal substance reduces inflammatory processes in the body, modulates the reactions of the immune system and, as a cofactor, inhibits reactions that play a role in the development of cancer and tumor growth. AKG may therefore have therapeutic significance. The vital substance can be helpful in reducing oxidative stress and in defending against tumors. It counteracts protein deficiency, strengthens muscles and bones and can therefore make an important contribution to preventing the development of frailty in old age, slowing down biological ageing and thus paving the way for a long life (longevity).
It should be noted that calcium alphaketoglutarate has special pharmacokinetics and differs from the compounds with arginine and ornithine, which are very popular with bodybuilders. The effects described in longevity research have so far only been proven with calcium alphaketoglutarate.
NAD is also a cofactor of various enzymes and is of great importance for cellular energy production and cell metabolism. It is important for an adequate protein balance and is significantly responsible for the regeneration of body tissue. NAD and the precursor substance nicotinamide riboside (NR) can also protect the genetic material in the cells (DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid) from damage.
The observed decline in NAD levels with age is seen as one of the causes of ageing processes and also as a contributory cause of numerous diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s dementia. AKG levels also usually decrease with age, which can explain the often decreasing energy levels with increasing age. Unfortunately, the declining AKG level cannot be counteracted by diet.
Have your NAD level measured with the neotes NAD test.
Fighting ageing with vital substances
It is therefore logical to ensure that the body is well supplied with the two vital substances AKG and NAD, or the precursor substance NR. Special preparations such as neotes alpha and NAD Booster have been developed for this purpose.
Sources:
- Biology school: Mitochondrion.
- Biology page: The citryt cyclus.
- Barbara Zdzisińska, Aleksandra Żurek, Martyna Kandefer-Szerszeń. Alpha-Ketoglutarate as a Molecule with Pleiotropic Activity: Well-Known and Novel Possibilities of Therapeutic Use. Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz). 2016.
- Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, Daniel Edgar, Chen-Yu Liao. Alpha-Ketoglutarate, an Endogenous Metabolite, Extends Lifespan and Compresses Morbidity in Aging Mice. Cell Metab. 2020.
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