Anti-Aging Hormones
Prashant Mishra
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Disclaimer – This article is based on open-source information and is in no way certified by any medical authority or experimentation. The readers are requested not to try out any of the hormone supplements without consulting doctors. This writeup is a follow-up to my earlier one on similar topic –
Increase in Aged Population is Inevitable
As per World Bank data, between 1960 and 2010, the percentage of world population of people aged more than 65 years grew from 5 to 10 percent[i], whereas that of children aged between 0 and 14 years fell from 37 to 25 percent. [ii] The number of aged people will keep increasing in a steady pace, however, instead of raising concerns on why it is increasing, isn’t it important to find out ways to ensure their health and vitality? Do we have any other option? If they can be active and productive, it will benefit not only them but the younger generation, who could then avoid the financial and emotional burdens of caring for millions of sick, dependent elderlies, including their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents.
Can the aging clock be controlled?
Clock Hormones
The body clocks that tick every day to time body functions according to the twenty-four-hour cycle are paced by hormones. How about the body clocks or clock that control aging? What can be done to repair or reverse a faulty inner clock?
Hormones are body's timekeepers. They are major principals in determining how healthy one will live. Hormones are secreted by endocrine glands, which push them directly into bloodstream. Although hormones may be circulated throughout the body, they affect only a specific target organ(s). The amount of hormone released depends upon our body's needs. If the feedback from the body is faulty or the endocrine glands fail to produce enough of the needed hormone as demanded, all sorts of physical and mental disorders may occur. This hormonal imbalance happens to all with age, but in some it is faster than in others.
All the hormone glands secrete chemicals harmoniously maintaining health and happiness. But as time goes by, some of the players weaken and become discordant, and signs associate with aging appear, for eg - weakened immunity, wrinkled skin, ebbing muscular strength, insomnia etc. Emotional disturbances such as anxiety and worry cause an imbalance in hormones, causing lack of appetite, obesity, premature aging etc.
Melatonin
Melatonin is best known for its effect on sleep patterns. In addition to providing a sound night's sleep it also protects cognitive ability and combats any early stages of dementia or pre-senile dementia in older age. It is also responsible for overseeing Circadian Rhythm within the body. Every living body on earth produces Melatonin, from the simplest amoeba up to the human species. Its production decreases with age - the onset of which is now taken to start at around 26 years old.
As the body is subjected to light during the day, Melatonin secretion ceases, but is released again as soon as the body is immersed in darkness. People who are involved in shift work and have to work under bright light through the night, suffer from disturbed Melatonin release. People living in polar regions and subject to long drawn out nights, may well release more Melatonin over a longer period.
As Melatonin levels decrease with aging it would be sensible to supplement it gradually as one ages, which can benefit by production of Human Growth Hormone, sex hormones and have a powerful antioxidant effect to counter any free radical damage, enhancing immune system.
Apart from helping with sleep patterns, Circadian rhythm and overcoming jet-lag, melatonin also helps to protect the brain from oxidation, combats the ravages of free radicals in the liver, kidneys and pancreas. It raises the HDL or ‘good cholesterol' level in the body, and lowers elevated blood sugar levels, aiding weight loss in the obese. It helps to reduce irritable bowel syndrome and prevents gallstones from forming.
With eyesight, it aids prevention of macular degeneration, glaucoma and formation of cataracts. It acts as an Immune enhancer and maintenance of healthy bones by promoting the integrity of osteoblasts which create bone cells. It is well known to counteract many forms of cancer, maintain skin integrity, prevent Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, as well as help repair sun damage. When light passes our eye’s retina, hypothalamus informs the pineal gland to stop secreting melatonin.
Melatonin has been found to reduce self- reported alertness and increased sleepiness. It also affects performance, slowing choice-reaction time but concurrently decreasing errors of commission. Fine motor performance, memory and visual sensitivity are not impaired in the subjects given Melatonin at a controlled MIT experiment.
Late meals can adyersely affect the working of gut bacteria and their Melatonin production, which can account for few hundred times the amount produced by the Pineal gland. Electromagnetic fields or EMF's transmitted from WiFi, mobile phones, radio masts and even large sun flare. A University of Copenhagen study carried out found that the survival rate of patients supplementing with Melatonin rose upto 50%. Melatonin has also been shown to stimulate production of T-cells and cytokines, thus helping in the fight against cancer. Even when chemotherapy is employed, Melatonin is able to help to check and reduce tumours as well as combat any adverse side-effects.
The surprising fact is that although it has shown itself to be extremely beneficial in treating various types of cancer, it is not widely used by doctors or hospitals, despite a mounting pile of evidence.
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Research is ongoing in monitoring melatonin acting as antidepressant.
Growth Factors
Hormones release growth factor in blood enabling warding off many bacterial and viral infections, cancers, inflammations etc. These factors stimulate and modulate cell activities enabling repair of organs. With discovery of the nerve growth factor (a protein in blood that cause nerve cells to grow) in 1950s, a string of growth factors were discovered including that for epithelial cells and now more than one hundred growth factors have been identified.
The problem in testing nerve growth factor is the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain from possible poisons. The blood-brain barrier includes physical barriers, such as tightly opposed cells in the walls of the blood vessels. Another defence is chemical—enzymes that act as gatekeepers, escorting only certain chemicals into the inner sanctum of brain. The way around this problem has been tested on animals by incorporating nerve growth factors into skin cells and implanting them on brain. This has -proven to prevent loss and degeneration of cholinergic neurons.
Then there are growth factor inhibitors. These inhibitors have a wide range of uses, from stopping the growth of cancer and viruses to permitting the sprouting of new nerve cells. They may hold the key to curing people with paralyzed limbs and recovery from physical brain or spinal cord damage.
The liver is the only internal organ in humans that can restore itself using epidermal growth factors. Experiments on rats with 70 percent of their liver removed and injected with large concentrations of epidermal growth factor show accelerated repair of the liver. There are newer growth factors being discovered that will help in curing and repairing most of the diseases and damages that the body can succumb to.
DHEA (De-Hydro-Epi-Androsterone)
In addition to the stress hormone that may play a part in aging us, another adrenal hormone DHEA does the reverse. DHEA production peaks between 25 and 26 years. By around age thirty, levels begin to taper and by eighty, it reduces to almost nil. Laboratory experiments show that DHEA protects against a number of cancers. In animals the hormone also seems to act like an “anti-aging agent.” Mice prone to obesity stay slim and lean and live longer.
DHEA has been marked as a candidate hormone influencing the clock which determines life span. Clinical trials are under way for treatment of cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, immune disorders of the elderly. One of the animal trials has also proven that hepatitis vaccine becomes more effective when their DHEA level is boosted. Alzheimer's patients have been found to have almost half the DHEA levels as needed. DHEA Ievels reduce to minimal as the Alzheimer’s disease advances.
Neuro Hormones
Neurohormones are generally referred to as endorphins and, have effects in very large parts of the body. Endorphins are similar to heroin in their composition and operation. They prevent pain and invoke a feeling of euphoria. However, they are many times more powerful and their effect can last for a longer time.
Although Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disorder, was identified in 1906, its cause remains unknown. However, research points to the degeneration of a specific group of nerve cells (cholinergic neurons) in the brain that supply acetylcholine, a chemical necessary for memory function and thought processing experiments show that nerve growth factor reverses atrophy of nerve cells in the brains of aging rats. Acetylcholine is also believed to be a key factor in the development of memory loss, including the devastating type that is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. Efforts are on to develop inhibitors for this hormone.
Another important neuro-medication levodopa has been developed to treat Parkinson’s disease. It is a precursor of dopamine and is one of the rare medications able to cross the natural blood-brain barrier, where it is converted to dopamine.
Much is yet to be discovered about how aging affects neurohormones and vice versa. Medications are already on the market or about to enter the market that will treat many of the ills associated with aging with synthetic versions of these extremely powerful self-made chemicals that play such a large part in our physical and emotional well-being.
Conclusion
Emotions are different from rational thought, and as we grow old and are exposed to the highs and lows of life, our emotions become harder to control. Our moods become more depressed. Emotions exert a significant control on the hormone secretion. Typically, an organism has a free radical scavenging system that maintains the balance between free radical production and elimination. However, as an organism ages, the activity of antioxidant system decreases. Oxidative stress damages biological macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, thereby destroying cell structure and ultimately leading to cell senescence. Mitochondria are the main sites of oxidation and the most sensitive cell component to oxidative damage. Mitochondrial disorders promote the oxidative stress.
Melatonin is one of the most promising hormones that inhibits a key transcription factor, which is activated in many diseases associated with inflammation and aging. Regulatory mechanisms of melatonin protect cells against premature senescence when subjected to Ionizing radiation that can damage the DNA by directly or indirectly inducing intracellular oxidative stress. Future research will give more depth of knowledge on the mechanism used by Melatonin to achieve what it does.
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