Semester 4, Week 9, Day 4: Aging

I had to do rent to own but I'm back to having a functioning system.  Once I get all the rest of the files off the secondary drive, we'll format that and use that to watch movies on.  I got a discussion posted and have one more assignment due this week before I can turn to the writing assignments that are due next week.  My son is napping.  I'm listening to a video on fixing your vision naturally.  I need to watch this again.  Maybe twice.  It has a lot of good tips.  The rash I've been dealing with is healing more each day.  My face is not really discolored any more but is still mildly dry. I have lost more than two days trying to get back up and running so I need to focus on getting caught up.  Love and Light!

On to the discussion!

"What are you doing "right" to make sure that you age well?  What are you doing "wrong"?  What improvements can you make to age better?"

Aging can be caused by “genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulation of nutrient sensing/signaling, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and alteration of intercellular communication” (Evangelakou, Gemeni, and Trougakos, 2019). Evangelakou, Geneni, and Trougakos looked into how nutrition affected aging in fruit flies because they has some of the same biological function as humans. Several extracts appear to prolong the life of fruit flies to include blue berries, asparagus, and cocoa. Newman et al. (2017) did a study which concluded the Keto diet increases life expectancy and memory in mice. Why do I mention these 2 studies? The first one is things I’m working to incorporate into my diet but I’m pretty broke so I’m going as my budget allows. The second one my budget will not allow but I do have the book on my shelf. I purchased Boyers’ keto diet book and her gut health book. One I view as a return to health book, the other is to sustain health. Right now, I look for what I call the “seal of approval” which is the non-GMO project seal which is showing up in more and more places. I choose that option as much as I can.  There have been times I put other things back to get that item.  I know if I eat the healthier options, I won’t need as much because they don’t have all those nasty fillers. I will start growing my own food once I finish school to avoid the store and have healthier options there as well.  My ants are growing some blackberries which I have stolen some from them (I’m not taking all of them because they are not invading my home like they did last year) and put them in my freezer. When I have enough, I’ll make some homemade jam to I won’t have to use that stuff in the store. Yes, I’m convinced I have mutant ants because they are also tending my 2 mint plants (one is peppermint) and they are thriving…. They don’t like it when I weed but they will have to get used to that.

What do I do wrong…  That would be a long list. I am on my feet all day but I think I could have more activity in my life that is good. That will also increase once I’m done with school. I loved the example of gardening being healthy in the video lecture this week.  I should also be meditating with all the stress I have but it’s impossible with kids that don’t nap at the same time and they won’t sleep without me at night. I do NOT get enough social interaction. I go days of it being just the kids and I.  When I wasn’t in classes, I would take them to Babes in the Woods once a month but to meet my deadlines, I have to forego that while classes are on. We had that break and I forgot about it and let my son take his nap instead.  I felt bad because my daughter gets so excited when she can see kids her age. I guess you could conclude that school adds to my aging…  Lol Another social issue is I don’t know many people who have the same interests. One of the greatest things about attending school is you people get me! If I tell local people I want to eat real food and you can’t get that in a store, they would look at me like I have 5 heads. It’s hard to be social when you are not mainstream.  One of my classmates took this semester off and I gave her my info.  We had a great text-conversation and realized how much we have in common.  I need local friends like that!  For now, I will keep going as I am and do what I can.  Of course with the age of my kids, I need to live as long as I can.  I’ll do my best!
 
References
Evangelakou, Z. Gumeni, S., and Trougakos, I. P. (2019). Nutrigenomics as a tool to study the impact of diet on aging and age-related diseases: the Drosophila approach.  Genes & Nutrition (2019) 14:12 doi: 10.1186/s12263-019-0638-6
Newman, J. C., Covarrubias, A. J., Zhao, M., Yu, X., Gut, P., Ng, C. P., Huang, Y., Haldar, S., and Verdin, E. (2017). Ketogenic diet reduces mid-life mortality and improves memory in aging mice. Cell Metab. 26(3): 547–557. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004.

Have a Great Day!