Here is one beauty regimen that will be easy to stick with – eat a piece of dark chocolate and drink a glass of red wine every day.
It’s an affordable, accessible, delicious, and effective way to prevent aging.
Slowing the aging process can give you a lower biological age in relation to your chronological age.
Both dark chocolate and red wine contain a compound that helps cells to rejuvenate so the aging process is slowed down.
The compound also stimulates inactive cells and causes them to behave like young cells again.
What Are These Compounds?
These cell rejuvenating compounds found in dark chocolate and red wine (red grapes and blueberries also contain the compounds) are called resveratrol analogues.
It’s a natural chemical found in these foods, so there are no side effects to worry about when consuming these foods.
How Resveratrol Analogues Work
Research conducted at the University of Exeter discovered that certain genes, called splicing factors, are turned off as we grow older.
When these splicing factor genes are turned off cells are not dividing and being as active as they once were.
The researchers applied the resveratrol analogues to turned off splicing genes and watched them become turned back on and active again within just a few hours.
These old splicing genes that had ceased doing their job to prevent aging started to divide and develop long telomeres.
Telomeres are stretches of DNA found at the end of chromosomes. The longer the telomeres are, the better they are working towards preventing all things related to the aging process.
The shorter the telomere, the more advanced the aging process has become and the higher the risk of death.
Disease Prevention
Resveratrol analogues have a great impact on the aging process both directly and indirectly.
While the compound stimulates new cell growth and old cell rejuvenation, it also works to prevent age-related diseases.
This compound has powerful anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, including arthritis and cancer.
Resveratrol analogues have been shown to prevent heart disease and inhibit tumor growth while scavenging for free radicals.
You will get a lot of bang for your anti-aging and health-promoting buck with a daily glass of red wine and a piece of dark chocolate.
Advanced Therapies
The discovery regarding the application of resveratrol analogues to splicing genes has led to more research that might lead to advanced therapies to help slow down and possibly reverse the aging process.
If these compounds can be isolated and used, people could age better with healthier bodies and minds.
The onset of degenerated diseases could be slowed down, possibly even avoided altogether in some cases.
One of the reasons the body ages is because senescent cells (old cells) accumulate within the cells that are alive, but they cease growing, dividing and behaving as they should.
These old cells become detrimental to our health and promote the aging process by emitting harmful chemical signals that encourage nearby cells to enter the senescence stage with them.
The resveratrol analogues found in dark chocolate and red wine help prevent the aging process by keeping the splicing factor gene working normally so cells don’t enter the senescent stage but continue to divide and grow.
How Much Red Wine and Dark Chocolate?
It doesn’t take much of either health-benefiting products to turn back the hands of time.
Just one small glass of red wine each day for women, two for men.
One or two ounces of dark chocolate for either sex a couple of times a week is sufficient, and the darker the chocolate the better.
Wine is rich in antioxidants that work hard to get rid of free radicals in the body.
Free radicals are behind the aging process and age-related diseases.
While grapes and grape juice also provide anti-aging benefits, there is a much higher concentration of antioxidants (including resveratrol) in red wine.
The grape skins and seeds used in winemaking is the key to the higher concentration of antioxidants in red wine.
Red wine is a part of the Mediterranean diet plan which has been touted for years as the best anti-aging diet.
Not only does the wine provide antioxidants to slow down the aging process, but a glass of red wine also helps you get rid of stress and relax.
Both of which are good for health, overall well-being and living longer.
Dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids and antioxidants which fight free radicals that promote aging.
The antioxidants also help prevent heart disease and stroke.
Chocolate raises good HDL cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, and improves your mood.
Dark chocolate also has something in common with carrots that few people are aware of – it improves the vision.
Flavanols in dark chocolate improve blood flow to the brain, which in turn improves blood flow to the retina and improve vision.
The extra blood flow to the brain improves brain function and cognitive skills.
