How Our Bodies Age Through Senescence
Aging happens to everyone. Anyone across the world ages as the minutes, hours, years pass by. Slowly deteriorating with age, the body’s organs break down with time.
We don’t notice the change because it happens gradually. It progressively wears down, causing the body to shut down once it gets to a certain point due to the loss of cells.
Aging is not a disease in itself, but aging can come with complications and age-related diseases. Some of these diseases include osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. All of these diseases come with age.
Since our bodies age at a cellular level, we have a better chance of slowing the process down. This would allow us to receive more significant benefits out of our lives and the length of time we live.
By studying the cellular process of aging, we can come up with some of the benefits that we require for a better overall quality of life.
The Normal Cell Aging Process
Cells are born in the body, they age just like us, and then they die. The cell has a lifespan and then when it comes to the end of that lifespan, it goes through another process known as apoptosis.
This is the process of cell death that occurs.
During this process, the DNA in the cell is destroyed. It then reduces in size and sends out distress signals which activate the immune system. Macrophages are what show up because of these signals and it eats up the small cells that have died, leaving nothing left behind.
This is the usual process, but it is not what always happens in the body.
Senescence Cells in The Body
Since our cells are always dividing, changing, adapting, which renews the processes in our bodies, this allows the body to regenerate and renew. However, during this process, the telomeres which is where the genetic information is held, are lost.
When telomeres are too short, this causes the cell to become senescent. Senescent cells do not act like they usually would. They will not go through the healthy aging and dying process known as apoptosis.
Our bodies are unable to get rid of them due to this. There are no signals that are sent out to bring out the macrophages, which means that they sit there. They cannot divide and create healthy cells because they’re technically aged cells. They then expand to the healthy cells around them, impacting and changing them.
They are known as “zombie” cells because of this reason. They change the cells around them and they’re not dead or alive. They’re just there.
The Trouble with Senescence Cells
These cells are frozen cells. They cannot pass any of the dysfunctional DNA or information on to other cells. They cannot be erased or removed, and they cannot make new cells in the body. These genes are necessary to pass down to future generations.
Since these genes are frozen in the body, they can cause trouble there, too. They release something known as SASP. SASP is a chemical mixture that can cause inflammatory signals in the body. These signals are normal as we age, and they become more and more likely to happen the older we become.
These signals are known as inflammaging.
When the body goes through this, it can cause the person to have more age-related diseases. They lose the ability to have a normal aging process. Instead, they go through a process that ultimately ends with disease and sometimes even symptoms that are directly related to the senescence itself.
Learning More About Inflammaging
These inflammaging cytokines can lead to stress in the body and on the cells.
The result is it impacts different functions in the body, and this is directly linked to the number of senescent cells that are in the body as the person ages.
The more there are, the more this stress builds up and causes the body more trouble.
When the senescence and inflammaging happens and then intersects on another, this is crucial to the aging process. It is something that can eventually lead to slowing and stopping the process altogether.
All the evidence points to removing these senescence cells from the body. When we are able to have a process that does this, it can eventually lead to the aging process or even the diseases that happen during this process to stop existing.
If we can remove or reprogram senescence cells, we would then be able to have a better healthspan and lifespan potentially.
A better healthspan in our latter years would result in more independence, more social activity, and less financial outlay on medical and assisted care.
Senescent Cells and Autophagy
At first glance, it seems that autophagy is something that is going to be pro-senescence. However, if you look closer, you will notice that it has been shown actually to suppress cellular senescence at a much deeper level.
Autophagy can maintain lysosomal integrity, which is something many of the other cells are unable to do while in this aging process. Autophagy acts as an anti-senescence mechanism because of the passive manner that it has inside the body.
It is something that provides the body with a way to rebuild and actively stop the senescent cells from duplicating around where they already are.
Autophagy works to degrade the main regulator of the SASP, which is the central portion of why the cells go through the senescent. This stops the production of the cells, which in turn, stops the zombie cells from expanding to the current cells in the area.
The Future of Aging
Scientists are currently developing drugs and other methods for targeting and removing these zombie cells from the body. However, we do not know how this is going to impact a human when they are being used. It can be a long, expensive and scary process to go through with humans.
The Buck Institute for Research of Aging and Ponce de Leon Health have discovered taking Calcium Alpha-Ketoglutarate can help to block these inflammaging signals that come from the senescent cells. They also found that combining certain compounds have increased its efficacy based on the gold standard mammalian model.
This how Rejuvant™ LifeTabs was born. This is positive scientific news because it’s a natural, safe method instead of a synthetic drug.
Being able to have better lifestyle choices can also help to directly benefit the person that wants to reduce the effects that aging has.
This includes stopping smoking, increasing exercise activities, and eating a healthy diet. By reducing the amount of stress you’re dealing with in your life, or what you’re breathing in from the air around you; you can also greatly impact the way your body ages and the benefits of having healthier cells.
These changes can be a great defense against these senescent cells that happen and inflammaging that follows after that.
The body does many things and when it comes to having zombie cells, that is just one of the things that happen as we age. The more you have, the more you’ll age and the more diseases or progression of illnesses you have.
Staying healthy can significantly help you reduce the chances of being faced with these issues at hand.
Learn how Rejuvant™ LifeTabs™ with LifeAKG™ combats senescence cells.
