Fighting the Effects of Ageing

There’s no two ways about it, ageing sucks. It leaves us with achy joints, wrinkled skin, reduced cognitive prowess, weakness, thin grey hair, a croaky voice and eventually the lack of a pulse. The thing is though, while we all must age, some of us do it better than others. So what’s the secret to ageing well and maintaining your health and looks? Well there’s no secret as such... the good news is that there are in fact a lot of secrets and there’re a lot of things you can do to stack the odds in your favour.

Unfortunately, what seems to be the most effective of all anti-ageing strategies, is to use Human Growth Hormone as Sylvester Stallone is known to do. I saw unfortunately because it is illegal in the UK and most states of the US as well as very expensive. Furthermore it has several side effects that may be quite dangerous including enlarged organs (especially alarming in the case of the heart) and even potential effects on the facial features with some of these also potentially getting larger. The stuff definitely works though and can actually reverse the ageing process as the body is stimulated to start repairing damaged cells and maintain the rest of the body to a better degree. All you have to do is look at pictures of Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa (around the time he started using it) and in the behind the scenes clips from his up-coming movie The Expendables to see how effective it is – he looks about ten years younger!......

While growth hormone is illegal however, GABA is a supplement that reportedly aims to
increase our natural production of growth hormone legally (in the US anyway, in the UK it has recently been banned though it is still easily available on e-bay). The effectiveness of this supplement is debatable however with some studies suggesting it cannot cross the brain barrier where it does most of its work (growth hormone is secreted in the pituitary gland and GABA also aims to induce a heavy sleep by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin). Additionally GABA can also lead to grogginess and can affect your mood in a positive though mildly disconcerting manner as it’s also used as a sleeping aid and antidepressant.

Fortunately there are many ways you can increase the amount of growth hormone produced in your body – including getting a good night’s sleep (when your body produces most growth hormone), going sprinting, taking a hot shower, or doing a heavy workout.

Taking vitamin and mineral supplements can mirror some of the effects of growth hormone too, and many of them will help the body to maintain our cells, build strong muscle and bone and keep our hair and teeth healthy (I recommend Berocca).

Another substance with similar effects to growth hormone is testosterone, which will increase lean muscle as well as turning back the clock in the bedroom. This too can be boosted in a variety of manners using supplements or simple lifestyle changes. The famous testosterone boosting supplements include tribulus terrestris, ZMA, 6-OXO and tongkat ali. To boost it naturally though you should try and make sure your diet is high in zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6 (there’s those vitamins and minerals again!) and make sure you get regular exercise. Increasing testosterone is particularly useful for those who are past middle age as that’s when natural secretion starts tailing off – supplement it and that’s at least one less thing to worry about losing as you age.

Another supplement that claims to reverse the ageing process is ‘reservatrol’ and some users claim it improves their energy and even helps them to look younger after taking it for a while. However reservatrol is also not without its side effects and can cause thinning of the blood as well as other potentially harmful effects. While it is fiercely marketed at the moment it also lacks longitudinal studies meaning its long-term effects are still largely unknown.

Many other products also exist that promise to slow the effects of ageing by tackling individual symptoms including anti-wrinkle creams (it also helps to avoid too much direct sunlight while you’re young), anti-hair loss formulas, cognitive enhancers such as ginkgo biloba and various remedies for joint pain such as fish oils. Most of these however can be achieved through sensible living and a healthy balanced diet.

Complicating matters however is the fact that to get a good amount of these nutrients you’ll need to eat a fair amount of calories which in itself has been shown to shorten our life spans. Those who are serious about fighting off ageing and mortality practice what is known as ‘calorie restriction’. As the title suggests, this involves (greatly) limiting the number of calories you consume throughout the day. This practice is based on studies, mostly on mice, that demonstrate how limiting mice’s caloric intake can increase their life span by up to 150% – though no human has so far practiced calorie restriction for long enough to know exactly how that translates for us (and even when they do chances are they were at least in their twenties when they started). The practice of calorie restriction however often results in malnutrition, and certainly doesn’t allow for the amounts of protein needed to build large amounts of muscle (which are far more useful in terms of turning back the clock). Furthermore, it’s a pretty miserable existence and makes you less than the most exciting guest at a dinner party.

Stallone has one other far more useful habit you see that definitely should take more credit for his youthful looks – regular exercise – and the benefits of this cannot be stated highly enough, both in terms of keeping your strength, your mental dexterity and your lack of pain. He also has another thing going for him – determination and drive (okay so that’s two things). You see the more you strive towards goals and ambitions, the less time you spend feeling sorry for yourself for growing old. If you think of circumstantial evidence from your own life – people you know who have retired – you might have noticed that they suddenly age a lot when they stop going to work. And those who survive retirement are the ones who take up a new hobby or interest. Like a car, if you use your body it will work for you, but if you leave it to rust it’ll soon pack in. Just look at Bruce Forsyth.