Last Updated on April 23, 2023 by admin
Do you want to look and feel younger? What about living a longer life; you’d want that too, right? These may almost seem like rhetorical questions since of course you’d say yes to them both. Well, if only these things were possible. What if we told you renowned author and Harvard professor David Sinclair has tips for both youthfulness and a longer life? What are they?
David Sinclair recommends the following five tips to combat aging and live longer:
- Rely on senolytics
- Fast intermittently
- Use cold/hot therapy
- Know your aging rate
- Get on the right path to health through supplements
If you’re chomping at the bit to implement Sinclair’s tips into your life, then we recommend you keep reading. In this article, we’ll expand on each of the five pointers above so you can begin living better.
Who Is David Sinclair?
First thing’s first, who’s David Sinclair anyway? Sinclair is a biologist who hails from Australia. He studied at the University of South Wales, Sydney, earning a Bachelor of Science and then later a Molecular Genetics Ph.D.
Upon leaving academia as a student, Sinclair began teaching at Harvard Medical School. He’s also a cofounder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals along with Paul Schimmel, Richard Pops, Richard Aldrich, Christoph Westphal, and Andrew Perlman. Sinclair co-founded Genocea Biosciences, OvaScience, and CohBar as well.
Sinclair received an Officer of the Order of Australia title in 2015 for his esteemed work in biology. He’s also been awarded such honors as Time 100, the Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Award, the Thompson Prize, and the Australian Commonwealth Prize.
Most recently, Sinclair’s book, entitled Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To was published in 2019. Matthew LaPlante, a journalist, served as the book’s co-author.
David Sinclair’s 5 Tips to Fight Aging and Enjoy a Longer Life
Now that you know more about Sinclair’s pedigree, let’s talk more about his tips for not only reversing aging, but living longer!
Use Senolytics
Did you know that every single day, our body makes somewhere in the ballpark of 220 million cells? These are all new ones. Each of those cells will multiply, anywhere from 50 times to more than 70, and sometimes it’s even more than that. This keeps our bodies on the path to producing fresh cells.
Cells do age, and as they do, they can’t divide as much as newer ones can. This concept has a name: cellular senescence. The cells that are senescent are not nearly as useful to us. In fact, due to these older cells, we increase our chances of getting diseases like cancer.
Through senolytics, these old cells can be removed from the body. Senolytics themselves are molecules named after their capability to destroy senescence cells.
Fewer old cells in our body can slow down certain elements of aging, per Sinclair’s research. According to the professor, he has plans on producing his own senolytics products for staying younger sometime in the near future. Keep an eye out!
Get into the Habit of Intermittent Fasting
If there’s one thing we’ve written about many a time on this blog, it’s intermittent fasting. There are many types of intermittent fasts out there, some where you eat very little in a day and others where you eat nothing. The most strenuous of these fasts, like hard water fasts, involve you consuming and using no water.
While intermittent fasting isn’t easy, you can lose weight, potentially combat diseases, and, according to Sinclair, reduce aging and even potentially increase your lifespan by doing it. That certainly makes fasting worthwhile.
Engage in Hot/Cold Therapy
We just wrote a post on this blog about the right temperature in which to take cold showers. This is a form of cold therapy, as are using plunge pools. When you expose your body to cold temperatures (anything under 70 degrees Fahrenheit), you promote better circulation, healthier skin and nails, and faster muscle recovery after exercise.
You may also reduce stress, empty your lymphatic system, and fortify your immune system. Further, you also trigger your body’s supply of brown adipose tissue or brown fat through the cold temps. To warm your body, the brown fat torches fat and calories, which could result in weight loss.
Hot therapy, like spending time soaking in a sauna, can be equally as helpful for your body. You trigger more blood flow through the heat, which can alleviate pain (even from acute injuries), lead to faster healing of injuries, and relax stiff muscles.
Also, as cited in this 2015 article from Harvard Health Publishing, you may reduce your risk of death from stroke and cardiovascular disease by going to a sauna “frequently.” This data comes from a study published by the University of Eastern Finland.
Learn Your Aging Rate
You could be the same age as a group of your peers, but more than likely, you are not aging at an identical rate. That’s how some people can look like they’re in their 30s when they’re 40 years old and other 40-year-olds are wrinkled and even haggard.
According to David Sinclair, by using Horvath’s Clock, you can get an accurate gauge of your rate of aging. Horvath’s Clock was appropriately created by Steve Horvath, a professor at UCLA, back in 2013.
This epigenetic clock is available to read more about here in a UCSF piece.
Take the Right Supplements
It should come as no surprise that what you put into your body can influence your health, but did you know that supplements can play a role in how fast you age as well? That’s what David Sinclair believes.
Sinclair says that anti-aging supplements are a necessary part of an everyday diet, as without them, it’s possible to lose years from your life. There are a slew of anti-aging supplements out there, including NAD+ boosters. These nicotinamide riboside supplements contain a type of vitamin B3.
The nicotinamide riboside in the supplement becomes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide or NAD+ when consumed. Now, you have a coenzyme that can aide the various processes our cells undergo. You can also cheat your body into thinking it’s younger with NAD+ supplements, since we lose NAD+ through aging. Thus, by adding more through supplements, you may be able to avoid some diseases brought on by age.
You can also try resveratrol, a stilbenoid in wine. Resveratrol is also naturally found in peanuts, mulberries, raspberries, blueberries, and grape skins. As a supplement, it could potentially ward off cancer cells, lessen painful joints, boost your sensitivity to insulin, and even keep your brain healthier from age-induced reductions in functionality.
Further, resveratrol has been proven to expand the lives of animals at least, although whether it works in humans remains to be seen. Still, Sinclair has called resveratrol “as close to a miraculous molecule as you can find.”
Polyphenol supplements may also be worth taking. These micronutrients, known for their phenol structures, have lots of antioxidants. Thus, polyphenols may be able to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, and digestive conditions.
A report published in Current Aging Science found that in keeping away the above diseases and others related to age that we may extend our youth even longer.
Conclusion
David Sinclair, a biologist, Harvard professor, and author, has dedicated his life to finding ways to live longer and stay youthful. He has five main tips for doing so. He recommends senolytics for fewer old cells, intermittent fasting, cold and hot therapies, and supplements like NAD+, resveratrol, and polyphenols.
With these great tips, the fountain of youth is within your grasp!
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