Fuck the fountain of youth. Let’s create our own.

DEE
DEE
Nov 2 · 5 min read

Humans have always tried to evade death. Whether it’s because it’s out of fear or we just don’t want to leave, humans die. For eons we have tried to find ways to lengthen our time here on Earth and for a good time, we have succeeded.

In the fourteenth century, humans have had the average life span of 40 years. For women, it was less. There were numbers of reasons of why humans in the past kept dying faster, and each time we had learned to combat it. Either by developing new tools and techniques, or by learning the world around us. Now, a human male would have an average life expectancy of 72 years.

I never really thought of death much. And when I did it would be for stupid reasons.

“Would you rather die by being burnt alive or by freezing to death?” “Hmm I don’t know. Freezing?” “Really?” “Yeah.” “Hm, I would burn to death.” “Oh.”

But the world is quite funny.

I remember the first time I witnessed death. I was five, and it was 6 in the morning, I woke up to my fish just floating in the tank, only to realize, it was dead.

I don’t really remember much, but I do remember questioning, why couldn’t my fish live? My mother told me that yes, fish had a short life span and that they lived for only around two years, but why couldn’t my fish live for five years?

Now let’s apply a similar question to human lives. We’ve already achieved lengthening the human life span twice as much, but the question is, can we do more?

It seems that for scientists we might be able to crack the code. And no we don’t need to drink a magical potion nor go on a long quest to find the fountain of youth. Instead the answer lies right here, in our bodies.



In our bodies we are made of millions of cells.

Easy, right?

Now all cells lifespans range from a day to a year depending on their function, and as these cells grow closer to their deathbed, they grow weaker through a series of divisions.

When a cell divides, the DNA between chromosomes are copied. ( Which allows for more cells. ) However, there is a problem. Our bodies have things called telomeres that are like aglets. ( those things at the end of shoelaces ) These are used to protect the DNA, but as more divisions happen, the aglets wear down no longer letting the cell divide.

This causes the cell to become a senescent cell.

Senescent’s

Senescent cells are cells that are half alive. Like zombies. They‘re very different from healthy cells and are prohibited from reproducing or dividing naturally. They also pump out inflammatory 🆘 signals for help to other cells. But, these signals are like the zombie virus being spread from cell to cell. They can cause dysfunction and render the cell functionless and can cause aging.

It’s like a zombie apocalypse happening in your own body without you knowing.

So who’s our Rick Grimes ?

Several years ago, in a lab a sudden discovery was made. Through the injection of senescent cells into young mice, scientists observed that the mice had a noticeable physical deterioration.

They were growing old and dying.

It was as if Mother Gothel had reincarnated into a mouse suffering the same fate again as her counterpart.



Now you must be thinking. “Why can’t our immune system deal with it?” They’re supposed to keep an eye out for errors in our bodies. Right?

Yes … and no.

Our immune system do keep an eye out for errors in our body, and they also do their best to eradicate these errors. If we were at the beginning stages of senescent cells, our immune system probably would’ve been able to eradicate these cells. But if the burden of senescent cells becomes to great, these ‘zombie cells’ can now compromise the immune system.

Now as every great survivor in an apocalypse, one must have a plan in case of an emergency.

Plan A

Once it was declared that there was a correlation between cellular senescence and physical like aging, researchers started to explore ways to combat these “zombies.”

And it seems that with a simple change to a healthy lifestyle, a big difference can be made.

Senescent cells rely on sugar. Sugar is the equivalent to foods and for the sake of the analogy, brains. When cut off from the resource for long periods of time, senescent cells begin to die off helping the body clear out damaged cells.

Intermittent fasting does just that. Aka authphagy.

Authphagy may also have other hiddenbenefits. They help reduce inflammation and stress that are associated with cellular senescence. Which slows down the spread and the start for senescent cells allowing you to stay young and healthy.

Plan B, C, D [ … ] and Z

If you aren’t to ideal about the idea of fasting, ( believe me I have no control when it comes to food ) there are other alternatives. After discovering the phenomenal forced aging, the same scientists found out that senescent cells have pathways that help them survive in conditions that should not survive in.

Antiapoptotic pathways.

When dying, cells go through a natural process of apoptosis. However, senescent cells and cancer cells, sneakily avoid them, thus evading death.

In order to combat this, scientists used two drugs to effectively and selectively eliminate senescent cells when combined.

  • Dasatinin
  • Quercetin

These two drugs trigger apoptosis, the natural death process that penetrates through the antiapoptotic pathways towards the cells, eventually killing the senescent cells off.

Through this concoction, perhaps there is a magic potion that helps expand the human lifespan.

Welp- bottoms up. 🍻


Takeaways:

  • Senescent cells are cells that make you grow old
  • Get a healthier life style by either drinking more water, exercise, eat less sugar, fasting, etc.
  • There are drugs on the market that kill senescent cells providing anti-aging

CONNECT:

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/deborah-kwong-4a4b6b16a

Email: Dkwong343@gmail.com

DEE

Written by

DEE

Humble, but with a hint of KANYE.

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