Have you ever gone for a review of your blood work or scan work or an ophthalmologic consult and heard your specialist tell you…some aspect in your report isn’t’ in the optimum value…however this is only age related!!? I have a very big issue with this statement!
In my opinion aging process should only refer to – each year I celebrate my birthday and I am one year older than the previous one.
I see so many clients barely in their 60s coming in with knee pain, back pain, arthritis, low energy levels, digestive issues, poor or compromised vision or hearing ability, and instead of figuring out what caused it and how to resolve it…they have simple accepted and attributed it to be ‘age-related’.
This simply means, you can have any of the following symptoms and modern medicine would recognizes you as ‘perfectly healthy’ for your age:
Anxiety, depression, decreased mental clarity, lower retention power, low energy levels, weakened immunity, decreased sexual desire, damaged skin, hair loss, joint pains, insomnia, vision impairment and even inability to effortlessly loose excess fat.
These symptoms are not caused by any disease they are simply an outcome of – aging. Here’s the rude shock – for most people in today’s ‘unhealthy’ dynamics’ aging begins at 35! Its takes about 5-10 years to show signs and symptoms…thus long before you begin to notice the first sign of aging, your body has already begun the downward slide.
You can be 45 and feel like 85 or you can be 75 and feel like 85…or you can be 85 and feel the burden of feeling 85…there is a common denominator that here, that makes you feel the way you do – ‘DECREASED ENERGY PRODUCTION.’
Now this sentence is extremely important: The decreased energy production at any age is solely due to your body’s inefficiency and inability to optimally utilize oxygen and convert it to produce energy. (Read that again!)
There is a wonderful term coined to measure your body’s ability to product energy from oxygen – Energy Quotient or E.Q. It has been well researched and concluded that the fundamental cause of aging is low E.Q levels.
It is true all of us are going to eventually die…the choice we have…and the choice I would pick is – I would rather die in a better shape.
Your body produces energy in two ways –
- Aerobic – energy that is produced using oxygen
- Anerobic – energy that is produced in the absence of oxygen.
I have a 6 year old and I am amazed at how she spends 4 hrs at school running, jumping and playing, heads to other classes after that, runs and plays with her friends in the evening and by 7pm when I feel I am almost done with the day, she still wants to run up 4 flights of stairs, instead of taking the lift…and I have literally never seen her breathless. That is when you know her aerobic energy production is at its very best!
Anerobic energy was designed by nature for emergencies…it is a very high amount of energy that kicks in for a short span…kinda like the glucose that you take post a run.
Your body requires Aerobic energy production to be optimum for you to effortlessly go through your daily routine…and any instance when your aerobic energy production dips, your body’s emergency sirens begin to increase the anerobic energy production. It is when this imbalance occurs with high anaerobic energy production vs lowered aerobic energy production, is when you begin to feel all the aches and pains – the alarming symptoms of ‘aging.’
Anaerobic energy production is highly undesirable because, during the production process, it generates a lot of ‘free radicles’ which have such toxic power to even damage genetic material. One of the key components of accelerated aging process is – ‘Free radicle damage.’ It also produces another byproduct – lactic acid…the pain you feel post an extensive workout – that’s lactic acid in your muscle.
Every single function in your body is heavily dependent on aerobic energy production…so much so that you cant move or even think in the absence of aerobic energy production.
Basically nothing…absolutely nothing…is as important and crucial to experience life and an optimal state of well being as the energy you produce from oxygen.
Let us first understand how energy is produced using oxygen: Inside every single cell in your body, there are complex structures called mitochondria – they are the power house of your body. The O2 that inhale with every breath, eventually reaches the mitochondria where all the fats and carbs are broken down by special enzymes to produce energy. It is when these power houses get damaged, your ability to produce energy from oxygen decreases, thus beginning the decent towards aging and all other ‘age related’ aches & pains and infirmity.
What causes your power house to operate less efficiently?
Why and when does this deplete?
- Poor Nutrition – including too much refined carbs vs insufficient protein and eating the wrong fats!
- Poor Fitness routine
- Poor sleep pattern
- Hormonal Deficiency
- Dehydration – sometimes, despite drinking sufficient water
- Vitamin and Trace Mineral deficiencies
What about stress then? Honestly…if all of the above are sorted…your ability to cope with stress becomes as effortless as your ability to produce energy. You begin to focus on solutions rather than wallowing in grief and magnifying the problem.
Many of my clients complain – my work consumes most of my resting hours and I barely get to sleep and workout is definitely not an option.
The tragedy of the story isn’t that we are unable to produce energy we require at 35 itself…the tragedy is that, when most visit the doctor’s office they are constantly looking for a magic pill or a surgical quick fix their illness without wanting to change their lifestyle that caused the illness in the very first place.
Thomas Edison in his wise words once quoted: “The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet, and the cause and prevention of disease.”
This is exactly what I would advice you as well. Most people feel sluggish or unenthusiastic to even want to kick themselves up to healthier routine…this I attribute to a sluggish gut and a toxic liver. Your liver is crucially dependent on your ability to produce energy with oxygen. A thorough Gut detox and Liver Detox would significantly help jump start your energy production efficiency as well as boost your enthusiasm. Yoga routine with pranayama and workout routines will surely enhance circulation, which in turn enhances the oxygen delivery mechanism to each cell for energy production.
Ozone therapies are fantastic to increase both O2 levels in the body and also enhance O2 utilisation…as Ozone – the super charged version of Oxygen has the ability to repair damaged mitochondria and also neutralise free radicles…There are several documented studies that prove Ozone therapies and Gut Detox reverses aging. I have personally witnessed every single client of mine walking into my Detox centre on the 3rd or 4th day of detox grinning, saying – everybody keeps asking me what I have been up to…my skin is glowing! There you go…that is anti-aging at its prime of proof.
There is a natural long lasting anti-aging promise, but it has to come from you…not a pill or a surgical magic wand – periodic Detox of both Body & Mind, Sleep, Fitness and enjoy great food. Of course consult your functional medicine doctor asap…for the minor tinkering required with regard to vitamin, mineral or hormonal deficiencies or any upgrade you might require in your enzyme production centre.
Here’s one for humor: Many people die at 35 but aren’t buried till 75! Would you like to hit 85 feeling just like you did at 35?
The author of this article Dr. Ashmita Boopathy Moturi, is a Doctor of Naturopathy, a PhD. in Psychology and has completed her Masters in Medical Engineering. She is the founder of NineO2 Detox Center and the Director of Wishing Well Center for Integrative Medicine.