Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Manage The Aging Process

As the baby boomer generation continues to march into their sixth and seventh decades, they have been willing to adopt just about any product that promises to halt, reverse, or alleviate the natural aging processes. Just check out the companies and products that chose to spend their advertising budget on any cable or network news program. By far, the greatest majority of commercials are for products that address specific consequences of aging like osteoporosis, bladder control, erectile dysfunction, as well as other age related problems followed closely by anti wrinkle and anti age spot products.

But what is "aging" in the physical sense? Although we normally chart aging chronologically with the addition of another number to the total at each birthday, “aging” is really how both our physical bodies and mental processes respond to the accumulating years of wear and tear.

At the most fundamental level aging is marked by the individual cells in our bodies losing their capacity to perfectly replicate themselves through cell division. Consequently, this decreases the cell's ability to effectively respond to stresses such as sickness. As the years accumulate and we are living our lives, this inability to maintain health in the cellular level will ultimately, and obviously, cause death.

Even though this could be gloomy, there's good news too. The very good news is that, as science does more and more investigation on genetics, more and more genes that contain specific effects for the process of getting older will be discovered. At some point aging itself may be regarded as a genetic condition which is, potentially, treatable. In truth, that process has already begun.

Newly marketed drugs like Resveratrol have already been proven to extend life spans of certain yeasts, nematode worms and fruit flies up to 60%. The future benefits on humans is still in question and there's, up to now, no scientific proof of life extension in complex mammals. But the scientific studies are continuing and there's optimism that some of these added benefits will transfer to humans also.

Some normally developing substances like omega-3 fatty acids are already the topic of numerous studies from the scientific community and been found to have a measurable effect on several aging related challenges like Alzheimer's disease, maintaining cognitive function, and the incidence of neurological diseases.

Additionally, omega-3 fatty acids have been related to preventing age-related blindness and minimizing the prospect of prostate cancer.

Chia provides the largest amount of omega-3 of any botanical source, greater than flax seed or flax oil. Chia can be included with virtually any recipe without changing its outcomes which makes it a really accommodating partner in the kitchen. Chia also goes well in both vegetable and fruit smoothies.

Adding an additional supply of omega-3 to your diet is simple to do and has excellent health improvements as well.


Visit Chia Benefits and read more about the benefits of Chia as well as information on creating a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Two more articles about Chia that you might find interesting can be found here and here.