Is it possible to reverse your biological clock?

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Dr. G

A newly released, small (very small) study shows a combination of 3 drugs can ‘make you younger’.  

Here is the actual headline from nature.  

First hint that body’s ‘biological age’ can be reversed:

In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’, which tracks a person’s biological age.

When reading a headline like this your BS antennas should be on high alert.  However this research was published by ‘Nature International Journal of Science’.  Highly respected and not the type of publication to publish exaggeration or hyperbole.  

So what exactly are they saying.  

 A combination of 3 specific drugs can reverse the aging clock.  

1. How are they measuring the clock?
   1. The biological clock they are referring to are the marks made on our DNA strands by the biochemistry of our cells.   
   2. The biochemistry of our cells is dictated by their environment.  
   3. Their environment is dictated by your life.  Your diet, your surroundings, your relationships and your experiences.  
   4. The environment is responsible for the marks made on the DNA and these marks accumulate over a lifetime and tell your genes how to respond to the environment you put them in.  

In our youth, we are better able to adapt to our environments without accumulating too many marks on our genetic code (methylation).  Then as time goes by and we age, we can’t help but succumb to the effects of our environment.

What is it about youth that helps us adapt to our environments.  And adapt in such a way that does not result in the accumulation of these (epi)genetic marks.  

Perhaps it’s our body’s hormonal responses.  Specifically, in this study, hormones associated with food and hormones associated with growth and repair are the focus.  It seems these hormones also contribute to the function of our immune systems. And for those of you who read my blog you know that the immune system is a central player in every chronic disease known to man. 

Which hormones specifically? 

Growth Hormone:

In this study they focused on growth hormone which is a hormone that is most at the time of puberty and declines as we age.  This is also a hormone used by athletes for performance enhancement. We’ve known about growth hormone for decades, it’s not new.  With its use comes risks. You see, we are most abundant in growth hormone when we are still growing. Makes sense.

However, once we are adults, we are not exactly interested in continuing to grow.  Once we have reached skeletal maturity, we find that more than natural levels of this hormone can cause certain things to grow that we may not be interested in growing.  For instance, here are just a few examples

• Organs.  You do not want certain organs, like your heart growing, because if it does it loses efficiency and you may suffer heart failure prematurely.
• Blood vessels.  You do not want blood vessel walls to grow because that may alter the way blood flows through your vessels and may alter pressure and turbulence which can contribute to a host of different problems.  High blood pressure and atherosclerosis being an example. 
• Bones: As adults our bones no longer have growth plates, they are sealed.  So the impact on bones may result in the type of growth we are not interested in, like bone spurs seen in age related arthritis.  This accelerates all of the restriction and pain associated with arthritis.
• Cancer:  Cancer cells and their accumulation is present in all of our bodies, all the time.  It’s not abnormal, however we do not want to give them an artificial stimulus to grow more making it more difficult for the immune system to eliminate.  

In addition to the problems with growth.  Growth hormone also increases the risk for diabetes.  Poor regulation of how you manage the fuel in your food.  Which leads us to the next two drugs used in this study. 

Metformin:

Metformin is a tried and true drug that has been used for decades for managing pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome.  It has several known mechanisms and several unknown mechanism. This is a “relatively safe” drug that is often used by people who are not diabetic and who recognize that the better they manage blood sugar and “fuel” storage the longer they may live.  I do not disagree with this assertion. That is not to say however that metformin is without risk.  

Metformin can change the way our cells make energy.  The energy producing factories of all cells are called mitochondria.  They are cellular organs that have 5 steps to make energy called ATP. The function of the mitochondria is central to all life.  Metformin appears to inhibit one of these 5 steps and we do not know what the long term impact of that is. I am not someone who thinks our scientists have figured out all of the reasons why 600 million years of evolution and perhaps the hand of god created things the way they are.  I do not believe we can just go and inhibit a pathway so central to all life and there not be any consequences.  

I’m not being alarmist here, I stand by my previous statement that this drug has been used for decades in an effective and safe way.  Just sayin….

DHEA:

DHEA is produced by our adrenal glands.  DHEA is a precursor hormone used to make all of our sex hormones and our stress hormones.  DHEA also has a secondary function of improving insulin sensitivity in our fat cells, muscle cells and most importantly our liver cells.  DHEA is sometimes used as an over the counter supplement to provide more substrate for people to make more estrogen and testosterone. There are benefits to  its use, however there are risks with its overuse. Women who have used DHEA have noticed perhaps an increase in facial hair (due to testosterone production).  

When I order blood work I typically will have DHEA levels measured before recommending a typically short course of use depending on what is deficient and what the goals are. 

Before you run out and get your doctor to prescribe these 3 drugs in your quest for the fountain of youth remember….

• This study was on 9 “healthy subjects” (The term ‘healthy subjects’ is ill defined)
• This study had no controls.
• This study lasted 1 year.

You can still benefit from this knowledge.  

Growth hormone:

There are a host of ways to maximize your hormonal health and create the optimum environment to release more of your own growth hormone.  In quantities that are determined by your body’s own 600 million years of wisdom .

As for the DHEA and metformin. 

Improving insulin sensitivity with diet and lifestyle can be more dramatic than any combination of drugs.  As a matter of fact there are natural botanicals that have been shown to mimic the blood sugar regulating pathways of metformin.  This botanical is available of the counter and is called berberine.  

Like berberine, DHEA is also over the counter, however working with a doctor trained in functional medicine and having your blood levels of DHEA-sulfate measured along with other hormonal measurements is a good idea.  

There are other natural ways to impact how marks are made on your genes, thus determining repair and physiological age such as glycine, NAD and others.  When taken properly, there is ample evidence that you may be able to extend your youthfulness (or maybe go back to your once youthful self. 

Please share this article with anyone you feel may want to know more, leave comments or ask questions. 

Thank you.