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The Empowering Neurologist – David Perlmutter, M.D. and Dr. Elissa Epel

How well we age is actually something we can control. We are learning more and more that there are correlations between our “aging,” in other words how long we remain healthy versus suffering from some form of chronic disease, and the length of the ends of our DNA called telomeres. Certainly, the idea of “lengthening your telomeres” is so much a part of the public discussion that products are using this as a catchphrase for marketing.

So I think it’s important to bring this whole notion of telomeres as markers of disease risk and perhaps more importantly as playing a mechanistic role in aging to a better level of understanding. Continue reading

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The Empowering Neurologist – David Perlmutter M.D., and Sergey Young

There’s a lot going on in the area of longevity science. Researchers are hard at work trying to unravel the mysteries of what causes the disease we know as aging.

But beyond the actual bench research, dedicated thought leaders are doing their part to facilitate the science and bring attention to this burgeoning discipline. And one of the pivotal players in this arena is my good friend, Sergey Young. Continue reading

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The Empowering Neurologist – David Perlmutter M.D., and Dr. David Sinclair

Fair to say that we all assume that aging is inevitable. In reality however, there is no biological law that says we must age. Over the years we’ve seen a variety of theories proposed to explain why we age including the accumulation of damage to our DNA, the damaging effects of chemicals called “free radicals,” changes in the function of our mitochondria, and so many others.

Our guest today, Dr. David Sinclair, believes that aging is related to a breakdown of information. Specifically, he describes how, with time, our epigenome accumulates changes that have powerful downstream effects on the way our DNA functions. Reducing these changes to the epigenome is achievable and in fact, even taking it further, his research now reveals that the epigenome can be reprogrammed back to a youthful state. Continue reading