Aging and death are considered to be natural laws, but how do people get old? It is still a mystery that fascinates scientists. However, the latest research found that some mice age three times faster than others. Scientists say that this discovery will help to find out why people are getting old.

Aging is inevitable, but why do some mice age fast while others age slowly?

Researchers have found that gene mutations in mitochondria that provide cell energy can induce cell death or accelerate cell aging, which leads to premature aging of some mice, and their life span is only half that of normal mice.

Tom Boehner, a geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his team have bred some premature aging mice by changing 2000 bases of mouse DNA. These altered genes, called gamma polymerase, exist in mitochondria that produce energy.

Bona explained: "The basic function of these genes is to check spelling mistakes in mitochondrial DNA replication. When we change the base sequence of these genes, it will lead to defects, so its function of checking spelling mistakes will not last long, which will lead to an increase in mitochondrial gene mutations and accelerate aging. "

These newborn premature aging mice look normal, no different from ordinary mice, but when they grow to 8 months to 9 months old, the researchers found differences. "We began to see many signs of aging in them, such as thinning hair, osteoporosis and spinal curvature," Boner said. "It's like a 30-year-old young man with many symptoms of old age. Mice of the same age should not have these symptoms. Therefore, they are really getting old quickly. "

Humans also have premature senility, and usually only live to be 7 to 20 years old.

In fact, people also have Alzheimer's disease, which is closely related to gene mutation. The School of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong first discovered that premature senility of children is related to a gene mutation called fibronectin A. If children have a gene mutation of fibronectin A, it will lead to the problem of DNA damage and repair function, which will lead to the instability of the genome and accelerate the aging process of children. It is reported that at present, there is no drug in the world that can treat premature aging of children.

Since 1886, more than 100 cases of premature senility in children have been recorded in the world. Cases have been recorded in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province Province and Japan. Children with Alzheimer's disease generally age five times faster than normal people-10 times, and look like old people. Generally, they can only live to 7 to 20 years old, and most of them will die of cardiovascular and other senile diseases.

This discovery confirmed for the first time that cell death is the main cause of aging.

Because mitochondria also control the natural process of cell death in our body, mistakes in checking misspelled genes can lead to cell suicide. When mitochondrial mutation increases, it will accelerate the aging of many species, including humans. The researchers observed that cell death was increasing, and as a result, they saw the appearance of aging.

It is found that gene mutation always occurs in the process of cell development, partly because the oxygen we breathe contains harmful substances. However, the human body's repair mechanism has been constantly repairing those DNA damages, so cells can maintain their functions, but this repair function will gradually weaken with the aging of cells. This is why the damage of mitochondrial DNA in the elderly can't repair itself.

Especially for stem cells, the death or aging of such cells is very important because it is not easy to update. Once you lose your mobility, you can't regenerate and recover for a long time. But Bona said that this does not mean that the normal aging of mice or humans is caused by genetic defects that check spelling mistakes. In other words, even if the work of checking spelling mistakes goes on normally, we will still have genetic mutations from time to time and get old.

From this perspective, cell death is an important reason for our aging. Of course, human aging is also related to the increase of free radicals in the body, and the decline of immunity and other factors such as stress, environment, nutrition, lifestyle and immune function are also one of the reasons leading to aging. But this discovery confirms for the first time that the mechanism of cell death is the main cause of aging.

Studies have found that dieting can make animals live longer.

Therefore, researchers believe that they may be able to find ways to help aging cells repair damaged DNA, and may find ways to prevent aging or treat cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other diseases related to genetic defects.

Bona said that they will also study ways and mechanisms to interrupt or delay the aging of these mice. Nowadays, calorie restriction has been proved to be the only way to make animals live longer, so they want to delay the aging of these mice by dieting.

Although it is not known how dieting can make animals live longer, studies have found that there are fewer gene mutations in mitochondria and fewer cell deaths in some tissues. Therefore, Bona believes that this may be one of the main mechanisms of dieting to delay aging.

Boehner said that for most people, dieting is not easy to do. "Few people can go on a diet above 10%, and most people don't want to go on a diet at all! Therefore, if we understand how genes play a role in dieting and delaying aging, we can develop drugs or nutrients to play this role. "

No single gene can be responsible for aging, and aging is a complex regulation process of multiple genes.

However, scientists say that no single gene is responsible for aging. Through gene regulation, aging genes can be suppressed and longevity genes can be promoted. Humans may live to 150 years old or even above. This is just an inference. In reality, genes cannot completely determine human aging and longevity.

Frisoni and Luciga, scholars who study Finns aged 100, believe that people's life span is mainly realized by internal and external factors. The internal cause is gene and the external cause is environment, including natural factors and social factors. Genes are only part of the reason for longevity, and even half of them are not decisive. The other half or most of the factors are environment. The effect of environment and living habits on longevity may reach 66%.

Even from the perspective of genetics, scientists believe that aging is a complex regulation process with multiple genes, which is manifested by changes in telomere length of chromosomes, DNA damage (including single-stranded and double-stranded breaks), DNA methylation and oxidative damage of cells. The combination of these factors leads to a long or short life.

In fact, we are all afraid of aging, disease and even death. Not to mention that when people are living happily now, even in the old society, when they are struggling painfully, there is still a saying that life is worse than death. So people began to study the causes of human aging, disease and death.

The first reason: the influence of free radicals on human body: this word appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What is a free radical? People are made up of cells, and the waste (garbage) produced by cell metabolism is called free radicals. Human cells die and survive in large numbers every day, so it needs a lot of nutrition to survive, and it also discharges a lot of waste (garbage). These wastes (garbage), which we call free things, will do serious harm to people's health if they can't be removed immediately in our bodies.

So the first hazard: oxidizing the body. We can't live without oxygen. We all know that people need intubation to deliver oxygen during the rescue process, and people need a lot of oxygen at the most critical time. However, the dichotomy of oxygen is really harmful to people's health and will oxidize our bodies. Oxidation of substances will cause material damage. For example, after iron is oxidized, it peels off layer by layer and becomes bad. Plastic pipes, for example, are soft when they are just bought, but when exposed to the air, they will harden and deteriorate due to oxidation. For example, the food we eat, such as apples, will oxidize, rust and deteriorate when it comes into contact with oxygen in the air after peeling.

If potatoes are peeled and put into water to isolate them from oxygen in the air, then they can be prevented from being oxidized. We can't live without oxygen, but oxygen can also oxidize our bodies, making us old, fragile, stiff, sick and dead. The second harm: it will destroy our nutritional system.

The third harm is to destroy our enzyme system. We can't live without enzymes. For example, our body needs amylase to digest starch, pepsin to digest and absorb protein, pancreatin to decompose fat and so on. There are all kinds of enzymes in human body, and only with the joint participation of enzymes can every chemical reaction in the body be successfully completed. Therefore, with the increase of age in the human body, the greater the storage of free radicals, the greater the harm to the body. In order to deal with free radicals, scientists have developed a substance for scavenging free radicals, which is called a "free radical scavenger".

Free radical scavenger: it can be divided into enzyme system free radical scavenger and non-enzyme system scavenger.

The free radical scavengers of 1. enzyme system include superoxide dismutase (Dabao SOD can scavenge free radicals on the face), glutathione and hydrogen peroxide (ACT).

2. Non-enzymatic system scavengers, such as red in vitamin C, vitamin E and plant pigments, are called anthocyanin oligosaccharides (OPC for short). It can scavenge free radicals and resist aging, especially in grape skins, seeds and pine nuts, with the highest content and the strongest effect, which is 20 times that of vitamin C and 50 times that of vitamin E.

Second, the size of the human cell membrane transport capacity:

Because our human body is composed of countless cells (simple but complex, its structure is covered with a membrane, which contains mitochondria, protein and nucleus), the stronger the permeability of the cell membrane, the stronger the transport capacity of nutrients and free radicals, the richer the nutrition, the faster the elimination of waste (free radicals), and the healthier the natural human body.

On the contrary, the body is not good. Although the cell membrane is thin, its structure is quite complicated. There are four modes of transportation, 1, and filtration mode: we often encounter them in our daily life. For example, in the process of making tofu, bean-wrapped cloth is equivalent to cell membrane. The largest filtering organ in our body: the kidney. Dirty blood in the body must be filtered. Useful substances such as protein, red blood cells and white blood cells are filtered and retained, while harmful substances such as uric acid, urinary alkali and urinary bile salts are filtered out. If our kidneys are constantly destroyed freely and become rough, that is, filtered, then nutrients will be continuously lost, resulting in malnutrition. For example, a large number of protein, red blood cells and white blood cells can be detected in urine of patients with advanced diabetes.

If it becomes thick, it will leave harmful substances such as uric acid, urinary alkali and urinary bile salts in the body, leading to pyelonephritis, urinary system infection and more serious renal failure. At this point, the patient needs hemodialysis. Therefore, everyone's cell membrane permeability should be just right to ensure normal filtration and achieve effective filtration. OPC in free radical scavenger can maintain the isotonic, isotonic and isobaric function of cell membrane.

2. The ability of monolayer molecules to diffuse (physical movement). For example, after piling up black coal at home, the white wall will turn black, so the delicate film also has this function and has the ability of single-layer diffusion. For example, taking anti-inflammatory drugs, knowledgeable doctors will take acid or alkali tablets at the same time to make the curative effect better. It is this principle that is used.

3. Cell membrane has the function of pump transportation, and there is less material outside and more material inside, which is called uphill movement. There are less potassium ions outside the heart cells and more potassium ions inside, which go from several aspects to many aspects. The tool it needs is a pump, but this pump needs energy. We should try to give him a substance: ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

4. It has the function of carrier transportation. It's called ferry transshipment or self-transshipment. It's like a boat crossing a river. Because free radicals are more active substances, they often get on the boat first, so nutrients and garbage can't get on the boat well, so they should be removed from the boat first. Transshipment is unhealthy, and the body is not healthy.

Third, the influence of genes on human health.

What is a gene and how to understand it? For example, making cookies and moon cakes is like a "mold", both of which are poured out of the mold. Then people are deducted according to family inheritance, that is, people in the same family have the same genes. If someone looks like someone's mom and dad, it's like a mold.

If the gene changes, people will get sick. For example, hypertension means that a certain gene has changed. After birth, people have to change, in addition to being influenced by nature and bad habits. It is also influenced by genetic factors. If parents have high blood pressure, the possibility of their children suffering from high blood pressure will be greatly enhanced. If there is a substance that can keep genes from getting sick and repair cells at the same time, scientists will find OPC after research. People have a poor memory of nasal mucosa and poor memory of eye mucosa, so few people will never forget it.

Human cells have a certain life span and will die after a certain period of time. For example, exfoliation, which we often hear in beauty, is dead cells on the skin. If you want your skin to look good, you must remove it first. There is death and life, and countless cells regenerate every day. There is only one kind of cell that is immortal and very tenacious, and that is cancer cells, so people should constantly fight against cancer cells all their lives.

Fourth, the influence of nutrition on human body.

Looking back, is your nutritional status good? In fact, everyone sitting here is malnourished, because all we eat is sweet mouth and smelly ass. Let's compare it.

First, starch (under the action of salivary enzymes), that is, the food we eat, are you eating scientifically?

Have you had enough? Especially the girls who call for losing weight and loving beauty every day, some people lose weight and reduce anorexia, and some people die until their liver cells shrink, and those who starved to death in the old society have no food to eat.

2. Did you eat too much? Like hypertension, fatty liver, diabetes and so on. In particular, more and more people are suffering from type 2 diabetes. I have a suggestion: keep your mouth shut, exercise your legs, be hungry for three minutes, be cold for three minutes, drink soup first, and then eat. Only with the participation of B vitamins can food be converted into glucose and enter the blood. We eat less coarse grains now and eat too carefully. Insufficient intake of B vitamins makes more and more people nervous, unable to sleep, angry and guilty. Lack of B vitamins can lead to many nervous system diseases.

Protein: protein is one of the important substances that make up our human body. Serious shortage will kill people.

Collagen is an important component of various enzymes, and calcium supplementation without collagen is ineffective.

Ginger. Everyone is familiar with it, but many people don't know that it contains a lot of protein degrading enzymes. After we eat food that is not rich in protein, we need it to break down protein into amino acids for our blood. When potatoes and beef are roasted together, there are a lot of protein-degrading enzymes in potatoes. It is also in the monkey peach, and it is also in OPC.

3. Fat: Both animal and plant foods contain fat, but the content is different. Animal fat contains a lot of saturated fatty acids, which are insoluble in water and stored in the body in solid state, such as blood vessel wall; Plant fat contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, which are soluble in water and can flow out without being stored in human body. Fat is mainly used to supply human energy.

Vitamins, which are both nutrients and medicines, are toxic because fat-soluble vitamins are eaten too much. Lack of certain vitamins will make you sick. So pay attention to intake every day.

5. It has a certain effect on human enzyme system and growth. 7. Dietary fiber is not absorbed into blood by human body, but it can tidy up our gastrointestinal tract, treat constipation and treat colorectal cancer. Chitin can remove the rubbish in the blood. They should all play a good role with the participation of OPC.

Five, the impact on human immune function:

1. defense function: we all have a defense function system. Usually eat poisonous food (germs and bacteria) every day. Why do some people get hepatitis and others don't? If the white blood cells in our body are swallowed up, then our body is not easy to get sick, so OPC can enhance people's immune function.

2. Exclusion function. If you eat something you don't need, you should refuse it. A person's body is injured and will rot, but it is slowly healing.