How fast do you get old on sugar? Scientist: It's true! Sugar shortens telomeres, or shortens lifespan

It may not be a good thing to love sugar. There is a saying that “happiness is sugar, sweet to sadness”. Previously, a special experiment conducted by British biologist Professor David Gunn and Leiden University in the Netherlands confirmed that “eating too much sugar does make you age faster”, and related studies have also confirmed that eating too much sugar is easy to get older, and excess sugar will damage mitochondria function, causing shortening of telomeres, or shortening of lifespan.

How old do you get on sugar? British biologist

It is also 50 years old, why do some people look younger and others look older? For scientific confirmation, a few years ago, British biologist David Gunn cooperated with Leiden University in the Netherlands to conduct age assessments on standard facial images of 600 subjects and group them by hypoglycemia, normoglycemia and hyperglycemia. Their blood sugar levels were measured, and data from people with diabetes was added as a control.

The results are surprising and reasonable. Blood sugar is closely related to people’s apparent age. The group with low blood sugar levels is younger. Needless to say, diabetic patients are definitely older.

Mechanism 1: Excessive sugar damages mitochondrial function

Mitochondria are the energy-producing structures in cells. In addition to providing cellular functions, mitochondria are also involved in processes such as cell differentiation, cell information transmission, and apoptosis, and have the ability to regulate cell growth and cell cycle. However, the structural and functional damage of mitochondria on a certain scale will lead to a decline in the function of the human body system and accelerated aging of the body.

Relevant research on PubMed pointed out that high sugar intake is likely to cause mitochondria to secrete a large number of free radicals for a long time. The direct effect of free radicals is to destroy the mitochondria-independent gene mtDNA. Its irreversible damage and mutation directly affect mitochondrial function, and a large number of mitochondrial functions are damaged outside the body. The performance is aging and systemic dysfunction.

Mechanism 2: Excessive sugar causes telomere shortening

Excessive sugar intake not only damages mitochondria, but also directly damages human DNA. At the ends of our chromosomes, there are cap-like structures called telomeres.

Telomeres are also known as “life clock”, and the scientific community has generally recognized that the shortening of telomeres is equivalent to the shortening of life length to a certain extent. Although telomeres themselves carry any DNA information, they play an irreplaceable role as a complex structure of DNA and protein that protects the ends of chromosomes.

During the normal division of human cells, the telomeres will continue to wear and tear with repeated cell divisions and DNA replication. When the telomeres are shortened to a certain extent, the integrity of the chromosomes cannot be guaranteed, followed by gene damage and cell death. A related study published in PubMed showed that oxidative stress caused by excess sugar can lead to accelerated telomere shortening, resulting in accelerated cell death, and sugar intake is positively correlated with telomere shortening.

How to stabilize the “life clock? There is more than just eating less sugar”

Since telomere shortening affects our health and even life span, is there any other way to delay telomere shortening besides eating less high-sugar foods? Thankfully, the scientific community has made some progress on this front in recent years.

A number of studies have found that by supplementing the precursor of NAD+, WLife substances can effectively stabilize DNA, prolong telomeres, and prolong survival.

The precursor of NAD+ is involved in hundreds of important cellular activities such as cell metabolism, energy metabolism, glycolysis, DNA replication, etc. Its content is closely related to the activity of genes that prolong lifespan and inhibit aging in the human body, and will increase with age. reduce.

In 2016, scientists from the American Anti-aging Research Institute found that supplementing WLife in the human body can prolong lifespan and improve health through mitochondrial and DNA repair. The results were published in “cell”.

A study published in Cell in 2017 by the University of Washington School of Medicine pointed out that NAD+ can be supplemented by WLife, and the amount of supplementation is related to the body weight, and revealed the mechanism of NAD+ and the longevity protein Sirtuin extending lifespan in the human body.

There are many such studies, and there are many more dedicated attempts. Professor David Sinclair of Harvard University, known as the “Godfather of Anti-aging”, was only 31.6 years old when he was 50 years old. According to media reports, he was supplementing the WLife substances on JD.com and Tmall for a long time. Unlike others, Professor David Sinclair Supplementing with this substance while reducing the intake of high-sugar foods has caused Rihanna, Buffett, Zuckerberg and other rich to follow suit.

The 94-year-old Li Chaoren also follows this regimen. After using WLife supplements in 2017, he lamented, “It seems like I’m back

After the age of 20, a baby is born”, and has invested nearly 200 million Hong Kong dollars in such biotechnology companies. After the introduction of domestic JD.com and Tmall, this type of supplement has won the favor of many middle-class affluent health care professionals, and is known as one of the “easy health care” methods. one.

With the development of biotechnology, there may be more long-lived substances or methods of prolonging life in the future, and the lifespan of human beings will also increase year by year, and even usher in the third lifespan innovation. will come”. We may struggle with how to plan for this longer life.