People are living longer all over the world.
Today, a large part of the population reaches or exceeds 60 years of age and it is very likely that the number of people of that age will double within 30 years.
From a biological point of view, aging is a progressive deterioration that leads to the exhaustion and death of living organisms.
It is striking that, in traditional cultures considered primitive and in the first civilizations, life and death were related to a vital force, which was consumed during old age until death.
In each culture it had its own name. For the Egyptians it was Ka, Prana for the Hindus, for the Chinese Chi, which was related to Ying and in Greek mythology Nous, the spirit.
These ideas of vital energy have been maintained in all historical epochs up to the present time and it seems that with greater force in recent times.
In the Hippocratic era a decisive change took place. This energy is real, it is not speculative or mystical, it is natural energy. And this, which seems simple, was what opened the door for all subsequent scientific progress.
Thus, Francis Bacon, after the medieval dark phase, said in the 16th century that organic deterioration could be overcome if the systems for repairing deterioration in aging could last longer.
Based on simple measures, common sense and instinctive medicine itself, many physicians in later centuries gave healthy advice for “getting old”, concerning the quality of air, water, temperature, physical activity or food.
Later, after the end of World War II, the genetic approach considered aging as a result of the expression of genes in their interaction with the environment. Genetic mutations can be favorable or unfavorable, and would be an important factor in the phenomena of aging and longevity.
The genetics of longevity refers to genes that influence by controlling the stability of DNA, the alteration of which leads to cell death. Some very important genes are those that control the length of telomeres, which are the ends of chromosomes. Telomere shortening causes defects, triggering apoptosis or programmed cell death.
In the opposite direction, an enzyme, telomerase, allows Telomere lengthening.
The interaction of genes with the environment, through the inhibition of telomerase and the shortening of chromosomes, is also known.
Other theories, very close to these and developed in the last 25 years, explain aging by the existence of reactive oxygen species, which are free radicals resulting from a partial reduction of oxygen, an imbalance between the consumption of cellular oxygen generating energy and water and the production of other residual molecules, reactive oxygen species or free radicals.
Oxidative stress occurs when the balance between oxidation and antioxidant defense mechanisms is broken, leading to metabolic changes and cell deterioration and death, i.e., disease and aging.
One system that is greatly affected is the immune system, leading to errors in its response, which are the basis of all autoimmune diseases.
All this seems paradoxical. Oxygen, which gives life, also destroys it.
And in the end we are back to square one. As ancient medical philosophies used to say, health and disease are a balance between opposites: Gods and Demons, Ying and Yang, Microcosm and Macrocosm….
The most advanced traditional cultures brought these ideas closer to the material concept of Nature, but did not reach the clarification achieved in classical Greece by the Hippocratic philosophers and physicians.
Aging is the loss of healthy harmony, a necessary disharmony within the natural order, but which can be advanced or delayed.
The scientific advances of recent decades have made spectacular achievements in the fight against disease and aging, but for many years they have left in the background the ideas of natural balance and harmony so often repeated in other eras.
Since the last century, with the onset and subsequent rise of environmentalism, these concepts have regained much of their importance.
To age better and live longer, it is necessary to respect natural norms, or in today’s words, to avoid oxidation of the organism, to reduce the toxic actions of free radicals and DNA alterations that lead to cell death.
And this is done with dietary measures, using the original Greek meaning of the term diet as a way of life (not only referring to food).
First of all, taking care of the natural elements of the environment, water, air, fire and earth.
Control and treatment of water, air quality, waste management, forest conservation and reforestation, fire prevention….
In addition, each and every one of us has to help our health with the right and adequate food, the right exercise and sleep and a positive attitude and enthusiasm for life.
The first health objective is to reduce stress, that excessive expenditure of tension that favors and causes many medical problems due to neuroendocrine and immunological exhaustion, favoring cellular damage.
Finally, the doctor must not only prescribe tests and treatments, but must insist, for example, that food is necessary, but also a first level health indicator is to maintain the right weight; that it is better, to prolong life, to have the right weight and eat less, as already recommended by many ancient doctors and confirmed by new experiments.