Anti-Aging Strategies: Part 2 of 3

In part one, we debunked some of the trendiest “anti-aging” therapies taking up internet space – and a sizeable chunk of the over-50-crowd’s expendable income.  No doubt, in a year’s time a new batch of dubious tests / supplements / devices will take their place.  But  let’s turn our own attention to genuine anti-aging research with a longer shelf life – specifically, on actual causes of mortality.

A large-scale population-based study in Israel pointed the way to what might be the true key to longevity.  Researchers at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University tracked over 200,000 patients from 2000 to 2022.  The study focused on which health conditions and lifestyle habits increased mortality risk.  As we might expect, smoking, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension topped the list.  But way, way ahead of everything else on the list was something called ANA Positivity.

Our immune systems can produce anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) that are said to “mistakenly” target the body’s own cells, and are present in people with autoimmune diseases.  When ANA show up in someone’s bloodstream, it may be a sign that they have an auto-immune disorder.  With these disorders, the immune system is said to attack healthy tissue as if they were a threat to the body.  Examples include Sjogren’s, Lupus, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, but there are ANA that indicate more common conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.  The ANA for each disorder are often present long before someone experiences symptoms. 

The study showed that the presence of ANA increased mortality risk by THREE TO FOUR TIMES more than smoking, and many more times than diabetes.  ANA were irrefutably shown to be the earliest measurable predictor of disease. (Not telomere length or DNA testing!)  However, ANAs are an INDICATION of a disease, not the cause.  Their presence shows that the immune system is responding to degenerating tissue.  That degeneration of tissue can be called the process of aging. 

The implication with all of this is that the immune system responds to organ hypofunction way before any disease is apparent. This affirms the huge role that our immune systems play in our overall health and life span.

The sheer scale of this study was monumental, and its implications are breathtaking.  Yet it got little press in the West.  And of course, it begs the question: how do we combat this tissue degeneration?  And what do we do if someone tests positive for one or more types of ANA?  There are currently no medications that target ANAs.

So, is there anything we can do to address the crises that these ANA are alerting us to?  Short answer, yes.  Longer answer: see Part 3 of this blog series!