Healthy Active Aging & Fitness Aging

Gene Smart Empowers Healthy Active Aging & Healthy Fitness Aging

By definition, we are all getting older.  So the question is not will we age, but how well we age – body, mind, spirit and community.  At Gene Smart, our focus is on empowering healthy active aging so that we can all stay healthier longer, and enjoy life to the fullest.  Our whole health innovations – The Living Abundantly Program, the Omega 3 Index Home Blood Test, and the Gene Smart Anti Inflammatory Diet & Exercise Program, each play an important role in empowering healthy active aging and healthy fitness aging.

Empowering Healthy Active Aging: Our Anti Inflammatory Lifestyle

Many of our most prevalent diseases of aging are in fact chronic inflammatory diseases.  These conditions include diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, allergies and many others.  So, our proven Gene Smart Anti Inflammatory Diet & Exercise Program is an ideal way to empower healthy active aging and healthy fitness aging through its four proven eating principles and its principle Exercise to Reduce Inflammation.  The program has been validated in a study recently published in the Center for Disease Control’s Preventing Chronic Disease Journal which demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing risk of chronic disease, weight loss, and enhancing quality of life.

The Omega 3 Index and Healthy Active Aging

Gene Smart pioneered the first home blood test that allows individuals to check their Omega-3 Index and Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio using a convenient, at-home “finger-stick” test kit.

You may have already heard that your Omega-3 Index is a better predictor of heart disease than cholesterol, and an important measure for reducing risk of cardiovascular disease. But did you know that a high Omega-3 Index is also associated with a slower rate of biological aging? In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), it was shown that individuals with higher Omega-3 Index experienced less telomere shortening than those with lower Omega-3 Index. Telomeres are protective caps of DNA at the tips of a chromosome that get shorter the more times a cell divides. The rate at which telomeres shorten is strongly associated with the rate at which human cells age and hence, this pioneering research suggests that omega-3s play a critical role in slowing biological aging.

More specifically, telomeres from individuals with the lowest Omega-3 Index shorten at more than twice the rate of individuals with the highest Index. According to the JAMA article, “these findings raise the possibility that omega-3 fatty acids may protect against cellular aging.” The discovery of the connection between the rate of telomere shortening and biological aging was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009.

In addition to the connection to rate of biological aging, Omega-3s have been shown to contribute to healthy active aging by promoting brain, eye, and heart health among its many health benefits.

The best ways to increase your Omega-3 Index is by consuming oily fish and by taking fish oil supplements that are high in the Omega-3s EPA and DHA.  Check out our Guide to Omega-3 Levels of Fish, which is a handy resource to help you make smart choices about which fish to select at restaurants and your local market.  We also developed our Gene Smart Omega-3 supplement specifically to increase the Omega-3 Index.  It is a premium quality fish oil with high levels of EPA + DHA that can help you increase your Omega-3 Index with just a couple of soft gels a day.

Healthy Fitness Aging = Healthy Active Aging

In the Gene Smart Program, the leading reason to exercise is to reduce whole-body inflammation. That’s right: The data are far more positive and conclusive on the association between exercise and inflammation than for exercise and weight loss.

The second leading reason to exercise is for healthy fitness aging which is to decrease the rate of biological aging.   In a recent study*, numerous sets of twins were studied with varying activity levels. It was found that the twin who was more active had much longer telomeres than the less active twin.  As described above, telomere length is an emerging marker of the rate of biological aging.  So, if healthy active aging is your goal, be sure to include exercise for healthy fitness aging!

 
* Cherkas, L. F. et al. Arch Intern Med 2008;168:154-158.

In addition to the relationship between exercise and biological aging, the right kind if exercise reduces inflammation risk factors for chronic diseases (Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Osteoarthritis), lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of developing diabetes, increases bone density, reduces depression & anxiety, increases life span by almost 4 years, and enhances overall quality of life.

So what’s the right way to exercise?  The Gene Smart Principle “Exercise to Reduce Inflammation” guides you to exercise at least 5 days a week, for at least 30 minutes. Start by trying to achieve 50-75% of the maximum heart rate for your age, and then gradually increase your heart rate to 70-85% max. Aim for a combination of exercises throughout the week, such as three days of aerobic exercise, and two days of circuit weight training.