How to Slow Aging – What the Research Shows

Scientists have been able to measure the rate of aging by examining telomeres, the caps on the ends of our DNA that protect our genes. (Think of them as the little plastic ends on shoelaces to protect our DNA strands from fraying.) These caps naturally shorten each time our cells divide as we age. When these caps shorten too much, our DNA gets damaged and the result is “aging”. So the question is, how do we slow the shortening of our telomeres? The good news is, we can not only slow the shortening but actually lengthen our telomeres with simple choices in our lifestyle. Here’s what we know works:

Plant-based diet: the high intake of fruits and vegetables boosting anti-oxidant levels, in addition to cutting out inflammatory saturated animal fats reduces oxidative stress and telomere shortening. The best study on lengthening telomeres found that just 3 months of a plant-based diet had the greatest telomere lengthening effect, compared to only weight loss with portion control and weight loss with vigorous exercise. The food highest in antioxidants by a landslide is matcha green tea. Try Elixir Shots Organic Zenergy shot.
Exercise: a study on 1200 identical twins found that exercise can reduce biological aging by 10 years! How much exercise? It appears 3 hours a week of vigorous exercise is enough to make the difference in aging. Both cardio and HIIT appear to have beneficial effects. Organic beet juice is a great way to boost your endurance and anti-oxidant levels for your workouts. Try Elixir Shots Endurance shot 30 minutes before or after workouts and feel the difference.
Stress Reduction: Meditation is a great tool for this. Studies show “Loving Kindness Meditation” (basically focusing to yourself on people that love you and how much you love them and wish them well) for 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks showed benefit.
Reducing Oxidative Stress and Inflammation:
Adequate sleep (7-9 hours for most adults) plays a huge role in reducing inflammation and cellular damage. Sleep is one of those human needs we should never skimp on. This is when the body does all its repair and restoration from the day’s insults. If you’re not familiar with the incredible functions of sleep, please read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD. This was one of Dr. Delbruck’s favorites.
Reduce intake of pesticides, antibiotics, and other harmful environmental compounds. The best way to do this is to eat organic plant-based foods. Meats are full of concentrated pesticides, antibiotics, PCBs, and many more dangerous compounds that have accumulated in the animal fat over its lifetime, and you’re directly ingesting all of that. Even if you choose conventional produce, this is still better than the hefty toxic dose of chemicals you get from meat (and dairy and fish.) This is why Elixir Shots is dedicated to supporting organic regenerative farms and plant-based diets and never use anything with pesticides or hormones like that in dairy.
Anti-inflammatory superfoods including turmeric, ginger, cacao, matcha, and amla are nature’s gifts to heal our bodies. Make sure to choose fresh minimally processed sources so you’re not just ingesting dead nutrients (as many people do when they take powders or vitamins). At Elixir Shots we never heat our products to pasteurize, only High Pressure Pasteurization and cold-press all of our fresh herbs from the farm and organic vegetables.

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