How to beat the wrinkle hormone
... and bolster the ones that help your memory and mean you get a blissful night’s sleep
Our bodies produce 50 different hormones, and while we tend to think of ageing in terms of declining sex hormones, such as testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone, many others play a role in how and when we age.
As Saffron Whitehead, professor of endocrine physiology at St George’s, university of London, explains: ‘As we age, decreasing levels of some key hormones produced by different glands in the body contribute to age-related bone and energy loss, physical and cognitive decline and visible signs of ageing in the skin.’
So which are the key hormones that help control the ageing process and what can you do to make sure they’re at optimum levels for a long, healthy life?
SLEEP HORMONE THAT AGE-PROOFS MUSCLES
MELATONIN helps us sleep — its levels increase at night, making us feel sleepy, and drop in the morning. But from around our mid-40s, the pineal gland that produces the hormone gets ‘tired’ so levels drop.
this is one reason why older people struggle to sleep — age-related insomnia affects over half of those aged 65-plus. But super-agers in an ongoing u.S. study, were found to get at least eight hours a night.
Sleep is when our body repairs itself, which is why sleep-promoting melatonin is seen as the anti-ageing ‘wonder’ drug. our levels of this human growth hormone peak during sleep — it helps repair tissue and build muscle (muscle wasting is a part of ageing).
it’s not just sleep — melatonin may also help to strengthen old bones. that’s because the more sleep we get, osteoclast cells — which break down our bones when we’re awake at night — are less active.
‘As we age, we sleep less well, which means that the osteoclasts are more active,’ says Faleh tamimi, a professor at Canada’s McGill university’s faculty of dentistry, who has looked at how melatonin supple-found ments could slow the process of bone breakdown.
YOUR HORMONE PROTECTION PLAN
GIVE UP SMOKING: While melatonin levels naturally decline, cigarette smoking has been linked to lower levels of the hormone because chemicals in the smoke make your liver break it down more quickly.
EAT FISH: the production of melatonin depends on tryptophan, an amino acid we get from fish and shellfish, oats and bananas. CHOOSE FOODS RICH IN FOLIC ACID, ZINC AND MAGNESIUM: Folic acid, found in leafy greens, liver and lentils, and zinc and magnesium, in shellfish, poultry, nuts and soy products, are all components of melatonin. LIMIT COFFEE/ENERGY DRINKS
LATE AT NIGHT: Caffeine blocks melatonin so it can’t do its job, a 2012 study found. Levels can also drop if you’re exposed to ‘ blue’ light from screens at night, which mimics natural daylight and prevents the pineal gland from starting its night-time production of melatonin. For that reason, limit screen use late at night.
MELATONIN SUPPLEMENTS: Melatonin levels in supplements vary widely, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. the supplements, available readily online, are classe as dietary supplements so aren subject to the same level of scru tiny as medicines. it’s importan to ask your doctor’s advice as side effects can include depression dizziness and stomach cramps.
CHEATING THE WRINKLE HORMONE
one of the reasons we put o weight with age is down to change in the hormone insulin. this i produced in the pancreas i response to eating sugar an carbohydrates, allowing them t be taken up by cells where the are converted into energy. As w
age, our cells become more resistant to insulin and our bodies need to produce more to do the same job — a process hastened by poor diet or stress. This forces the cells to switch from repair, to finding energy from other sources, forcing them to take fat from the blood — causing weight gain.
Increased insulin levels, that occur with age, also slow down the metabolism, which as well as contributing to weight gain, has other effects such as higher blood pressure, raised ‘bad’ cholesterol and inflammation in the arteries.
Increased insulin prematurely ages skin and tissue, too. Scientists at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School in the U.S. have found that reducing insulin levels boosts the protein, SKn- 1, which helps mop up damaging molecules that cause premature ageing. Worms genetically altered to have low insulin levels lived 25-30 per cent longer.
Other research found that fruit flies lived significantly longer if their insulin levels were reduced.
‘There is a link between longevity and reduced insulin levels,’ explains David Russell-Jones, a professor of endocrinology and consultant physician at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford. He points to the fact that patients with type 2 diabetes have a fivefold risk of malignant cancer.
‘One theory is that this happens because of their higher levels of insulin,’ he says. High insulin levels are also linked to obesity and heart disease.
YOUR HORMONE PROTECTION PLAN:
STICK TO A DIET LOW IN SUGAR: This advice, which includes avoiding refined carbohydrates, is familiar, but may help slow premature ageing and wrinkles. PRACTISE INTERMITTENT FASTING: Lowering blood sugar and insulin through short-term fasting seems to ‘reset’ the metabolism to a more youthful version, says Karen Chapman, a professor of molecular endocrinology at the University of edinburgh. ‘There is a lot of interest in how metabolism relates to inflammation, the immune system, and ageing, and it seems that short periods of fasting for 24 to 36 hours can “reset” our metabolism, in a manner more typical of a young person’ — fasting effectively throws the switch from burning only glucose for energy to using fat, too, so that it’s not stored as body fat.
EXERCISE: ‘exercise, especially high- intensity exercise — short bursts of cardiovascular workouts followed by less intensive recovery periods — may do a similar sort of thing as fasting in resetting your metabolism,’ says Professor Chapman.
Professor Russell- Jones adds: ‘If you slightly under-feed an animal, it often lives much longer than an animal given adequate nutrition. This is thought to be related to the slightly underfed animal being more active because of the “foraging effect” to find more food.’
He points out that aerobic exercise such as jogging and cycling has been shown to make people more insulin sensitive so the body needs less insulin to produce the same effect — and this may be important in preventing cardiovascular disease.
‘exercise has an almost magical effect which we can’t really explain by calories used up or the training effect of putting on muscle and losing fat,’ he adds.
THE MEMORY AND REPAIR HORMONE
AS BEFITS its name, human growth hormone (HGH) plays a key role in stimulating the growth and repair of tissue, like muscle. But that’s not all.
It’s released by the pituitary gland in the brain during sleep, and then binds to specific receptors throughout the body, including brain cells connected with memory and fat cells, where it triggers them to release some of their energy.
It also stimulates the liver to produce a powerful hormone, called insulin-like growth factor, which promotes the growth of cartilage and muscle.
Our levels of HGH surge during childhood and the early teenage years, but thereafter drop by 14 per cent per decade during adult life, explains Stephen Shalet, emeritus professor of endocrinology at Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.
So by the time you’re 40, you are producing about half as much as you did at 20 which naturally leads to a reduction in muscle mass and vigour. This has led some researchers and anti- ageing doctors in America to speculate that artificially boosting levels of HGH with supplements can delay the ageing process.
However, there’s no evidence yet it can hold back the years.
‘In fact, there is good reason to believe that the opposite may be the case,’ says Professor Shalet, who points out that people with a rare congenital deficiency of HGH are smaller, with less muscle mass than their healthy peers but have the same average lifespan.
Researchers at the University of Southern California in 2013 found no evidence that the supplements improved muscle strength or performance in older men.
YOUR HORMONE PROTECTION PLAN
AVOID SUGARY FOODS LATER IN THE DAY: Your body produces HGH in sleep but sugary food and refined carbohydrates may sabotage this, as it causes an insulin spike and high insulin is linked to lower levels of HGH. STEER CLEAR OF HGH INJECTIONS: This is usually only approved as a treatment for people who have an extreme deficiency, typically as a result of an inherited condition. However, these jabs can be bought online (competitive
body builders do use them to build muscle mass).
‘It really isn’t a good idea to self-prescribe HGH to improve your muscle tone or boost vitality,’ says Professor Shalet.
Side- effects include swelling of the arms and legs, joint pain and increased insulin resistance, which can herald type 2 diabetes.
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH HORMONE?
DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE (DHea) is regarded by some as the fountain of youth hormone because of its supposed benefits for memory, bone health — and libido.
the hormone is produced by the adrenal glands, which sit alongside the kidneys, as well as by the liver. In men, it is also secreted by the testes. the body converts it into androstenedione, a precursor to the sex hormones, oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Levels of DHea decline significantly as we age — by up to 80 per cent from the age of 32 to 83 in men, according to one major study. Low DHea in the elderly has been linked to alzheimer’s and depression, while studies suggest the hormone improves energy levels and plays an important role in helping to maintain bone density.
a study in the U.S. in 2000 discovered that women aged between 60 and 79 given 50mg DHea daily for year had better bone density and significantly higher libidos than those on a placebo. their skin was also denser and less dry.
YOUR HORMONE PROTECTION PLAN
CONSIDER TAKING DHEA SUPPLEMENTS: this may be useful for some older women who want to increase their libido, but the effects are usually mild, says ashley Grossman, a professor of endocrinology at the oxford Centre for Diabetes, endocrinology and Metabolism.
He says most studies are inconclusive: ‘It’s not going to cause harm but it might not do much good either.’
DHea can also be applied to the skin as an ointment to reduce wrinkles. It can also improve thickness and elasticity of the vaginal wall.
DHea supplements can be made of wild yam or soy and are classed as dietary supplements. this means there is limited information about the products’ quality and effectiveness. Some supplements have been found to have no DHea at all.
ALCOHOL: Moderate alcohol consumption has been linked to higher levels of DHea in a study published in alcoholism: Clinical & experimental research in 2004, leading to a potential beneficial effect for heart health (it protects against the furring up of the arteries). However, this does not mean drinking more is even better for DHea and against this must be weighed other health risks associated with alcohol.