A distributor, if he is not a doctor, often hears: “You are not a doctor, how can I listen to your advice about health and longevity drugs?” Why does a person need a doctor in this situation? In order to shift responsibility for your health to the doctor. Make the decision for me, they say, and if anything happens, my husband is a lawyer, he will ask you. The doctor is responsible, perhaps, only to his own conscience. Because he mainly prescribes drugs approved by the state, i.e. In fact, the responsibility lies with the state, not with the doctor. How much can you ask from the state? So the issue of doctor liability (with the exception of obvious medical errors) is quite complex. In order to answer to one’s own conscience, one must wear “white clothes” and not clothes, for example, from “Gedeon Richter”.
Aspect 2. Help yourself
A modern doctor (unfortunately, exceptions are extremely rare) is a specialist in disease who has a vague idea of health. The real health specialist is the person himself. More precisely, his body. If the body is given everything it needs to set up its body for proper functioning, then it will independently select what is missing and remove what is excess. Everything you need, i.e. "construction material", contained in the dietary supplement Newways. The task of a health consultant is to minimize costs by determining what exactly is necessary. Everything else, voluntarily or involuntarily, will be done by the human body. And if as a result the person is healthy and young, what difference does it make whether I am a doctor or not?
Aspect 3. Public opinion
Every person is an island, but islands are connected by the common ocean in which they are located. Everyone decides independently the issue of their life expectancy, but the information on the basis of which a conclusion is made about the actions necessary to increase life expectancy is drawn from sources that have nothing to do with this process. And the main source of knowledge is public opinion. As Nikolai Fomenko said, this is the opinion of those who are not asked about anything. It is formed according to the principle: I heard about this somewhere, but I don’t want to think about it myself, but since everyone says so, then it is so. The history of the development of civilization is literally teeming with examples of the discrepancy between public opinion and reality. Let us at least remember the sad end of Giordano Bruno. The development of science has confirmed his “seditious” hypothesis over the years, but Bruno himself cannot be resurrected.
Aspect 4. Lack of personal experience
If a person’s personal experience confirms to some extent public opinion, then his own point of view on the issue becomes ideological. It is almost impossible to change it. The trouble is that a person has no personal experience of longevity. Still would. After all, the so-called theory is fully confirmed by the so-called practice. It is impossible to live for a long time, this is the lot of a few (this is a theory). Between 60 and 70 years, statistics say, 95 percent of the population dies out. This is practice. Since extinction is constantly before our eyes, talk about longevity seems just idle verbiage. Is it necessary to change something in the consciousness of slowly but surely degrading humanity? As they say in the apocalypse, “not everyone will survive.” Life is a deeply personal concept. The decision about its quality is an independent decision. Forcing someone to live who does not want to live is Sisyphean work.
Aspect 5. Reluctance to live
Humanity today is subject to pseudosuicidal mania, which is expressed in the fact that a person does not want to think and take any steps to counteract the environment and living conditions that are killing him. Isn't it suicide to refuse food? Is. Refusal of the patient to help? Is. Aging is a disease. A person’s reluctance to be young when such a chance actually presents itself (meaning the correspondence of a person’s biological state to a certain age, for example, the age of a young man), as a result of which he dooms himself to premature old age in a mixture of sores, diseases, pathologies, the result of which is a well-deserved death - this is a real suicide. Conscious for those who understand what they are doing, or unconscious for those for whom the process of developing consciousness ended in adolescence. The difference is that this is a suspended suicide. But does this make him more attractive?
Aspect 6. Lack of a sense of self-preservation
I ask almost all the people with whom I communicate on the topic of longevity the same question:
"How many years do you want to live?" Do you think the answers are full of variety? Not at all. There are basically three options:
1) I don't think about it
2) How many God will send,
3) A lot.
What does a lot mean? How many years is this - a lot? 10, 100, 1000? What does it mean “as much as God will send”? He has already sent your body 120-140 years in the form of a genetic life expectancy program, and physiologists have proven this fact a long time ago; there is no need to go to the stake for the truth. Both responses are just variations of "I don't think about it."
If they want to kill you, but you don’t think about it, then something is wrong with you. As one doctor I know said: “The obvious presence of characterological deviations.” I would clarify - suicidal tendencies. If a person knows nothing about the real possibility of increasing life expectancy in the environment of degrading, short-lived humanity, this is unconscious suicide. The situation can be improved by informing your interlocutor. If a person is familiar with the Neways “Longevity” system, but does not use it, this is a conscious suicide, albeit extended over time.
You can give such a person an infinite number of facts, you can overwhelm him with a flow of information, everything will be in vain. It is impossible to force someone who has decided not to live to live. A suicide will always find reasons to justify himself. He will counter all your arguments with his own characterological deviations, carefully disguised with a skeptical smile. By the way, I believe that there is only one incurable disease. Skepticism.
Aspect 7. Storage media
The UN definition of health contains a phrase about psychological comfort. This part of the health statement seems at first glance to be of minor importance. Still would! After all, we are surrounded great amount carriers of various diagnoses. We are so passionate about them, we are so glad that we have in our hands a powerful arsenal of combating diseases in the form of ancient Chinese imperial, Tibetan Badmaev phytotherapeutic formulas, and the latest achievements of modern biochemistry, implemented by the Newways company, we are so fascinated by this opportunity to help people improve their health, that we focus on illnesses, forgetting, in fact, about health itself.
And longevity and health are inseparable concepts. Imagine offering a longevity program to a homeless person sorting through a trash can. Do you want to live 120 years? Yes, he will most likely “clean up your face”! Imagine how hard it is for him to live (I won’t describe it). He suffers, he suffers, he has no tomorrow, he is ready every day for the end of the torment. And then you appear, “all in white,” and offer the poor fellow to prolong this torment. Great, right? Long live Sisyphean work, the most common work in the world.
We are actually very passionate about healing. Especially at the beginning of cooperation with the company. There is just a small "but". The human body always heals itself. This is what ancient medicine is based on, this is what the modern trend in medicine is based on. It will heal itself if there is “building material”, i.e. everything you need to set up unbalanced body systems to function normally.
The advantage of the drugs and products that Newways provides us is precisely that they contain everything we need. Any person is able to independently, using competently selected products from the company (not necessarily a doctor, he can also choose correctly on his own), restore and shape his health to the state necessary for longevity. What then is the doctor for?
Aspect 8. A question of time
Aspect 9. Don’t hide information
Please note that communication with the patient most often begins with the second point and ends with the fifth. We are not completing our mission. If we do not give a person complete information, then the blame for shortening his life falls entirely on you and me. And it turns out that you and I, colleagues, must be treated first. Do you think not? This question directly concerns the first stage of the Longevity program. How many times do you hear: “I recommend the program that matches the thickness of his wallet.” The financial and economic situation of the client (patient) is, excuse me, none of your business. A free person has the right to choose. Let the client's life expectancy be on his conscience, and not on the conscience of the consultant, because he decided to give advice in the amount of the financial capabilities of the consultant. In any case, the client will never reproach you for not giving him enough information about the possibility of living 120 years and dying at thirty.
In conclusion, I will give a diagram that may be useful to you in the process of developing the need to live long and not grow old.
Using the graphs shown in the figure, it is possible to predict the probabilistic remainder of life based on the diagnostic results, which reveal the imbalance of energy channels relative to their normal state. These curves reflect the aging process of modern people who can be said to be “clinically healthy.” If you have any disease, the curve will look different, but I think that it is clear to any person without evidence that the presence of a disease leads to a decrease in life expectancy. The curves are described by the Rayleigh distribution, the argument of which is the regression factor, formed based on the results of computer diagnostics of the body from the imbalance coefficients of energy channels.
Curve 1 corresponds to the type of person who visually looks older than his age,
curve 2 - the type of person corresponding to his age,
curve 3 - younger than your age.
A straight line reflects the ideal option or answer to the question: “How to live 120 years?” This is the life line of a person who uses means to maintain a stable biological state corresponding to a young age.
The curves are given for “healthy” people who do not use special programs for promoting health and preventing youth. Curve 3 is typical for young people, curve 2 for middle-aged people, curve 1 for people in the period of rapid aging. 
This diagram should be used in this way:
Determine visually what type your interlocutor may be.
Plot its calendar age along the x-axis.
Draw a vertical line until it intersects with the selected curve, then a horizontal line from the intersection point to the ordinate.
The value of the ordinate will correspond to the predicted remainder of life for the current biological state of the test taker.
Do not delude yourself if you are predicted to have a long life according to curve 3. If you do nothing against unfavorable environment and living conditions, then over time you will automatically switch first to mode 2, then to mode 1. It is better not to remember about mode 0. At the same time, the likelihood of being the owner of any popular disease increases significantly from regime to regime. The use of the "Longevity" program leads to a change in the criteria for assessing the remaining life expectancy, even from curve 1 up to the ideal option.
The question may arise: is it correct to predict a person’s life expectancy? Wouldn't the prediction be a zombie? A person will take it and die in the prime of life, as predicted. But he has to live and live.
Firstly, what is discussed in this report is not a gypsy’s fortune telling on cards, but scientific data based on the results of measurements of the state of the body’s energy channels.
Secondly, we have the moral right to determine the rest of a person's life, since we offer a real way to extend life to the age specified by the genetic program. And forecasting is aimed at showing the test taker these paths, as well as the outcome that awaits him with inaction and indifference to his life.
Thirdly, the remainder is predicted with a certain tolerance, i.e. "plus - minus", and not day after day. So, by definition, there simply cannot be any zombification.
Long life to you! Be healthy and young, because it depends only on you. Everything else is done by the Newways company, for which many thanks to it, Tom Mauer and his team of scientists.
Ivanov S.K., psychologist, journalist
Transcript of the report at the All-Ukrainian medical scientific and practical conference on the use of Neways products, Kiev, March 27-28, 2004.
In demography, the quantitative and qualitative composition of the population is usually depicted in the form of a pyramid, the base of which is newborns and children; then there is a gradual narrowing of the pyramid, taking into account mortality in each age period; its top are people aged 90 years and older.
By the end of the twentieth century, the demographic situation had changed radically: the age structure of the population no longer resembled a pyramid, but rather a column, characterized by a relatively small number of children, young people and mature age and a relatively high number of people in older age groups.
According to the UN in 1950. There were 214 million people aged 60 years and older in the world. According to forecasts, their number by 2025 will be about 590 1 billion 100 million... The number of elderly people during this time will increase 5 times, while the world population will increase only 3 times. In this regard, we can talk about the “aging” of society. It is expected that by 2018 the average age at death will be 85.6 years. (In Russia, the share of older generation citizens is also progressively increasing: from 11.8 percent in 1959 to 20.5 percent in 1996. The rate of population aging will increase due to the continuing decline in the birth rate. Over the past 30 years, there has been a steady increase in the dependency ratio of the elderly people per 100 able-bodied people. So, if in 1971 this ratio was 21.1 percent, then in 1991 it was already 33.6 percent, and now it exceeds 36 percent. The situation is similar in Ukraine). Every day in the world, 200 thousand people overcome the 60-year mark.
Such changes in the population structure pose a number of serious practical challenges for society. Among them, the most important and difficult remains the extension of active life with minimal losses from dysfunctional disorders. The second, no less important and difficult task is the fight against high morbidity in old and senile age. With age, a kind of “accumulation” of diseases occurs. An aging body has less resistance and the ability to compensate and recover. As life expectancy increases, the period of helpless existence of elderly people with various chronic and mental diseases increases, the progression of which cannot always be stopped with the help of the latest pharmacological agents. The third task is to ensure a decent life for aging people.
The importance of this problem is emphasized by the fact that 1999 was declared by the UN as the Year of the Older Person.
Of course, aging is an inevitable process during which a number of mental and physical functions decline. Nevertheless, data from experimental studies show not only the incorrectness of many existing stereotypes, but also indicate the possibility and ways of adapting to such phenomena. Thus, with age, the average reaction speed slows down. However, if a person is allowed to practice for a few days and automate the action, then most of the age differences in reaction time disappear, since automatic processes are practically unaffected by aging. A decrease in memory function is most typical for the initial stage of aging (50–65 years), while in people aged 65–75 years, memory indicators approach the level of middle age. This is because they are getting used to their new condition and developing ways to overcome it. Older people show virtually no decline in their ability to concentrate.
Anticipating old age in the imagination is often more painful than reality. Thus, the writer and doctor V.V. Veresaev, who in his youth was insanely afraid of growing old, wrote in his declining years that this fear was in vain, and natural wisdom compensated for the inevitable losses.
From the point of view of family psychology, one of the main problems that older people face is the so-called “empty nest syndrome”, i.e. a condition associated with the beginning of an independent family life for the last child. By this time, the family has basically fulfilled its parental function and parents need to fill the resulting void with something; unwillingness to admit this leads to problems either in relationships with children, whose independence the parents refuse to recognize, or, if the children have not completely psychologically separated from the parents’ family, problems arise in the children’s family. If children become independent, relations between parents may become strained (old conflicts that fade into the background before the task of raising children are remembered, or new ones arise - spouses pay more attention to their relationship, while at the same time experiencing discomfort due to the separation of children) or illnesses may develop and worsen. and disorders associated with psychological stress (psychosomatic, neurotic, etc.). The second problem of this age is the death of one of the spouses. Problems may also arise related to raising grandchildren and conflicts with children on this basis.
From the point of view of developmental psychology, old age, like other age periods, has its own main developmental task (a unique, age-specific problem), a mental and social crisis associated with this task, and the main process by which this crisis is solved. The main task of old age is wisdom, i.e. understanding and acceptance of one’s own lived life. The main process by which this task is solved is introspection (comprehension of the life lived and its positive acceptance). The main crisis is between personal integrity and despair.
As a result of the normal passage of any age crisis, the so-called final (resulting) behavior, the main components of which are:
– ability to select new information;
– the ability to control and be aware of your attitude to the world, your emotions;
– the ability to freely master a new social environment.
If previous age-related crises are not handled correctly, the problems corresponding to them may remain relevant in old age, disrupting the solution of its main task.
In modern psychology, the point of view is increasingly being established, according to which aging cannot be considered as a simple involution, extinction or regression; rather, it is the ongoing development of a person, including many adaptive and compensatory mechanisms. Moreover, people late age forced to adapt not only to a new situation outside, but also to respond to changes in themselves.
Thus, aging is not reducible only to biological processes, and in many ways the course of aging processes is determined socially and depends on the attitude of society towards older people, as well as on their attitude towards themselves.
It is very important to have an adequate attitude of the person himself and the people around him to his age and condition. Unfortunately, the flip side of the cult of youth that exists in modern society, is the spread of ideas about old age as a useless, inferior, humiliating state, an indispensable attribute of which is illness and dependence on the environment. Actually this is not true. Yes, in old age there is a natural decline in a number of physical and mental functions. But, firstly, as practice shows, such a decrease in many cases can be delayed or even not occur as a result of regular training and a physically and psychologically active lifestyle. Secondly, in many cases it is a consequence not of real changes, but of the assimilation of stereotypes of behavior “appropriate to age”, and often psychological trauma associated with these stereotypes. Thirdly, old age has a number of advantages that are a consequence of accumulated life experience. The inability to resist negative stereotypes leads to negative changes in recently active and healthy people. Such stereotypes conflict with the objective medical and psychological status of older people: psychological studies show that most people in retirement age maintain efficiency, competence, and intellectual potential.
Intolerance towards old age is the cause of many problems both in society as a whole and in its individual age groups, including not only the elderly, but also young people. This intolerance comes in three forms:
Intolerance towards elderly and senile people on the part of the younger generation and/or society as a whole, manifested in a wide variety of forms (unjustifiably high assessment of youth and discrimination against old people).
1. Rejection of the fact of their own aging by elderly and senile people, associated with deteriorating health, “switching off” from active social and professional life, and the use of unproductive strategies for adaptation to later periods of life.
2. Rejection of the fact of their future aging by young and middle-aged people. Many young people find the prospect of aging so bleak that they would rather not know anything about it. Such an attitude towards the inevitably approaching period of life gives rise to a lot of problems and significantly reduces the quality of life in old age. (The ways in which such stereotypes of attitudes towards old age are spread and taken root can sometimes be the most unexpected - for example, studies of illustrations for children’s books conducted by Professor Z. Eitner in the GDR found thatFor many years, the same pictures have been wandering from one book to another, depicting old men and old women, whose faces reflect the severity of the years they have lived, grief, and detachment from the world around them).
Thus, developing the right attitude towards your age and upcoming changes, a sober assessment of them, is one of the important tasks in achieving what is called active longevity, i.e. not just a long life, but a rich, fulfilling, interesting and useful life for yourself and others - what is called “quality of life”. In this regard, I would like to remind you that the World Health Organization defines health not only as the absence of disease, not only as physical well-being, but also as mental and social well-being.
The ability to see, along with negative changes, ways of adapting to them (and, if possible, overcoming them), as well as positive aspects, advantages given by one’s age, the ability to use these advantages is a means of self-defense, self-help for every elderly person.
In this regard, modern researchers distinguish between constructive and non-constructive types of strategy towards aging. What are the signs of a constructive attitude towards aging that allows you to cope with the negative aspects of aging and preserve yourself as a fully functioning person? Summarizing the views of several authors, these include the following:
– searching for new ways of inclusion in public life, useful and interesting use of free time that appears with retirement,
– understanding and sharing one’s own life and professional experience (raising children and grandchildren, teaching, writing memoirs, mentoring in the professional field);
– acceptance of the life lived, understanding it;
– maintaining old and establishing new friendships;
– a calm and rational attitude towards your new position;
– accepting your new age and discovering new meaning in it;
– understanding and tolerance towards other people.
The attitude towards one’s own aging is an active element of mental life, a position that a person chooses himself. According to domestic gerontologists, neither good health, nor maintaining an active lifestyle, nor a high social position, nor the presence of a spouse and children are a guarantee and guarantee of understanding old age as a favorable period of life. In the presence of these signs, each individually and taken together, an elderly person may consider himself defective and completely reject his aging. Conversely, with poor physical health, modest material income, and loneliness, an elderly person can be in agreement with his aging and will be able to see the positive sides of his old age, experiencing the joy of every day he lives. Acceptance of one's own old age is the result of active creative work on rethinking life attitudes and positions, reassessing life values. The importance of an active position is proven by studies of centenarians - they tend to perceive everything that happens in their lives as the result of their own actions, and not the actions of some external forces.
The influence of socially determined stereotypes on the behavior and psychological state (and, consequently, in many ways the emotional state and well-being) of an elderly person is often underestimated. Meanwhile, there is a lot of evidence of such an influence.
Thus, one of the reasons for the shorter life expectancy of men compared to women is considered to be the stronger influence on them of negative stereotypical ideas about old age and traditional male and female roles in society.
Adherence to stereotypical behavior patterns does not contribute to the development of new behavioral tactics in everyday life. Women adapt more easily than men to a new life situation after retirement, since narrowing their scope of activity and focusing primarily on housework is accompanied by less discomfort for them. This trend is typical for women in different countries (Eissensen I., 1989).
Everyone knows that if a person in a hypnotic state is told not his true age, but a younger one (up to early childhood), then he will behave as if he were actually younger. Experiments of this kind are, for obvious reasons, rare and short-lived. But, as it turned out, it is not at all necessary to use hypnosis to achieve such an effect.
In 1979, psychologist E. Langer and her colleagues at Harvard conducted an interesting experiment. Subjects aged 75 years and older (up to 80 years) were placed on a week-long holiday in a country cottage. At the same time, one strange restriction was introduced: they were not allowed to take with them newspapers, magazines, books and family photographs dating back to the time after 1959. The cottage was equipped in full accordance with the fashion and traditions of 20 years ago. Instead of magazines from 1979, issues from 1959 were on the tables. Musical recordings were also only from that time. The subjects were asked to behave exactly as they did 20 years ago. The members of this group wrote their autobiographies only until 1959, describing that time as the present. All conversations had to relate to the events and people of those years. Every detail of their outdoor life was designed to make them feel as if they were in their early 50s, while the E.Langer team assessed the biological age of the subjects: they determined physical strength, posture, speed of perception, cognitive ability and memory, state of vision, hearing, ability to taste. The results of the experiment were remarkable. Compared to another group, which also lived in a cottage, but in real time conditions, this group showed a significant improvement in memory and increased manual dexterity. People became more active and independent, they behaved more like 55-year-olds than like old people, although before that many used the services of younger family members.
But the most noticeable reverse developments were those changes that were previously considered irreversible. Unbiased outside judges, who were asked to compare the subjects' looks before and after the experiment, determined that their faces looked decidedly younger. Measuring the length of the fingers, which usually shortens with age, showed that the fingers had lengthened. The joints became more flexible, and the posture began to improve. According to the strength meter, muscle strength increased; additional studies revealed sharpening of vision and hearing, and improvement in IQ test scores.
Professor E. Langer proved that the so-called irreversible changes in old age can be eliminated with psychological intervention. Our bodies are subject to subjective time, determined by memories and internal sensations. Scientists made these people internal time travelers who psychologically traveled back 20 years and their bodies followed them. Self-hypnosis worked.
A powerful factor influencing a person’s psycho-emotional state (and, therefore, his physical well-being) is the system of social relationships. Research shows that this factor can often influence the course of even severe diseases of an organic nature. Thus, doctors from Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, USA) have proven that regular communication with close friends and relatives protects against manifestations of Alzheimer's disease (Alzheimer's disease, according to leading experts and in accordance with the official point of view of expert groups of such authoritative institutions as the World Health Organization or National Institute aging in the United States, is currently considered one of the most frequent illnesses in elderly and senile people and is comparable in prevalence to cardiac and cerebral infarctions among the elderly population (K.F. Jellinger et al., 1994). Due to the high frequency and special severity of the medical and socio-economic consequences of this extremely severe suffering, it destroys not only the intellect, but also all aspects mental activity and the very personality of patients, Alzheimer's disease is recognized as one of the main medical and socio-economic problems of the modern civilized world. According to leading experts, the social burden of problems associated with Alzheimer's disease will continue to increase steadily as the population ages and the proportion and absolute number of elderly people in society increases.
They observed elderly volunteers who did not suffer from dementia. 89 of them had their brains examined after death. The brains of many of the deceased showed clear signs of Alzheimer's disease, but during their lifetime they did not have any manifestations of dementia or deterioration of mental abilities. Scientists have determined that these people were protected from the disease by their wide social circle. To determine their social circle, study participants were asked about the number of children, relatives and close friends with whom they communicate at least once a month. The wider the social circle, the less impact changes in brain tissue had on mental abilities. Moreover, the more there was pathological changes, the more clearly the protective effect was manifested. The authors of this work emphasize that frequent communication with friends and relatives is a powerful factor in helping to resist the disease.
According to P. Garb and G. Starovoytova, who studied centenarians in Abkhazia, they talk every day with relatives and closest neighbors, and meet with their friends at least once a week.
One of the reasons for the higher mortality rate among widowers than among widows is that men tend to have only one strong emotional connection (with their wife), while women have a wider circle of people who serve as their support in difficult times. . In the area of interpersonal relationships with loved ones, men have more difficulties than women. This is facilitated by a stable stereotype of masculinity, according to which the need for care, tenderness, and dependence are unmasculine traits. S. Jurard, who deals with the problems of self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships, noted that men are usually less frank and more reluctant to share intimate information about themselves with others, have more “secrets” and are afraid that they will find out about them, more often experience tension and, trying to look courageous, They see others as a threat to themselves more often than women. Fear of self-disclosure not only limits the freedom of older men in personal relationships, but, along with ignoring feelings, makes them more susceptible to “red flags.” This partly explains why men die earlier than women.
Another factor that positively influences the quality of life, mental and physical condition of people in old age is education, regular mental activity, assimilation new information. In relation to Alzheimer's disease, for example, cognitive training and therapy are considered an important tool in the rehabilitation of patients, maintaining their level of daily functioning, and are also considered as one of the factors that alleviate the course of the disease. Preventative measures for Alzheimer's disease, recommended by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, also include, in addition to combating obesity, high cholesterol and hypertension, also maintaining intellectual activity in old age. According to the director of the Research Institute of Gerontology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Shabalin, “intellectual activity is a more significant factor for preserving the brain than physical activity. If a person has been engaged in intense intellectual work all his life, and after retirement he has stopped loading his brain, then his intellect will collapse much faster than that of someone who has not previously engaged in mental work.” The connection between the level of education and average life expectancy has long been established by demographers.
Writing memoirs can also be a powerful psychotherapeutic tool that can cure a person of depression, encourage him to actively select and read literature, work in archives, and meet people. The mechanisms of beneficial action of this type of activity are multifaceted:
– inclusion of a person in public life;
– distraction from thoughts about illnesses and past youth;
– a sense of one’s worth as a bearer of important and unique experience;
– stimulation of mental and cognitive activity;
– comprehension, understanding and acceptance of one’s life
Keeping diaries can also be useful for determining attitudes towards current problems.
Pets have an extremely positive effect on the mental life, emotional and physical state of a person, which was known in ancient medicine. According to modern research, having a dog, for example, is much more effective and safer for weight loss than many weight loss diets. Cats are considered effective for lowering blood pressure, treating depression, etc. Older people with a dog visit doctors 21% less often than their colleagues who do not have a furry friend. Hypertensive patients who communicate with animals for at least 10 minutes a day practically get rid of, if not the disease, then at least from hypertensive crises. Pets help people cope with the death of a loved one - father, mother, wife or husband (in the latter case, the company of cats, preferably several, is especially useful). Cats and dogs reduce mortality from myocardial infarction by 3 percent. And even HIV-infected people cope with their psychological problems much better in the presence of animals.
Famous psychotherapist M.E. Burno describes as a method of psychotherapy “therapy through creative communication with nature,” including communication with pets. As mechanisms of such therapy, he describes aesthetic experiences (the beauty and appropriateness of the structure of the animal’s body, its movements), and the animal’s ability to sense the emotional state of the owner and respond to it, and the need to care for the animal, which, on the one hand, increases the owner’s self-esteem, on the other hand, it disciplines him.
All these methods, of course, can be used not only in psychotherapy, but also as effective psychoprophylaxis, increasing the quality of life of the elderly, helping them maintain creative activity and, ultimately, longevity
V.L. Voeikov Bio-physico-chemical aspects of aging and longevity
“Advances of Gerontology”, 2002, issue 9. Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Moscow
Currently, two types of theories of aging are widely accepted: genetic and free radical, within which certain features of the aging process and associated pathologies are found to be satisfactorily explained. However, there are phenomena that are difficult to explain within the framework of these theories: in particular, an increase in maximum life expectancy with moderate fasting, the beneficial effect of reactive oxygen species on vital functions, etc.
At the same time, based on the principles of theoretical biology formulated back in the 30s by E.S. Bauer, it becomes possible, from a unified position, to consistently explain the essence of not only these phenomena, but also a number of others, which at first glance seem to have little connection with each other.
The review examines the basic principles of Bauer’s theory, in particular, it analyzes in detail the “Basic Process” he discovered - a specifically biological phenomenon that provides a significant extension of the duration individual life. Taking into account Bauer's principles, the latest ideas about the peculiarities of processes involving free radical particles and the generation of electronically excited states are considered and the need to use these ideas to solve the problems facing gerontology is substantiated.
The mystery of aging
It would seem that there is nothing mysterious in the phenomenon of aging, which is associated with loss of strength, physical and mental degradation, and numerous diseases: all things sooner or later wear out and are destroyed. But biology provides many amazing examples of the fact that some living beings are practically not subject to aging and, if they die, it is not because internal reasons, i.e. due to the depletion of the body’s vital capabilities. Trees are known to continue bearing fruit at an age exceeding several thousand years.
In turtles, some species of fish and birds, 150 years of age is not the limit, and animals even at this age often do not show biological signs of aging. There are no such long-livers among mammals. If they do not die from external causes before old age, then they die from diseases associated with decrepitude. But man, oddly enough, can be compared with the longest-living fish, reptiles and birds both in life expectancy and in the ability to maintain high vital activity at a very old age.
Indeed, average life expectancy (ALE) has approached 80 years in developed countries. “Maximum life span” (MLS) is the maximum age to which representatives of a given species were observed to survive. If you trust only strictly documented data, the life expectancy of a person is 120 years. Old age is usually associated with the inevitable degradation of a person's physical and mental health. But a number of studies have shown that among the “very old” there are many who maintain good health, high performance and creative activity.
Approximately half of the centenarians (people over 90 years old) in Ukraine and Abkhazia are practically healthy people according to medical indicators. . Even in St. Petersburg, a city with an unfavorable environmental situation, the number of residents over 90 years of age increased in the decade from 1979 to 1989, exceeding 6,000 people by 1990. Almost 20% of them did not require medical care. These facts speak of the enormous reserves and capabilities of the human body. Where are these reserves located, and how can you learn to use them? Scientific research into the phenomena of aging and longevity is associated with the hope that their results will help a person get rid of frailty, and perhaps open up ways to increase the upper limit of human life expectancy.
Variety of theories of aging mechanisms
There are several dozen theories of aging, and this in itself indicates the absence of a generally accepted concept. Almost all of them come down to variations of two themes: aging is a genetically programmed process; aging is a stochastic, random process caused by the “wear and tear” of the body as a result of self-poisoning with waste products and/or damage caused by constantly acting harmful factors environment. All these theories explicitly or implicitly imply that aging of the organism begins immediately after the start of division of the fertilized egg.
All variants of “genetic” theories of aging stem from A. Weismann’s concept of the “division of labor” between somatic cells and reproductive cells – carriers of genetic material. According to Weisman, the variety of functions of somatic cells ultimately comes down to ensuring the possibility of preserving genetic material (“immortal hereditary plasma”) in the offspring.
When the function of reproduction is completed, individuals “not only lose value, but even become harmful to the species, taking away place from the best.” Therefore, according to Weisman, in the course of natural selection for “utility”, species with an optimal ratio between fertility and life expectancy of parents who fulfilled their function received an advantage. Weisman proposed that the maximum life span is determined genetically in the form of the number of generations of somatic cells of a multicellular organism.
It would seem that modern science has proven Weisman’s hypothesis about limiting the lifespan of an organism due to the “clock” embedded in the genome. Thus, fibroblasts (connective tissue cells), removed from the body and placed in a complete environment, are capable of only a limited number of divisions (Hayflick number), after which the culture dies. It has been reported that in cultures of fibroblasts obtained from young animals, the number of divisions is greater than in the culture of cells from old animals, although other authors do not confirm these data.
Recently, a molecular mechanism has become known that limits the number of fibroblast divisions in culture - a decrease in aging cultures of telomerase activity, one of the enzymes that ensures the preservation of DNA properties in successive generations of cells. The number of divisions of cultured fibroblasts into which the gene for this enzyme was inserted increased. Genes have been discovered in which mutations affect the MF in yeast, nematode worms, and Drosophila. These studies raised hopes for rejuvenation through “gene therapy.”
However, one should be careful about extrapolating the results obtained from the study of particular objects to the whole to which they belong. In cells removed from the body, some properties may not appear at all, while others may become aggravated. Thus, the number of fibroblast divisions in the presence of other cells may increase or decrease; fibroblasts can transform into other types of cells, the lifespan of which does not depend on the number of divisions.
Gerontologists, who view the problem of aging and longevity as complex, are skeptical about the prospect of solving it by replacing “bad” genes with “good” ones. According to their data, the contribution of hereditary factors to life expectancy does not exceed 25%. The life span is more dependent on heredity than the life span, but it also depends 60-70% on the contribution of non-hereditary factors.
The role of non-hereditary factors is emphasized in the group of theories of aging due to wear and tear of the body. In the course of life, toxic metabolic products accumulate in it; it is constantly exposed to harmful external factors. The neutralizing mechanisms, which in young organisms still eliminate damage, gradually wear out, and decrepitude becomes more and more obvious.
So, according to “ Free radical theory of aging“, when the body is exposed to ionizing radiation or as a result of some “metabolic errors,” free radicals (atoms or molecules with an unpaired electron on the outer surface) appear in the cytoplasm, in particular, various “reactive oxygen species” - ROS (superoxide anion radical, decomposition products of hydrogen peroxide and reactions with its participation, nitrogen oxides, etc.). Processes associated with the action of ROS are called “oxidative stress”, since highly active free radicals can attack and damage any biomolecule. It is argued that with age, free radicals are neutralized less and less and more actively disrupt the functioning of the “molecular machines” of the cell.
Has become popular in recent years theory of aging due to glycation. A complex of glycation reactions known as the Maillard reaction (RM) begins with the formation of glucose compounds with the amino groups of amino acids, peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids. The reaction products can damage proteins or nucleic acids. Defective molecules are deposited on the walls of blood vessels, in tissues, in particular, in the bodies of nerve cells. Many complications of diabetes, in which blood glucose levels are elevated, are similar to those observed in older people, probably due to the more rapid formation of toxic PM products. It is believed that the content of specific PM products in human tissues correlates with his “biological age,” which can differ significantly among people of the same calendar age.
It has recently been discovered that many PM products generate reactive oxygen species. This has led a number of researchers to believe that the appearance of free radicals and glycation are elements of a single, more complex biochemical network and that many processes associated with aging, in particular, atherosclerosis, renal failure, and neurodegenerative diseases are in one way or another related to RM and the generation of free radicals. The main directions of research into aging processes and associated disorders from the perspective of the “synthetic” theory are related to the identification of the end products of glycation reactions/ROS generation, and the search for means that inhibit such reactions or reduce the consequences of their occurrence.
Both the “genetic” theory and the theory of aging due to glycation/ROS generation plausibly explain the occurrence of some pathologies during aging. True, the schools professing them to a certain extent conflict with each other, but it is these theories that today form the basis for the development of specific approaches to the correction of aging pathologies. Moreover, some representatives of the “genetic” school argue that in the future, due to gene therapy, it will be possible not only to eliminate the main diseases of old age, but also to increase the maximum life expectancy of a person. However, in biology there are many phenomena known that are very difficult to explain within the framework of existing theories of aging, which is indicated by the incompleteness of the data on which these theories are based, and that the interpretation of the available data is far from perfect.
Difficult questions in gerontology
Let's start with the fact that reactive oxygen species, so dangerous from the standpoint of the free radical theory of aging, are produced by the body purposefully. Thus, when immune blood cells, in particular neutrophils, are activated, their enzyme NADPH oxidase reduces more than 90% of oxygen to the superoxide anion radical. Superoxide dismutase converts it into hydrogen peroxide, and myeloperoxidase catalyzes the oxidation of chlorine ions by peroxide to form an extremely active oxidizing agent - hypochlorite.
Some consider the generation of ROS by immune cells to be a necessary evil caused by the need to combat an even greater evil - infectious microorganisms. Although it is still believed that only a small portion of the oxygen consumed by the body undergoes one-electron reduction, it is now becoming clear that all cells have specialized enzymatic systems for the targeted generation of ROS. In plants, almost complete suppression of mitochondrial respiration reduces their oxygen consumption by only 5-30%, and in animals, minimally damaged organs and tissues use up to 10-15% of the consumed oxygen for the production of ROS.
In the case of maximum activation of enzymes that produce superoxide radicals, the animal’s oxygen consumption increases by almost 20%. ROS are continuously produced in the body and during non-enzymatic processes. The glycation reaction discussed above occurs continuously in cells, the intercellular matrix, and blood plasma and, therefore, ROS and free radicals continuously arise during it. Finally, very recently it was found that all antibodies, regardless of their specificity and origin, are capable of activating oxygen and producing hydrogen peroxide. This means that AFKs participate in any immune reaction organism, i.e. that protecting the body from damaging environmental factors, necessary for a long life, is impossible without the participation of free radicals.
In connection with the contradictions that have recently arisen in assessing the physiological or pathophysiological significance of ROS, the following paradox is especially interesting. As you know, oxygen is the most necessary environmental factor for humans: stopping the supply of oxygen to the body for just a few minutes ends in death due to irreversible brain damage. Indeed, it is well known that the human brain, which weighs no more than 2% of the body weight, consumes about 20% of the total oxygen consumed by the body. But the content of mitochondria in nerve cells is much less than, for example, in muscle or liver cells.
Consequently, in the brain and in nervous tissue in general, an alternative to oxidative phosphorylation pathway for oxygen utilization, its one-electron reduction, should dominate. Most recently, indications have emerged of the possibility of intense ROS generation in a normally functioning brain. The enzyme NADP-H oxidase, which was previously considered absent from them, has been discovered in nerve cells. In the brain, or more precisely, in neurons, the concentration of ascorbate is extremely high - 10 mM, which is 200 times higher than in blood plasma.
Unexpectedly, it turned out that the gray matter of the brain contains not traces at all, but very significant concentrations of transition metal ions Fe, Cu, Zn - 0.1-0.5 mM. If we consider that the combination of ascorbate and metals in such concentrations in vitro is often used as a system that provides intense generation of ROS, then the likelihood that ROS in the nervous tissue is constantly produced (but, apparently, very quickly eliminated) becomes very high. Such reactions are accompanied by the emission of photons (see below for more details), and if they occur with high intensity in the brain, then we should expect that brain activity should be accompanied by optical radiation.
Indeed, recently Japanese authors, using highly sensitive photon detectors, have shown that the rat cerebral cortex is the only organ that emits light photons in vivo without additional stimulation of the tissue and without adding any chemical agent to it. The rhythms of radiation are consistent with the rhythms of electroencephalograms, and its intensity decreases sharply when the blood supply to the brain is stopped, during hypoxia or hypoglycemia.
It follows that the intensity of processes involving free radicals in the brain far exceeds that characteristic of other organs and tissues. But the brain is the human organ that “ages”, as a rule, last (at least for the majority of centenarians). All this sharply contradicts the free radical theory of aging in the form in which it is currently promoted, and requires serious adjustments to it, especially considering that this theory underlies the widespread use of various antioxidants in preventive and clinical medicine. And although antioxidants are indeed extremely important for normal life (see below), there is already evidence that their abuse can lead to negative consequences.
Let us turn to another important observation for gerontology - prolonging the life of animals with calorie restriction(OKP). Thus, reducing the calorie content of food to 40-50% of that consumed when feeding “to satiation” increases not only the average, but also the maximum life expectancy of mice and rats by more than 1.5 times! . OCP leads to strengthened immunity, a decrease in the incidence of cancer, and in some cases – to the resorption of already existing tumors. In macaques, OCP eliminates the development of diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.
For a long time, the increase in life expectancy with OCP was explained simply: during fasting, the metabolic rate decreases, endogenous toxins accumulate more slowly, and life expectancy increases due to a decrease in the overall activity of the body. It turned out, however, that the motor, sexual and cognitive activity of moderately starved animals increases, and during their entire life they consume more oxygen and “burn” more calories than control animals.
An experiment on macaques that have been moderately fasting for more than 10 years has shown that the damage caused by “oxidative stress” in their tissues is significantly less pronounced than in control animals of the same age. At the same time, the specific oxygen consumption of moderately starved animals does not decrease, but the efficiency of its use increases. These effects are not easily explained within the framework of “wear and tear” theories, and the increase in life span during calorie restriction is difficult to reconcile with genetic theory aging, at least in its canonical form.
More mysterious phenomena are also known in gerontology. It is generally believed that the higher the population density, the greater the competition between individuals for space and food resources. In accordance with the doctrine of natural selection, in such conditions the fittest and strongest will, of course, gain an advantage, but in general, with increasing population density, mortality should increase, which is often observed in conditions of overpopulation. It turned out, however, that everything is not so simple.
For example, if Leucania separata butterflies are kept in isolation after hatching, they live no more than 5 days. When kept in groups, their maximum life expectancy reaches 28 days, i.e. it increases by more than 5 times! The lifespan of drosophila increases significantly if their larvae at a certain stage of development are at a density exceeding a certain critical value.
Existing theories of aging cannot explain such phenomena, since they are based on the chemical paradigm dominant in physiology and biochemistry. According to it, all processes in the body proceed, in essence, according to the same laws as in a chemical reactor. Such a “reactor” is, of course, very complicated. Reactions in it proceed according to a predetermined program, providing feedback, the supply of reagents and energy, and the removal of production by-products. Aging also means increasingly frequent failures in the program and other disturbances during the processes occurring in the “bioreactor”. The fight against aging thus comes down to “editing” the program, preventing and eliminating damage that occurs.
This approach is based on the laws of physics and chemistry that were established during the study of inert matter, the laws that govern statistical ensembles of particles in closed systems. It allows us to explain many particular patterns, but does not take into account the fundamental difference between any living system and the most complex machine - the ability of any organism to develop, regenerate and self-heal.
Aging is a natural stage in the individual development of the body.
Development refers to the spontaneous growth of heterogeneity, the deepening of differentiation of parts of the body and the processes occurring in it (“division of labor”). In the course of development, the functional capabilities of the body expand and the efficiency of their implementation increases, since the integration of processes deepens due to their increasingly fine coordination - coordination or subordination in activity different systems organs. Coordination is impossible without improving communication systems both between various executive organs of a living system, and between the organism and the environment. All these essential features of a living system allow it to respond expediently to stimuli. Expedient, according to the definition of the outstanding domestic biologist L.S. Berg, “everything that leads to the continuation of life should be considered inappropriate - everything that shortens it.”
The concept of the expediency of life activities, and, therefore, the purposefulness of life processes, is a powerful heuristic principle, which, alas, is not always taken into account when studying these processes. Perhaps this is why modern understanding of the development process is so poor - a phenomenon most characteristic of living systems, without understanding which it is impossible to understand the aging process and search for effective measures to combat it. According to the famous embryologist, “in the field of biology (individual development), we are still wandering in complete darkness among an unimaginable multitude of facts, particular patterns and detailed explanations constructed for them..., still looking at the development of a chicken in an egg as a true miracle.”
There are attempts to approach an explanation of the development phenomenon based on laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics of open systems. Due to the flow of energy and matter through an open system, the level of its organization can increase - “order” can arise from “chaos”. Such processes are often called “self-organization,” although their root cause is the action of an external force on the system. But if “self-organization” in a nonliving open system is carried out due to the entry of matter and energy into it, then the living system itself extracts them from the environment.
It is important that the level of organization of the matter and energy that feeds a living system is lower than its own level of organization, and the system acts as an organizer of the energy and matter it consumes, building itself from them. To do this work, it is necessary to have efficient structures and the energy that fuels their work. A body with such properties is in a nonequilibrium state relative to its environment, i.e. its thermodynamic potentials are higher than those of environmental objects, and therefore work can be done on them.
E.S. Bauer generalized this property of living things as the “principle of stable disequilibrium”: “All and only living systems are never in equilibrium and, due to their free energy, constantly perform work against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.” In thermodynamics, the term “free energy” is associated with the presence of any gradients in the system: electrical, chemical, mechanical (pressure), temperature. All of them are present in living systems and are used to perform work. But where is the primary source of their formation and maintenance, the primary source of the working capacity of a living system? According to Bauer, in a living cell, disequilibrium is generated by the special physical state of biological macromolecules - proteins and nucleic acids.
In a living cell they are in an excited, non-equilibrium state. If outside a cell any individual excited molecule inevitably goes into the “ground state” - a state with a minimum of energy, then in a living cell the stability of the nonequilibrium state of these molecules is ensured by the fact that they are already synthesized under the conditions of a nonequilibrium system and form peculiar ensembles with other similar molecules.
The specific structure of biomolecules also plays an important role, which allows them to retain excitation energy for some time even after being removed from the cell. When Bauer created his theory, there was almost no evidence of such ideas about the state of the molecular substrate of living systems, with the exception of phenomena associated with mitogenetic radiation discovered by A.G. Gurvich.
The assertions of Bauer and Gurvich that the nonequilibrium and dynamic stability of the molecular components of a living system are its integral properties, granted to it by “birthright”, and not due to “pumping” with energy and matter from the outside, are beginning to find justification in the latest concepts of quantum electrodynamics. Evidence has also emerged that some enzyme proteins can absorb energy from the environment, accumulate it, and then use it to perform useful work in the form of one “big” quantum.
Bauer, referring to the special form of potential energy of stably excited ensembles of molecules, used the terms “free energy” and “structural energy” already used in modern physical and chemical literature. Therefore, further we will call it “biophysical energy”. What does all this reasoning have to do with the process of development, and especially aging?
So Bauer's law states that from the moment of its emergence, any living cell is not in equilibrium with respect to the environment, and due to this it is capable of performing useful work to maintain its own vital activity, and all the work that a living system performs is aimed only at this. But then the organism, it would seem, should have enormous energy resources already at the moment of generation. Where do they come from in a microscopic egg? The egg, of course, has an initial supply of biophysical energy, but, most importantly, it has the potential ability to extract energy from the environment.
This resource (let's call it “biophysical potential”) is genetically programmed. According to Bauer’s definition, it is proportional to the biophysical energy of the egg and inversely proportional to its “live mass”, i.e. mass of structures in an excited state. If a living system is isolated from external sources of matter and energy, it will gradually use up all its reserves of biophysical energy to carry out work to maintain the non-equilibrium state of the living mass, and ultimately the organism will die.
But normally, a living system, due to the difference in its biophysical potential and the corresponding potentials of the substrates, has the ability to consume (assimilate) matter-energy from the environment. However, there is a certain subtlety here. In order to extract matter-energy from the environment, a living system must perform a certain amount of work on the environment, and when such work is performed, the potential of the living system decreases, and the structural elements that perform the work lose their biophysical energy. How can assimilation take place if “external” work contradicts the principle of stable disequilibrium?
The way out of this contradiction is as follows. To implement external work a living system must be affected by a stimulus- a stimulus from the external environment, prompting it to release part of the energy that can already be used to perform external work. It follows that for any interaction of a living system with the environment, even to extract the substrates it needs from the environment, it must perceive an external signal that is in some sense damaging to it. But without such “damage” the system cannot extract the resources it needs, release the chemical energy of food, replace the lost living mass with a new one, which alone can ensure an increase in the living mass of the system, the total reserve of its biophysical energy and efficiency.
In fact, the “destructive” effect of external signals is, as a rule, reduced to a minimum. To receive such signals, living systems have special devices - sensory organs, and only when their sensitivity decreases, is damaged, is switched off, in order for it to perform external work, it requires quite intense external stimuli that threaten real damage.
No matter how normally all the organs of a living system function, as its live weight increases, the biophysical potential of the system (the ratio of the volume of biophysical energy to live weight) decreases. Therefore, when the system reaches a certain limiting value of live weight, work aimed at its increase will be accompanied by a decrease shared resource biophysical energy of the system, i.e. decreasing the degree of its imbalance. According to the principle of stable disequilibrium, a living system cannot perform such work, and therefore, when the limit of living mass is reached, it goes into a state in which dissimilation only compensates for the energy costs of assimilation, and the biophysical energy of the living system inevitably decreases.
Thus, life cycle of any organism consists of two stages with the opposite direction of the vector of change in biophysical energy. The first stage is the stage of development at which the volume of biophysical energy of a living system increases, the second is the stage at which its level decreases, i.e., essentially, the aging of the organism. The duration of the entire cycle depends on the hereditarily determined initial live weight and its biophysical potential, as well as on the effectiveness of its use for the growth of live weight. Efficiency depends not only on the properties of the system, but also on the quality of the matter and energy consumed by it. All these factors determine the upper limit of the biophysical energy that an organism can accumulate during development.
The rate of aging, i.e. the rate at which the reserve of biophysical energy acquired at the stage of development decreases is determined, on the one hand, by the rate of energy dissipation by any physical body whose thermodynamic potentials are higher than the potentials of the environment. The rate of losses along this path depends both on the potential difference and on the structure of the physical body. On the other hand, energy is also lost during any irritation of the system by environmental factors, although without these irritants the system, as already noted, cannot perform external work. Therefore, the higher the sensitivity of the system to adequate external signals, the less energy it loses when perceiving them. But living systems are also capable of actively resisting aging, since, in accordance with the principle of stable disequilibrium, they constantly perform work against the transition to equilibrium. But no matter how effectively this work is performed, the level of biophysical energy of the individual system inevitably decreases. The result is death?
Do the laws of theoretical biology allow us to eliminate old age?
Let us turn to the consideration of the life cycle of a simple organism, for example, the “slipper” paramecium. Weisman argued that multicellular organisms are mortal because their body loses its significance after performing the reproductive function. Unicellular organisms, on the contrary, are immortal, since the “body” of a unicellular organism is a reservoir of its immortal hereditary plasma, and its division is only a peculiar form of growth. These ideas were already challenged by Weissmann's contemporaries.
The famous German biologist R. Hertwig discovered that with long-term reseeding of a paramecium culture, cells, even under the most favorable conditions, sooner or later suddenly stop dividing, feeding, and moving. Then the animals overcome this condition and resume feeding and division. Such “depression” and its overcoming are associated with amazing cell transformations. Their nuclei first increase in size and then break up into small fragments. Most of the nuclear material disappears, after which the animals awaken to a new life - cultural rejuvenation occurs. It turns out that in order to revive the whole (cell culture), individual cells must die. Hertwig called the phenomenon he discovered “partial cell death.”
The same phenomenon is observed in natural conditions. Under the influence of unfavorable environmental factors (hunger, drying out, lowering the temperature, etc.), some protozoa die, others turn into cysts. They collapse, are surrounded by a dense shell, and lose almost all of their nuclear material. And only these individuals, which, when conditions of existence deteriorated, “sacrificed” almost all the “property” accumulated during life, are capable of resuming active division when favorable conditions are restored. Whether such renewal of the organism is considered a “rejuvenation” of an old individual or a kind of birth of a new individual depends on the point of view, but it is precisely this that ensures the “immortality” of the species as a whole.
Let us consider the life cycle of a single cell from the perspective of the principle of stable disequilibrium. Immediately after the appearance of a “newborn” cell, it begins to feed and grow, increasing its living mass, which it will have to divide between two daughter cells. During growth, its volume of biophysical energy increases, and the starting biophysical energy decreases. But if the biophysical potential transferred to the daughter cells is lower than the original parental one, then the species will sooner or later disappear from the face of the Earth.
Since a species exists, it means that its representatives pass on to their descendants at least the same potential that they received from their parents. The mechanism for restoring the original potential of a cell culture is generally visible in the phenomenon of partial cell death in protozoa discussed above: during sporulation, cells lose their living mass, maintaining the volume of accumulated biophysical energy. Bauer realized that this process is the most important and specific property of the living - a way of dealing with death, and called it the “Basic Process” (OP).
According to Bauer's ideas, the mechanism of the Basic Process is launched in a living system, the potential of which has decreased as a result of its work on the accumulation of biophysical energy. At the same time, in the space of a living system, one part of its living mass transfers its reserve of biophysical energy to another. The first one passes from an excited state to a resting state, “dies,” and the level of excitation of the second one increases. Since the volume of “live mass” decreases, and the biophysical energy of the entire system does not change during AP, its biophysical potential increases.
A spontaneous increase in the energy density of a system in its limited region due to a decrease in energy density in other parts of the system is called “fluctuation” in physics. In inert systems, fluctuations are random, rare and unpredictable. For example, it is difficult to expect that water in one part of the vessel will take energy from another part and boil, while the other part will freeze, although such an event is theoretically possible.
In a living system, such paradoxical “fluctuations” of energy occur regularly and naturally. Energy donors are those parts of the system whose biophysical potential has already been significantly reduced due to their performance of external and internal work, and its acceptors are the most significant parts of the system for performing vital functions. In particular, in a single cell the main acceptor of biophysical energy is most likely DNA, and in an animal body it is nervous tissue.
To preserve life in a series of descendants, a single-celled animal must accumulate a supply of biophysical energy during its life cycle, allowing it to provide a pair of daughter cells with the initial potential. Before division, the OP is switched on in the parent cell, part of its living mass dies, and the energy is concentrated in the embryos of new daughter cells. The potential of the eggs of multicellular organisms must be much higher than that of unicellular organisms in order to ensure not only the formation of the multicellular organism itself, consisting of myriads of cells, but also a considerable number of descendants.
OP allows you to significantly extend the life of an individual even after reaching the “mass limit”, when his biophysical potential has dropped to a critical value, and metabolism no longer provides an increase in live weight. The life of individual lower animals (unicellular, ciliated worms, hydras) can be extended if part of its body is amputated before the onset of division or reproduction of an individual. Amputation is followed by regeneration, and reproduction of the individual is postponed, which is analogous to the extension of individual existence. Regular amputations prolong the life of an animal so much that some researchers began to argue about the possibility of immortality in primitive animals. And here regeneration is preceded by a restructuring of the nuclear apparatus and the death of a significant part of it, i.e., a significant renewal of the entire organism.
During the natural life cycle of multicellular organisms, events are regularly realized that, both in form and in result, completely fall under the definition of the “Basic Process” proposed by Bauer. Such events are called “apoptosis” or, as it is also figuratively called, “programmed cell death”. During apoptosis, the nuclear DNA of individual cells breaks down into fragments. Some of them, together with other cellular organelles, are absorbed by neighboring cells. Apoptosis occurs in cells that have exhausted their vital potential, or when changes appear that precede tumor degeneration. Interestingly, apoptosis occurs intensively already at the stage of embryonic development. Thus, up to 40-60% of formed nerve cells undergo apoptosis and are eliminated.
It is believed that during embryogenesis, apoptosis is necessary for the embryo to acquire its final form (remember the tadpole’s tail, which the frog no longer has), and in adulthood, the function of apoptosis is the elimination of damaged cells. The energetic function of apoptosis is not considered, although it is so similar to “partial cell death” in protozoa that in multicellular organisms it almost certainly performs the function of the “Main Process”, and, therefore, contributes to prolongation of life. Apparently, it is no coincidence that when caloric intake is limited, the intensity of apoptosis increases to 500% of the control.
Phenomena characteristic of the “basic process” are also observed at the level of the whole organism. More than half a century ago, physiologist I.P. Razenkov discovered that in addition to the consumption of exogenous food, the body performs the function of endogenous nutrition. Excreted from the blood into the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) nutrients, first of all, proteins that are digested there along with exogenous food, and the products of their breakdown are absorbed back into the blood. During the day, the same amount of protein is transferred into the gastrointestinal tract from the blood with digestive juices as is formed as a result of tissue wear and tear in the process of normal life.
During fasting, the amount of protein released into the digestive tract reaches several tens of grams, which is comparable to the lower limit of the norm for protein nutrition. Razenkov believed that this phenomenon not only ensures the constancy of the internal environment of the body (foreign food substances are diluted with endogenous ones), but also plays a bioenergetic role, acting as one of the manifestations of AP.
Another thing speaks about the role of endogenous nutrition in increasing the biophysical potential of the body physiological phenomenon– weight gain after complete fasting when returning to the original diet. Perhaps the custom of regular fasting among peoples belonging to very different cultures is associated with their beneficial effects on health and prolongation of life, and not at all with saving food.
So, Bauer discovered a fundamentally important biological phenomenon - the Basic Process - which manifests itself at the very different levels organization of living systems. Since this phenomenon has remained virtually unknown to the scientific community, it makes sense to once again describe its essence. The main process provides, in addition to other needs of the body, the possibility of significantly extending the life of an individual beyond the minimum required for procreation. OP is a critical transition of a living system to a new state, when part of the living mass is sacrificed to increase the potential of the remaining one.
A living system receives incentives for the development of OP from the outside, but it is carried out exclusively at the expense of internal reserves and is possible only if, during the previous development, the living system has accumulated a sufficient amount of biophysical energy due to the assimilation of matter-energy from the environment. An increase in the potential of a living system as a result of OP allows it to enter a new life cycle, when it can again accumulate biophysical energy. The implementation of OP in the future provides the individual with best opportunities in the struggle against the transition to an equilibrium state than if he used energy to work to preserve his entire living mass. If an individual does not die under the influence of external forces incompatible with life, then, thanks to the regular inclusion of the “Basic Process”, he can exist indefinitely.
Bauer's theory and difficult questions of gerontology
Formulated by Bauer fundamental laws biology, which we discussed extremely fragmentarily (for a more detailed presentation of them, see), make it possible to explain from a unified position most of the phenomena associated with the problem of aging, in particular those that cannot be explained within the framework of existing theories. Bauer's principle makes it possible to explain the increase in life expectancy when caloric intake is limited (starting from a certain stage of development of the individual). Let us recall that a living system must expend its own biophysical energy to assimilate matter-energy from the environment. When the system has accumulated a sufficient reserve, then it is probably more profitable for it to switch to the mode of regularly launching the “Main Process” rather than expending its biophysical energy on assimilating additional matter-energy from the environment.
Let's take the problem of the influence of population density on the life expectancy of individuals. If we consider a group of individuals as an integral living system, then the values of the parameters that determine the lifespan of such a system should differ from those that determine the lifespan of individual individuals. It is possible that, given the known optimal size of a group, due to the interaction of its members, the efficiency of using the initial biophysical potential of each individual increases, as well as the efficiency of its resistance to losses of biophysical energy.
The specific mechanisms that ensure the interaction of members of a group, thanks to which it acquires integrity, are apparently diverse and are not yet completely clear, but can we say that we know the subtle mechanisms of interactions between individual cells in any tissue that determine its properties as an integral system? and not just sums of cells? In connection with this last question, it seems necessary to us to discuss in more detail another difficult problem of gerontology - the role of reactions involving reactive oxygen species in aging.
Possible role of processes involving reactive oxygen species in the aging process and in the phenomenon of longevity
In the previous presentation, we constantly used the terms “biophysical energy” and “biophysical potential”. Is it possible to specify them?
As already noted, according to Bauer’s ideas, the nonequilibrium of a living cell is generated by the excited state of biological macromolecules, more precisely, their ensembles, and the reality of the existence of such stably nonequilibrium ensembles was confirmed by the discovery of A.G. Gurvich of the so-called “degradation radiation”. The latter is a flash of ultraviolet photons observed when biological objects are exposed to a variety of stimuli.
According to the laws of physics, light photons are generated when an electron returns from an excited orbital to a ground orbital. But the electronically excited state of particles is energetically extremely unfavorable. Macromolecules can be maintained in this state for a long time only if they are continuously pumped with energy at a sufficiently high density. Of the chemical processes occurring in the body, the most suitable sources of such energy may be reactions involving reactive oxygen species, mainly the recombination reactions of free radicals.
Thus, during the recombination of two superoxide radicals, an energy quantum of about 1 eV is released (with the hydrolysis of one ATP molecule, less than 0.5 eV is released). When hydrogen peroxide decomposes, an energy quantum equal to 2 eV is released (corresponding to a green light quantum). And in total, with the sequential reduction of one oxygen molecule to two water molecules, 8 eV are released by four electrons.
It is characteristic that in the sections of biochemistry and biophysics, where reactions involving reactive oxygen species are considered, almost no mention is made of the enormous energy output of these reactions, and attention is drawn only to the participation of oxygen radicals in chain reactions with biomolecules, in which oxidative destruction of the latter occurs.
In our opinion, substantiated in more detail by references to our own and literary data in, ROS must be considered primarily as the main participants in continuous nonlinear processes during which electronically excited states are generated. These processes play a fundamentally important role in organizing the flow of energy and information in living systems, as evidenced by the rapid growth in the number of studies that claim that ROS act as universal information agents for almost all manifestations of cellular activity. But if ROS, unlike molecular bioregulators, do not have chemical specificity, how can they provide fine regulation cellular functions?
While a significant portion of the body's oxygen consumption is used to produce ROS, current levels of free radicals and other ROS in cells and the extracellular environment are very low. Numerous both enzymatic and non-enzymatic mechanisms, collectively referred to as “antioxidant defense,” quickly eliminate emerging ROS.
A free radical can be eliminated in the only way - by adding or subtracting one electron from it. The radical turns into a molecule (a particle with an even number of paired electrons), and the chain reaction ends. ROS are constantly generated in living systems during enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions, and antioxidants ensure a high rate of recombination of radicals and their transformation into stable molecules.
What is the point of generating radicals if they must be immediately eliminated, if not that the products of these reactions appear in an electronically excited state, equivalent to that which arises when they absorb a quantum of light. The results of our research and the data of other authors indicate that under the conditions of the molecular and supramolecular organization of the cytoplasm and extracellular matrix, this energy is far from completely dissipated into heat. It can accumulate in macromolecules, supramolecular ensembles, and be radiatively and nonradiatively redistributed between them. We believe that it is this feature of radical reactions that ensures the regulation and coordination of the cell’s executive mechanisms. The energy of recombination reactions, equivalent to light photons, can act both as a “starter” of metabolic processes and as their pacemaker.
The last statement is supported by the fact that many, if not all, biological processes occur in an oscillatory mode, and it turns out that not only the amplitude, but also the frequency of oscillations plays an important regulatory (informational) role. On the other hand, reactions involving ROS often occur in an oscillatory mode under conditions characteristic of the internal conditions of living systems. For example, during the reaction between widespread biomolecules - glucose and glycine (the simplest amino acid), occurring in water under relatively mild conditions, in the presence of oxygen, light emission is generated, which, moreover, flares up and then fades away.
We assume that the mechanisms of biological action of ROS are determined not so much by their average content in the body’s environment, but by the structure of the processes in which they participate. By the structure of the process we mean the frequency-amplitude characteristics of the reactions of ROS interaction with each other or with ordinary molecules. If these reactions supply activation energy for specific molecular processes in the cell, then they can determine the rhythms of biochemical and then physiological processes.
Oscillatory rhythms, both periodic and nonlinear, are self-generated in ROS exchange processes, but without regular external stimulation, ROS production sooner or later fades. The body must receive a “primer” in the form of ROS from the outside, for example, in the form of air ions (superoxide radical) or with water and food. AFK appear in aquatic environment the body when absorbing photons of sufficiently high energies (UV and shorter wavelength ranges), which arise, in particular, during Cherenkov radiation, which accompanies the beta decay of radioactive isotopes 14C and 40K entering the body naturally.
External causes and factors that in one way or another generate electronically excited states in internal environment the body, figuratively speaking, “turns on the ignition”, allowing the extinction of its own processes of generating such states to “flare up”.
However, ROS, of course, can also pose a serious danger in the event of disturbances in both their production and utilization through recombination of radicals. Overproduction and disruption of ROS utilization leads to the development of chain reactions and damage to biomolecules, to the emergence of those pathologies that are well described in the literature as the consequences of “oxidative stress”. But as for the insufficient production of ROS, which is accompanied by disturbances in the regulation of a wide variety of physiological processes, until recently almost no attention was paid to this aspect of their metabolism.
At the same time, an “outbreak” of ROS production occurs already at the moment of fertilization of an egg by a sperm, i.e., during the act from which the development of a new life begins, and without such an outbreak, normal maturation of eggs does not occur. From the perspective of Bauer's theory, this outbreak significantly increases the biophysical potential of the fertilized egg. During further development, bursts of ROS synthesis, accompanied by the generation of electronically excited states, occur with each cell division. Each act of apoptosis is also accompanied by a burst of radiation, which is absorbed by surrounding cells, increasing their biophysical potential.
Thus, reactions involving reactive oxygen species occurring in the internal environment of the body are the most likely candidates for the role of processes that provide the significance of the biophysical potentials of the organism as a whole, the potentials of its particular physiological systems, and individual cells. The volume of biophysical energy is determined, based on these concepts, by the mass of the molecular substrate in an electronically excited state and the degree of its excitation. If this is so, then in animals and in humans, in particular, the most “living” matter is nervous tissue, and the longer it is able to maintain this state, the longer the active life of the individual continues.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the duration of the active and full existence of a living system depends to a certain extent on both genetic factors and the conditions of its existence. But from the laws of theoretical biology, first formulated by E. Bauer, it follows that any living system, including humans, is a continuous active process of formation, and its results are determined mainly by the living system’s own activity and, secondarily, by external circumstances and even the genetic constitution of the organism. Although, in accordance with the principle of stable disequilibrium, any elementary development cycle of a living system has its limit, after which the aging stage begins, other principles of Bauer’s theory open up the possibility of significantly extending the life of an individual while maintaining his high vital activity.
Thanks to the existence of the “Basic Process”, each individual living system has the opportunity to repeatedly “rejuvenate” and re-enter the development phase, and the starting conditions for the new stage may be better than for the previous one. Each person at each stage of his development, as a rule, has at his disposal the means for its implementation. Another thing is that many do not know that they are provided with these funds and do not know how to use them.
True, it seems that we simply forgot about this, since many anciently known rules of a healthy lifestyle, methods of correcting deviations from normal development, allow us not only to extend the calendar life span, but also to ensure high performance and creative activity at any age. And if earlier humanity used these techniques only on the basis of empirical experience, then the development of gerontology based on the laws of theoretical biology will sooner or later make it possible to apply them on a scientific basis individually for each person if he really wants to live a full life.
Literature
1. Arshavsky I.A. Towards the theory of individual development (Biophysical aspects) // Biophysics. 1991.- T. 36. – N 5. – P. 866-878.
2. Astaurov B.L. Theoretical biology and some of its immediate tasks. // Question philosophy.- 1972.- N 2.- P. 70-79.
3. Baskakov I.V., Voeikov V.L. The role of electronically excited states in biochemical processes. // Biochemistry. - 1996. - T. 61. - N 7. - P. 1169-1181.
4. Bauer E. Theoretical biology. -M.:L.- VIEM Publishing House.- 1935.- P. 140-144
5. Belousov L.V., Voeikov V.L., Popp F.A. Mitogenetic rays of Gurvich. // Nature.- 1997.- N 3. -S. 64-80.
6. Berg L.S. Works on the theory of evolution. -L.: Science.- 1977.- P. 98.
7. Weisman A. About life and death. //New ideas in biology. Collection three: Life and immortality I./ Ed. V.A. Wagner and E.A. Schultz. – St. Petersburg: Education.- 1914.- P. 1-66
8. Voeikov V.L. Active oxygen, organized water and vital processes. /Proceedings of the II International Congress Weak and ultra-weak radiation in biology and medicine. St. Petersburg.- 2000.- pp. 1-4.
9. Voeikov V.L. The role of glycation reactions and free radical processes in the development and prevention of aging. // Clinical gerontology.- 1988.-N 3.- P. 57.
10. Gamaleya I.A., Klybin I.V. Hydrogen peroxide as a signaling molecule. // Cytology.- 1996.- T. 38.- N 12.-S. 1233-1247.
11. Hartman M. General biology. - M.:L.: GIZ of biological and medical literature. - 1935. - P. 514-517. (from German)
12. Hertwig R. About the cause of death.//New ideas in biology. Collection three: Life and immortality I. /Ed. V.A. Wagner and E.A. Schultz. – St. Petersburg: Education.- 1914.- P. 104-135.
13. Gurvich A.G. Principles of analytical biology and cell field theory. – M.: Nauka.- 1991.- 287 P.
14. Kagan A.Ya. The effect of fasting on body weight when starving people are fed a limited amount of food. // Rus. medicine, 1885.- N 17-19. -WITH. 1-21.
15. Comfort A. Biology of aging. -M.: Mir.- 1967. 397 S. (from English)
16. Lukyanova L.D., Balmukhanov B.S., Ugolev A.T. Oxygen-dependent processes in the cell and their functional role. M.: Nauka.- 1982.- pp. 172-173.
17. Mechnikov I.I. Sketches of optimism. -M.: Nauka.- 1988.- P. 88-96.
18. Okhnyanskaya L.G., Vishnyakova I.N. Ivan Petrovich Razenkov. -M.: Nauka.- 1991.- P. 168-180.
19. Pigarevsky V.E. Granular leukocytes and their properties. -M.: Medicine.- 1978.- 128 p.
20. Prigozhin I. Biological order, structure and instability. // Uspekhi fiziol. nauk.- 1973.- T. 109.- N 3. -S. 517-544.
21. Pushkova E.S., Ivanova L.V. Long-livers: health status and ability to self-care. // Clinical gerontology. - 1996. - N 1. -
22. Frolkis V.V. Aging and increasing life expectancy. -L.: Science.- 1988.- 238 p.
23. Chauvin V. The world of insects. -M.: Mir.- 1970.- P. 116-121. (from French)
24. Adachi Y, Kindzelskii AL, Ohno N, et al. Amplitude and frequency modulation of metabolic signals in leukocytes: synergistic role of IFN-gamma in IL-6- and IL-2-mediated cell activation. //J. Immunol.- 1999.- V. 163.- No. 8.- P. 4367-4374.
25. Albanes .D., Heinonen O.P., Taylor P.R., et al. Alpha-Tocopherol and beta-carotene supplements and lung cancer incidence in the alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene cancer prevention study: effects of base-line characteristics and study compliance.// J. Natl. Cancer Inst.- 1996.- V. 88.- No. 21.- P. 1560-1570.
26. Allsop R.C., Vaziri H., Patterson C., et al. Telomere length predicts replicative capacity of human fibroblasts. //Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A.- 1992.- V. 89. -R. 10114-10118.
27. Bodnar A. G., Ouellette M., Frolkis M., et al. Extension of Life-Span by Introduction of Telomerase into Normal Human Cells // Science.- 1998.- V. 279, N 5349. -P. 349 – 352.
28. Buck S., Nicholson M., Dudas S., et al. Larval regulation of adult longevity in a genetically-selected long-lived strain of Drosophila. //Heredity.- 1993.- V.71. -P 23-32.
29. Bush A. Metals and neuroscience. //Curr. Opinion Chem. Biol.- 2000.- V. 4.- P. 184-194.
30. Cerami A. Hypothesis: glucose as a mediator of aging. //J. Am. Geriatr. Soc.- 1985.- V. 33. -P. 626-634.
31. Cristofalo V. J., Allen R. G., Pignolo R. J., et al. Relationship between donor age and the replicative lifespan of human cells in culture: a reevaluation. //Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA.- 1998.- V. 95.- P. 10614-10619.
32. David H. Quantitative Ultrastructural Data of Animal and Human Cells. Stuttgart; New York.- 1977.
33. Dupont G., Goldbeter A. CaM kinase II as a frequency decoder of Ca2+ oscillations. //Bioessays.- 1998.- V. 20.- No. 8.- P. 607-610.
34. Finch C.E., Tanzi R.E. The genetics of aging. // Science. 1997.- V. 278. -P. 407-411.
35. Fridovich I. Oxygen toxicity: a radical explanation. // J. Exp. Biol.- 1998.-V. 201.- P. 1203-1209.
36. Haanen C., Vermes I. Apoptosis: programmed cell death in fetal development. //Eur. J. Obstet. Gynecol. Reprod. Biol.- 1996.- V. 64.- N 1. -P. 129-133.
37. Hancock J.T. Superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide as signaling molecules: their production and role in disease. //Br. J. Biomed. Sci.- 1997.- V. 54.- N 1. -P. 38-46.
38. Harman D. Aging: A theory based on free radical and radiation chemistry. //J.Gerontol.- 1956.- V. 11. -P. 289-300.
39. Hart R.W., Dixit R., Seng J., Turturro A., et al. Adaptive role of caloric intake on the degenerative disease processes. //Toxicol. Sci.- 1999.- V. 52 (Supplement).- P. 3-12.
40. Hayflick L. Intracellular determinants of cell aging.//Mech. Ageing Dev.- 1984.- V. 28.- N 2-3. -P. 177-85.
41. Ishijima A., Kojima H., Funatsu T., et al. Simultaneous observation of individual ATPase and mechanical events by a single myosin molecule during interaction with actin. //Cell.- 1998.- V. 92.- N 2. - R. 161-171.
42. Johnson T.E. Genetic influences on aging. //Exp. Gerontol.- 1997.- V.- 32.- N 1-2. -P. 11-22.
43. Kobayashi M., Takeda M., Ito K., et al. Two-dimensional photon counting imaging and spatiotemporal characterization of ultraweak photon emission from a rat’s brain in vivo. //J. Neurosci. Methods.- 1999.- V. 93.- No. 2.- P. 163-168.
44. Kobayashi M., Takeda M., Sato T., et al. in vivo imaging of spontaneous ultraweak photon emission from a rat’s brain correlated with cerebral energy metabolism and oxidative stress. //Neurosci. Res.- 1999.- V. 34.- No. 2.- P. 103-113.
45. Koldunov V.V., Kononov D.S., Voeikov V.L. Oscillations of photon emission accompanying the oxidative process in aqueous solutions of glycin with ribose or glucose and effects of transition metals and ascorbic acid. //Rivista di Biologia/Biological Forum.- 2000.- V. 93.- P. 143-145.
46. Kreeger K.Y. Biomedical researchers step up efforts to probe mysteries of aging. //The Scientist.- 1994.- V. 8.- N 20. -P. 14.
47. Kristal B.S., Yu B.P. An emerging hypothesis: synergistic induction of aging by free radicals and Maillard reactions. // J. Gerontol.- 1992.- V.47.- N 4. - R. B107-B114.
48. McCall M. R., Frei B. Can antioxidant vitamins materially reduce oxidative damage in humans? // Free Radic. Biol. Med.- 1999.- V. 26.- No. 7-8.- P. 1034-1053.
49. McCarter R., Masoro E.J., Yu B.P. Does food restriction retard aging by reducing the metabolic rate? //Am. J. Physiol.- 1985.- V.248. -P. E488-E490.
50. Monnier V.M. Cerami A. Nonenzymatic browning in vivo: possible process for aging of long-lived proteins. //Science.-1981.- V. 211. -P. 491-493.
51. Oshino N., Jamieson D., Sugano T., Chance B. Optical measurement of the catalase-hydrogen peroxide intermediate (Compound I) in the liver of anesthetized rats and its implication to hydrogen peroxide production in situ. // Biochem. J.- 1975.- V. 146.- C. 67-77.
52. Paller M.S., Eaton J.W. Hazards of antioxidant combinations containing superoxide dismutase. //Free Radic. Biol. Med.- 1995.- V. 18.- No. 5.- P. 883-890.
53. Preparata G. Quantum ElectroDynamics coherence in matter. -Singapure: World Scientific.- 1995.
54. Rice M. E. Ascorbate regulation and its neuroprotective role in the brain. // Trends Neurosci.- 2000.- V. 23.- P. 209-216.
55. Roebuck B.D., Baumgartner K.J., MacMillan D.L. Caloric restriction and intervention in pancreatic carcinogenesis in the rat. //Cancer Res.- 1993. V.- 53. -P. 46-52.
56. Sell D.R., Lane M.A., Johnson W.A., et al. Longevity and the genetic determination of collagen glycoxidation kinetics in mammalian senescence. //Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.- 1996.- V. 93. -P. 485-490.
57. Shoaf A.R., Shaikh A.U., Harbison R.D., Hinojosa O. Extraction and analysis of superoxide free radicals (.O2-) from whole mammalian liver. // J. Biolumin. Chemilumin.- 1991.- V. 6.- P. 87-96.
58. Tammariello S.P., Quinn M.T., Estus S. NADPH oxidase contributes directly to oxidative stress and apoptosis in nerve growth factor-deprived sympathetic neurons. //J. Neurosci.- 2000.- V. 20.- Issue 1.- RC53.- P. 1-5.
59. Verdery R.B., Ingram D.K., Roth G.S., Lane M.A. Caloric restriction increases HDL2 levels in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). //Am. J. Physiol.- 1997.-V. 273.- N 4.- Pt 1. -P. E714-E719.
60. Vlessis A.A., Bartos D., Muller P., Trunkey D.D. Role of reactive O2 in phagocyte-induced hypermetabolism and pulmonary injury. // J. Appl. Physiol.- 1995.- V. 78.- P. 112-116.
61. Voeikov V.L. Processes Involving Reactive Oxygen Species are the Major Source of Structured Energy for Organismal Biophotonic Field Pumping. In: Biophotonics and Coherent Systems/ Editors: Lev Beloussov, Fritz-Albert Popp, Vladimir Voeikov, and Roeland Van Wijk. Moscow: Moscow University Press.- 2000 P. 203-228.
62. Voeikov V.L. The scientific basis of the new biological paradigm. // 21st Century Science & Technology.- 1999.- V. 12.- No. 2.- P. 18-33.
63. Wachsman J.T. The beneficial effects of dietary restriction: reduced oxidative damage and enhanced apoptosis. //Mutat. Res.- 1996.- V. 350.- N 1. -P. 25-34.
64. Weed J.L., Lane M.A., Roth G.S., et al. Activity measures in rhesus monkeys on long-term calorie restriction. //Physiol. Behav.- 1997.- V. 62. -P. 97-103.
65. Weindruch R., Walford R.L., Fligiel S., Guthrie D. The retardation of aging in mice by dietary restriction: longevity, cancer, immunity and lifetime energy intake. //Nutr.- 1986.- V. 116. -P. 641-654.
66. Wentworth A.D., Kones L.H., Wentworth P., Jr., Janda K.D., Lerner R.A. Antibodies have the intrinsic capacity to destroy antigens. //Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.- 2000.- V. 97.- Issue 20.- P. 10930-10935.
67. Wise C.J., Watt D.J., Jones G.E. Conversion of dermal fibroblasts to a myogenic lineage is induced by a soluble factor derived from myoblasts. //J. Cell. Biochem.- 1996.- V. 61. -P. 363-374.
68. Zainal T.A., Oberley T.D., Allison D.B., et al. Caloric restriction of rhesus monkeys lowers oxidative damage in skeletal muscle. // FASEB J.- 2000.- V. 14.- No. 12.-P. 1825-1836.
In contact with
Medical and social aspects of longevity
Modern man wants to live long and enjoy all the benefits of civilization. How to do this? How to eat and what lifestyle to lead to live longer? People have been trying to find answers to these most pressing questions for many, many centuries.
The air we breathe, or the long-livers of Abkhazia.
Abkhazia is a unique natural zone of intensive healing. One of the reasons for the intensive recovery is the composition of the Abkhaz air near the coast and the body’s reaction to the absorbed components of the air. Another treasure of Abkhazia is air. It is rich in negatively charged ions, sea salts, oxygen (41%), (for comparison, the oxygen content in Moscow is only 8%!). The air in residential premises is greatly oversaturated with positive ions, but there is a catastrophic lack of healing negative ions. So, if in the mountains of Abkhazia the number of negative ions is about 20,000 per 1 cubic meter. cm of air, in our forests there are 3000, but indoors there are only 10-20. But air devoid of ions is like food without minerals and therefore leads to dystrophic changes in many internal organs - the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, blood vessels. This active influence of the external environment largely explains the phenomenon of longevity in Abkhazia. If in the Soviet Union as a whole, there are 100 people per million inhabitants who are long-livers (over 100 years old), then in Abkhazia with a population of 215,000 people (2003 census) there are about 250 of them. In general, 42% of all inhabitants of the planet who have reached the age of 10 live in the Caucasus. a hundred years or more.
Correct breathing
Proper breathing improves your well-being. The frequency of breathing, the depth of inhalations and exhalations affects all functions of the body, including brain activity. It is believed that frequent and shallow breathing shortens life.
Nutrition for centenarians
a) Balanced nutrition
Some nutritionists believe that it is possible to increase life expectancy to 150-200 only through balanced nutrition. The term “rational nutrition” refers to a balanced intake of all necessary substances into the body with food. Balanced nutrition is not just about saturating the body. (The stomach is easy to deceive - it will say “thank you” for a dish of an old shoe, stewed until soft and seasoned with some sauce). This is the food that contains everything necessary for the body substances.
If the products that a person consumes daily are unsatisfactory from the point of view nutritional value(especially if it is floury, sweet, spicy and fried), this will negatively affect a person’s well-being.
The food of centenarians should contain little cholesterol, all vitamins in high concentrations, and be enriched with natural antioxidants. This can be achieved through a relatively low fat intake, an optimal ratio of polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids, and a high intake of vitamins and minerals.
b) Minerals
Human health and the existence of all living organisms depend on various minerals. They participate in all processes occurring in organs and tissues.
Microelements are mainly catalysts for biochemical reactions. As experts jokingly put it, catalysts act on the body like tips on a waiter.
Lack of microelements in some vitamins and hormones causes serious disruption of the nervous and endocrine systems.
The minerals that make up the body are constantly consumed. One of the sources of their replenishment is soil, since they enter the human body with products of plant and animal origin and with water.
To achieve longevity, 17 essential minerals are needed: calcium, phosphorus, iron, cobalt, zinc, copper, arsenic, vanadium, table salt, potassium, iodine, silica, boron, magnesium, aluminum, fluorine and sulfur.
c) The magical power of vitamins
Vitamins are necessary to prolong youth. Nutritionists believe that premature aging occurs due to the lack of foods in the diet that contain the vitamins the body needs. With regular use of vitamins, the aging process can be slowed down and even reversed.
Like minerals, vitamins are faithful companions of a long-liver. And although some vitamins play a leading role here, while others play a more modest role, it is clear that all of them are necessary to maintain youth and health.
Physical activity, work
Rational nutrition is the main, but not the only factor in the fight to prolong life. Labor, movement and muscle training are the source of youth and health. Premature aging can be caused by muscle deterioration.
Academician A. A. Mikulin (1895-1985) wrote: “Most of our ailments are the cause of laziness, lack of will, and low physical activity.”
The statement that vigorous activity supposedly accelerates aging is fundamentally incorrect; it has no basis. On the contrary, practice has established that for people who do not want to grow old, that is, who work intensively into old age, life expectancy does not decrease, but increases. Unlike inanimate nature, all structures of a living body are not only gradually destroyed, but also continuously restored. For normal self-renewal of these structures, they need to function intensively. Therefore, everything that is excluded from action is doomed to degeneration and death. Atrophy comes from inactivity. “Not a single lazy person has reached a ripe old age: all those who have reached it have led a very active lifestyle,” emphasized H. Hufeland.
There is a well-known general biological law: aging affects the organ that works the most and lasts the least.
Research into lifestyle, characteristics and characteristic features Some centenarians give grounds to assert that centenarians come from rural areas and have been engaged in physical labor throughout their long lives.
Muscle flaccidity is the first signal of the onset of aging. To maintain tone, regular and even exercise is necessary. But it is important to consider that inactivity is just as harmful to muscles as overexertion.
Additional factors
The complex set of social and biological factors that influence human longevity also includes the geographic environment, heredity, past diseases, relationships in the family and in society, and a number of others. The individual factors of this complex are closely connected and interdependent, but their nature and significance in different countries or regions of the globe may be different.
Professor G.D. Berdyshev believes that the ability to live longevity is inherited. According to his calculations, 60 percent of life expectancy is predetermined at birth, and the remaining 40 percent depends on circumstances and living conditions, but, what is very important, a well-chosen lifestyle compensates for the shortcomings of the genetic program.
There is an opinion that a favorable climate is an indispensable condition for longevity. Proponents of this point of view argue that long-livers are found only among mountain residents and their lives continue for a long time due to the mountain climate (excess oxygen, ultraviolet rays). To some extent this is true. The mountain climate favors longevity, but if it depended only on climatic conditions, then everyone living in the mountains would be long-livers.
Brain activity
The role of brain activity in achieving longevity can be attributed to two factors at once - biological and social.
The brain is the coordinating center of the human body and has both positive and negative effects on it. For example, on the one hand, the brain is able to create mental images, which can speed up achievement desired results in one or another field of activity. On the other hand, stress syndrome and its negative consequences for human health.
Can we force the brain to work more in order to delay, “delay” its aging?
Yes we can. Any work that requires the participation of the brain improves and strengthens its functions. As a result, his activity intensifies. Recent studies convincingly show that older people, whose brains are in an active state, do not decline in mental abilities, which are crucial for human life. And that slight deterioration, which sometimes still has to be observed, is insignificant, it does not interfere with normal functioning. The results of recent studies give reason to believe that in physically and emotionally healthy people, the development of intelligence (certain most important aspects) can continue even after 80 years. All this allows us to come to the conclusion that in some cases the decline in intelligence is reversible and the once put forward hypothesis about cell loss occurring with age is erroneous.
Some experts argue that the old ideas about age and intelligence that still persist have sometimes tragic consequences: a large number of intellectually developed people discovered in old age a decrease in their capabilities due to incorrect judgments that supposedly old age brings an inevitable weakening of intelligence.
“Decreased mental abilities are a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says English psychologist W. Chey, who studies the aging process. Anyone who feels able to act as well in old age as at other times of his life does not become intellectually helpless.”
Numerous studies have proven that long-livers are active people. They are characterized by a high vitality, which is achieved by any creative work. And the more active a person’s nervous system is, the longer he lives. This is confirmed by historical examples. So, Sophocles lived to be 90 years old. He created the brilliant work “Oedipus the King” at the age of 75, and “Oedipus at Colonus” several years later. Bernard Shaw retained his intelligence and capacity for work into old age. At the age of 94, he wrote: “Live your life to the full, give yourself completely to your fellow men, and then you will die, saying loudly: “I have done my work on earth, I have done more than that.” it was supposed to." His reward was in the consciousness that he generously and completely gave his life and his genius for the good of humanity.
The famous German thinker and poet Goethe finished Faust at the age of 83. The whole world knows the paintings of the great Repin, but few know that his last masterpieces were created by him at the age of 86! And Titian, Pavlov, Leo Tolstoy! The list of names of outstanding people who lived long lives full of creative work could be continued endlessly.
Social aspects of longevity
It is obvious that the problem of life extension is not only biological, medical, but also social. This is fully confirmed by numerous scientific observations, as well as the results of studies of centenarians in our country and abroad.
As Professor K. Platonov noted, “...a person as an individual and as an integral structure has two basic and interconnected substructures, necessary and sufficient to cover all his properties and individual characteristics: the substructure of the organism and the substructure of the personality.
It is a mistake to consider any human activity either only as biologically determined, or as only socially determined.” There is not a single social manifestation of a person’s life that is not inextricably linked with his biological properties. K. Platonov gives an example of human acceleration - his accelerated development in the present era. This is a biological manifestation of his body, but it is due to social influences affecting life expectancy, improving the health and physical condition of the population, its settlement in cities and villages, etc.
The more cultures a person has, that is, the more the influence of social relations affects him, the more opportunities he has to influence his biology, his health.
The determining factor in longevity is psychological.
Longevity is not a phenomenon, but a consequence of human harmony with the natural environment of existence. The most important thing in this harmony is psychological comfort in communication and pleasure from life. The main character traits of a centenarian are calmness, cordiality, a mood full of optimism and plans for the future, good nature, and peacefulness.
They remain optimistic until old age. In addition, they know how to manage their emotions. One of the Abkhaz centenarians explained her longevity by the ability to be tolerant. Under no circumstances did she allow herself to become irritated or worry about minor troubles, and she tried to treat major ones philosophically. “If something bothers me, I don’t get completely upset right away. I start to worry “gradually”, stretching out my anxiety, so to speak, over a long period of time, while at the same time maintaining control over myself, calmness and a philosophical approach. Thus, I I protect myself from excessive suffering and stress. I learned this from my parents." It should be noted that Abkhaz centenarians are proud of their restraint - minor quarrels and abuse are considered as unnecessary irritation and a waste of time.
American scientists have concluded that long-livers, as a rule, are satisfied with their jobs and really want to live. Most of them lead a calm, measured life. The centenarians examined by gerontologists were distinguished by their calm nature, balance, and lack of fussiness. Many of the centenarians led a hard working life, experienced serious hardships, but at the same time remained calm and steadfastly endured all adversity.
Long-livers develop a psychological defense against the awareness of the fact of aging and the inevitability of death, which is determined by character traits, low levels of anxiety, contact, and flexibility of mental reactions. In connection with these psychological characteristics centenarians should remember the statement of Gufelaid, who wrote in 1653 that “among the influences that shorten life, fear, sadness, despondency, envy, and hatred occupy a predominant place.” Based on an analysis of the lifestyle of centenarians over a long period, scientists identify traditional ways to prolong life: psychological stability, healthy eating and the absence of any bad habits, choice of external living environment. Both scientists who study life extension in theory and centenarians themselves agree on one thing: the main guarantee of a long life is good spirits. It has long been proven that people who are optimistic live longer than pessimists. Maintaining sociability and not allowing your usual circle of interests to narrow over the years is the key to an optimistic outlook on life. And it, in turn, ensures mental health, which in old age is no less important than physical health.
In his travel notes about the Caucasus, Karl May clearly writes that every second person here is long-lived. He began to look for a solution and found it. It's amazingly simple. Caucasians live so long because they like it!
Attitudes towards centenarians in the past
Let's consider how it was customary to treat old people in different eras and in different countries.
In the Stone Age, the attitude towards the weak and old was cruel. Old people were expelled to the mountains and deserts. The life of one individual was of little value; the survival of an entire species was what was important. For example, pastures and hunting grounds have become depleted and new ones must be found. People could not expect the natural death of old people who were unable to withstand the difficult road; when they moved, they left the old people in the old place. But time passed, and attitudes towards old people changed. In ancient Egypt, they found a papyrus on which a congratulation to the teacher was written:
You gave 110 years of your life to this country,
and your limbs are as healthy as the body of a gazelle.
You drove death from your doors,
and no disease has power over you,
above you, who will never be old.
The sacred book of ancient Christians - the Old Testament - obliges children to honor their parents and take care of them.
In China, they have always treated older people with respect, showing warmth and cordiality. If a parent died, the son wore mourning for three years and had no right to travel (and this despite the fact that the Chinese are passionate travelers). And today old people in China live surrounded by care and love.
In Africa they also respected and respect their ancestors. African philosophy views life as an eternal circle (birth, death, birth). Old age is a transitional state between life, death and rebirth. Old man- this is a storehouse of wisdom. No wonder they say in Mali: “When an old man dies, a whole library dies.”
Unfortunately, the attitude towards older people was not favorable everywhere. In Sparta, elderly and sick people were thrown into the abyss. In ancient Rome, an old man was dragged to a river to be thrown there. The sentenced old men had the inscription on their foreheads: “The one who must be thrown off the bridge.”
And yet, despite the cruelty legalized by the state, there were people who were not afraid to express a different opinion about the elderly. Sophocles insisted that older people should hold high positions because they were wise.
In today's world, older people also lack respect from young people. But is this only the fault of young people? Rudolf Steiner, when asked why our youth do not respect their elders, answered: “We do not know how to grow old. As we grow older, we do not become wiser. We simply degrade and fall apart mentally and physically. And only with some there is a breakthrough and they become wise.”
Social environment
Demand in family and society is what is necessary to maintain health and well-being in old age.
Many centenarians were married, and more than once; they got married in old age. Thus, the Frenchman Longueville lived to be 110 years old, married 10 times, and last time- at ninety years old, his wife gave birth to a son when he was 101 years old. So, marriage prolongs life.
In Abkhazian culture, there are many forms of behavior developed over centuries that help overcome the effects of stress factors. Participation in the rituals of life’s journey and in general in significant events for a person by a significant number of people - relatives, neighbors, acquaintances - is of great importance. Similar forms of behavior exist among other peoples of the Caucasus. But in Abkhazia, the scale of moral and material support, mutual assistance of relatives and neighbors in situations of vital changes - weddings or funerals - attracts attention.
The main conclusion drawn from this study was that residents of the Caucasus almost completely lack feelings of uncertainty and anxiety associated with the expectation of undesirable changes in the social status of a long-lived old man as his age increases. Aging and possible negative physical changes associated with it do not lead to depressive states psyche of centenarians, which, apparently, has a direct connection with the phenomenon of longevity.
