Don’t you find it interesting that there are some people who are old as dust but look so young while there are young people who look…well old as dust….ok, ok…older than they are.   Why is it that some people get sick all the time simply by looking at someone and others can walk around through a plague and be perfectly fine.  I can hear you guys now “It’s their genes. They have great genes!”  While this is true, it’s not that. There’s this lady that was on the news and social media that is 70 something years old. She looks like she’s in her 50s and hasn’t been sick for years, no glasses, aches and pains or any medication. Although her mother and sibling have cancer, cardiovascular problems, diabetes..the whole gambit. (http://mtic.us/70-year-old-looks-30-reveals-fountain-of-youth/).  Now, I am not advocating her particular lifestyle since everyone doesn’t live in a tropical climate. Her body’s requirements are most likely different than your due to her age and environment.  There are also families with great health history have an onslaught of health issues after 1 generation.
This would lead you the think or understand that genes can be changed. Although there is still a lot of documentation saying that genes don’t change. According to new research under the title of epigenetics (the study of genes) we change our gene’s makeup all the time. So someone with good genes can pass on bad genes and vice versa.  Haven’t learned about that in science class huh? There is a Dr. by the name of Burzynski who started tapping into this turning on and off of gene sequencing to turn on genes to defend itself from Cancer, his specialty lies in Brain cancer (http://www.burzynskiclinic.com/sr-burzynski-md-phd.html)
How do we do this? Through our cells. So the old so way thought is that our cells die every 7-10 years. Not all at the same time, but they do and they are recreated based on the building blocks that are available to them. It turns out that our cells replicate based on how much we use a particular cell in its function ( i.e. tissue, organs, skin, blood).
  • Red blood cells ( 4 months),
  • Skin ( 2-5 weeks)
  • Hair ( 6 years for women, 3 years for men
  • Liver ( Every 150 -500 days) approx 5 month – 1 year 4 months and 2 weeks
  • Your stomach and Intestines – more so the lining every 5 days
  • Bones – happens constantly, but for a complete revamp it can take 10 years
and as of now, they are saying that the only thing that doesn’t regenerate is your cerebral cortex  (Opfer, 2014)
I tell you all this because if you are lacking/deficient in a vitamin, mineral, chemical ( Hormone) or phytonutrient (which is a word that means I don’t know what it is, but the body needs it). Then your body can’t replicate the same exact cell. So it makes a downgraded version of itself. When its makes this downgraded version of itself based on the available nutrients. It also includes the copy of your genes/DNA that is stored in the nucleus of your cells (Parker, 2013). I think most people don’t really think about that when they say your genes don’t change.
So when we get wrinkles, it means that the elasticity in our skin wasn’t replicated in the same way…maybe due to collagen levels being low. When our bones or joints ache it not part of aging. Your grandmother’s  grandmother didn’t have these problems.
When your eyesight goes bad
When you loose teeth
when you loose hair, as you grey
These are all difficulties in replicating the same cell. There are some cultures that just don’t age the same way as others and that is largely due to their environment ( the amount of pollution, chemical exposure, diet and yes, they probably start off with a better stock account..which I will talk about stock accounts on another episode).
When we look at critical diseases such as heart attack and stroke that we talked about last month, that takes 10 years to even show up on the radar. The same goes for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, endocrine disorders such as Parkinson’s, MS etc. We talked about the disruption of the endocrine when we talked about deodorant and what they do. All these I have mentioned takes more than 7 years before they show obvious symptoms relating to whatever the disorder/disease is.  So how many times have these cells mutated or replicated a downgraded version of themselves until we have noticed or felt it?
Epigenetics also says that we can upgrade or build this back up by doing the opposite of what we did to cause it.
References:

 Parker, S. (2013) The Human Body New your, NY: Darling Kindersley
Chris Opfer “Does your body really replace itself every seven years?” 6 June 2014.
HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/does-body-really-replace-seven-years.htm> 7 March 2017