How lifestyle and lifestyle diseases affect the aging process

mashizaq

According to nutritionists these days, most of the people have bad diet and irregularities in their lifestyle. Also, their bodies have become more dependent on medicine and drugs, which seem to protect them from many diseases but in the end weakens their immunity.
If lifestyle diseases contribute to our shortened lifespan, how can one live a healthy life and enjoy their lifestyle while reversing one's age?

NickOttens

This is absolutely true! Nutrition and a healthy lifestyle play a major role, and I believe it's been demonstrated that switching to a healthier diet, quitting smoking, exercising, etc. can indeed reduce people's biological age already. (@Roey, correct me if I'm wrong.)

It's just that this might not lend itself to an XPRIZE. We'd be talking about changing people's behavior, longer term. How do you make that into a prize competition?

That's why we're not talking about it very much here - but this is definitively an issue that came up when we were creating The Future of Longevity Impact Roadmap last year, which was also sponsored by Sergey Young. You may be interested in taking a look at some of the archived discussions from the time, here. In particular: Mediterranean diet, caloric restriction, and gut microbiome.

mashizaq

I think it should be a factor of consideration, whereby once a beneficiary is identified, the medical team should first check for any pre-existing conditions and the patient advised on corrective measure to undertake.
of course we can't go forcing people to change their lifestyle but encouraging those affected to change for their own good will go a long way in making the drug work for them.
otherwise whatever pre-existing conditions they have will manifest later in life and will slowly be reversing any gains made.
I do not think we are ready to accommodate any law suites thrown at us by individuals who willingly refused to open up about their health and later felt cheated/dissatisfied by the product simple because any gains made were lost due to their poor lifestyle.

NoraEatREAL

Food-related diseases are the top drivers in early death. If we want to truly create longevity for the masses (this is an important Q for prize design... how can the solutions be inclusive) then a massive culture shift towards real food is critical. You can enjoy life more with a real food lifestyle actually. It is the surest way to increase lifespan and healthspan (quality of life). This is why we consider our model a moon-shot. It will be hard. It is future critical that we reimagine our food system and transform our food culture. There are specific top ways to reduce oxidation and food related diseases thus early death so the prize could focus on solutions that increase healthy, delicious and sustainable food access or offer alternatives (e.g., less highly processed food more rainbow 🌈 vegetables, more fiber, less added sugar, more healthy oils and less fried foods) while also working on the lever of awareness/nutritional intelligence building.

NoraEatREAL

One cool example that is a product that does both Access/knowledge building is Tangerine. Sharing this to show perhaps a prize along these lines is possible. We are exploring partnering with them via schools because of their potential. It’s an app that lets families use their SNAP (government) support dollars to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and other items through the app that are then delivered to the participants home. Imagine goodeggs for low income families who are disproportionately dying early and suffering from outsized food related diseases. There is also a gamification component that is very motivational.

Technology companies solving for the health crisis and specifically nutrition within that (since it’s the biggest driver) is essential.

mashizaq

@NoraEatREAL Achieving a true transformation of food systems requires a holistic approach – one engaging all stakeholders and deploying a wide array of actions such as improved policy, increased investment, expanded infrastructure, farmer capacity-building, consumer behaviour change and improved resource management. Technology innovations, combined with other interventions, can play an important role in enabling and accelerating food systems transformation.

NickOttens

You may also be interested in some of the discussions under Circular Food Economy, which is another prize XPRIZE is currently designing.

Roey

@NoraEatREAL - It's fascinating to learn about such examples, and I certainly agree that food plays a large part in many metabolic diseases. I do wonder if there's a more scalable solution that could help, as we can't really find a scalable solution that involves food and help more than a billion people.

Roey

mashizaq wrote: »

According to nutritionists these days, most of the people have bad diet and irregularities in their lifestyle. Also, their bodies have become more dependent on medicine and drugs, which seem to protect them from many diseases but in the end weakens their immunity.
If lifestyle diseases contribute to our shortened lifespan, how can one live a healthy life and enjoy their lifestyle while reversing one's age?

@mashizaq - I don't think we can really counter "irregularities in lifestyle", and many people already know they have a bad diet - and still refuse (or fail) to change it. It seems to me that for now, these spaces don't need an XPRIZE, as everyone is trying to fix them.

mashizaq

Roey wrote: »

mashizaq wrote: »

I don't think we can really counter "irregularities in lifestyle", and many people already know they have a bad diet - and still refuse (or fail) to change it.

@Roey - Thanks for your feedback. However, what concerns me is, don't you think that we might face individuals who so badly want to encounter this age reversal but have a bad diet and are stubborn when it comes to them first accepting to change their lifestyle as it might hinder the success rate of the age reversal process, whereby they either completely refuse to change or fail to adhere to the set guidelines? Just a thought.

ymedan

Is turning back the clock in aging fat cells a remedy for lifestyle diseases?
Researchers led by Osaka University find that reversing age-related changes in fat cells may prevent the development of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and fatty liver

NickOttens

Very interesting!

The research team decided to focus on autophagy, the process used by cells to eliminate unwanted or dysfunctional cellular components. Previous studies had shown that autophagy plays an important role in the prevention of various age-related disorders and is likely to be involved in the aging process. But most pertinent was the finding that autophagy is essential for the normal function and longevity of normal organs, such as liver or kidney.