Aging is a natural biological process that cannot be halted but can be influenced. A delay in the aging process and prevention of its negative consequences can be derived from anti-aging interventions. Two well-known lifestyle interventions with anti-aging effect are caloric restriction and physical exercise. There are also several approved prescription drugs that may have anti-aging effects. These drugs can be prescribed on top of an appropriate anti-aging lifestyle. A common mechanism of action of these drugs and the above mentioned life-style interventions is the activation of autophagy. Autophagy is a cellular preservation mechanism extending life and functionality. Caloric restriction and physical exercise promote autophagy. Several drugs that are available for prescription, among other possible mechanism of action, also promote autophagy. Therefore they can be used as therapeutic anti-aging interventions. Among them are metformin, salycilates, resveratrol and rapamycin. Low doses of some of these compounds together with exercise and lower food intake may have a clear anti-aging effect.
Among the types of muscles present in the body is skeletal muscle, which is the one that allows the development of physical activity thanks to the contractile activity of its muscle cells. It is known that physical exercise involves the release of plasma, by the skeletal muscle, of molecules called myokines as a result of muscle contraction. These myokines seem to be at the base of the beneficial effect of physical exercise on health. For this reason, this article reviews the characteristics and properties of the most important myokines and how they can contribute to a healthier aging.
Background and objective: At present, the concern about aging population has been increasing, forcing plastic surgeons to create procedures with lasting results and prompt recovery. Nanofat is a procedure derived from emulsifying fat and injecting it into the dermis to improve the quality of the skin. Our objective is to assess the durability of the procedure. Material and method: Between March 2013 and January 2018, the Nanofat technique was performed in 190 patients, 145 women and 45 men for treatment of dark circles, nasojugal groove, hands, cleavage and scars. We used the Nanofat Planas kit developed by the author. Results: All patients performed a single procedure with Nanofat and the long-term results were satisfactory in the change of dark circles colouring, skin quality and scars. There was only one complication due to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Conclusions: Nanofat is an effective tool for skin rejuvenation. The use of the Nanofat Plana kit system offers a safe technique with a sterile closed circuit.
Since the discovery of the Klotho gene as a suppressor of several ageing phenotypes, numerous studies have focused on elucidating the molecular pathways that mediate the effects of its expression on cellular ageing-related processes. However, the role of the shed form of the Klotho protein on physical fitness, energy metabolism and cardiometabolic health has not been deeply studied. Moreover, there is a biological base supporting the hypothesis that physical exercise could induce an increment of S-Klotho, resulting in one of the still unrecognized physiological mechanism that can explain the exercise benefits on the ageing process. The results of these studies show that lean mass is strongly associated with S-Klotho and explains the association of physical fitness with S-Klotho. Basal fat oxidation and maximal fat oxidation during exercise are positively associated with S-Klotho, whereas S-Klotho is negatively associated with cardiometabolic risk. Moreover, exercise training (specially a HIIT+EMS program) induces an increase of S-Klotho, improves body composition, physical fitness and energy metabolism, and reduces cardiometabolic risk. In summary, the results show that S-Klotho plays a key role on physical fitness, energy metabolism and cardiometabolic health in sedentary middle-aged adults, and that exercise training modulates S-Klotho, as well as physical fitness, energy metabolism and cardiometabolic health. These findings may partially explain some of the unknown exercise-induced effects on cardiometabolic health as well as on the human ageing process.
One third of the Western female population feels unsatisfied with their body, or a part of it, at some point of their lives. The motivation that leads many women to undergo cosmetic treatments is the hope of increasing one's body satisfaction as a result of the intervention. For individuals without personality disorders, body image disturbances are conveyed as body dissatisfaction (with general body appearance or subjective unhappiness with some aspect of one's appearance,) and perceptive imprecision (generally overestimation). Adolescents are influenced by media, and by their parents, siblings, and colleagues. 'These help modify one's self-perception, and can cause feelings of sadness, frustration, anxiety and high levels of stress. These feelings increase with time, and become a chronic condition that currently affects a large segment of the adult population. This study uses the data the "DITCA-CV Project" ("Proyecto DITCA-CV" in Spanish), an institutional programme conducted by the General Public Health Office of the Regional Valencian Government, Spain, during the academic years of 2003 to 2009. Out of the initial sample of 121,000 students, our study looks only at the female adolescents of the initial population. We have focused exclusively on the results concerning body dissatisfaction, how this manifests itself in the attitudes towards food and towards one's physical appearance, and the subjective assessments that stem from food and physical appearance.
Aging is a natural, physiological, and inevitable process, but it can be influenced. Although aging is not a disease, it has several characteristics that could indicate so, such as a functional decline at different levels, which may determine clinical manifestations, and it is associated with several disease processes. Consequently, it is essential to create and adopt strategies to delay the aging process. Nowadays, any strategy adopted without including physical exercise seems inconceivable. Recent studies published in relation to this population have showed that the maintenance of acceptable levels of physical fitness is associated with the prevention of many of premature aging consequences, good rates of health, and quality of life of the person. Cardiorespiratory capacity and muscular strength (as physical fitness components) are excellent life expectancy and quality of life predictors. Therefore, reaching a good fitness level is the most powerful method to prevent and delay the aging process. Not only their years to live increase, but also their quality, with health and without diseases or mobility dependence.
Multiple sclerosis is a multifactorial disease that currently has no cure. The complex pathological mechanisms that underlie this disease, which include inter-relating inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes, has led to search for a treatment with immunomodulatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective effects. Melatonin, a widely known chronobiotic indoleamine, presents all those effects, and its endogenous synthesis is impaired in multiple sclerosis patients. Here the current data is reviewed regarding the association of circadian alterations with multiple sclerosis and the effects of the exogenous melatonin administration on multiple sclerosis and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, which we believe might support the use of melatonin as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.
Melatonin is a natural substance ubiquitous in distribution and present in almost all species ranging from unicellular organisms to humans. Melatonin is synthesized not only in the pineal gland but also in most tissues where it may play a cytoprotective function via paracrine or autocrine effects. Melatonin is effective in suppressing neoplastic growth in a variety of tumors and as an adjuvant therapy, it can be beneficial in treating cancer patients. The aim of this report is to summarize the possible mechanisms involved in melatonin oncostasis and to review what is known about the clinical application in cancer patients.
Aging is a multifactorial process involving changes in cells and organs functions that led to a reduction in cognitive and physical activities as we get older. Because the biological clock and its main endocrine efferent, melatonin produced by the pineal gland, controls the body cell functions through the synchronization of their circadian functions, it is easily under understandable that an alteration of the former may affect significantly the efficiency of all physiological systems. Moreover, most, if not all, organs and tissues of the body synthetizes melatonin, the so-called extrapineal melatonin, which serves as a protective molecule to avoid the damage of these tissue during their metabolic function. It is now known that melatonin is synthetized by the mitochondria, and protects them from the oxidative damage during their normal function. But melatonin also acts on the cell nucleus to control the expression of a series of genes closely linked to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defense, and to the mitochondrial biogenesis. Aging, which is related to a mitochondrial deterioration and melatonin production decrease, may well reflect the loss of the protective role of melatonin, both pineal and extrapineal, thus facilitating the aging process itself. This review focus on the production, regulation, and functions of pineal and extrapineal melatonin, and their relationship with aging and agerelated diseases. Finally, the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mitochondrial boost properties of melatonin have been used to prevent/counteract many of the age and age-dependent changes including neurodegenerative diseases. The efficacy of melatonin as neuroprotective agent is also revised here.
The skin is continually exposed to stressors which, over the course of a lifetime, contributes to its decay. A major contributor to skin aging is exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which destroys intracellular molecules in both the dermis and epidermis and also cripples collagen fibers in the dermis. These destructive changes accumulate throughout life and compromise skin physiology and appearance. Melatonin is a highly effective direct fee radical scavenger and indirect antioxidant which is produced in many organs including the dermis/epidermis. Both experimental and clinical evidence shows that the presence of melatonin in the skin forestalls molecular damage due to ultraviolet radiation exposure or to other toxins. The implications of these findings are widespread given that melatonin-containing creams are available which, when applied to the skin on a regular basis, will likely defer skin aging and retard the development or metastasis of skin cancer.
The circadian system (CS) organizes the temporal order of all living beings. Its general structure is very similar among species and consists of receptors of the temporal information (inputs), a central pacemaker along with several peripheral clocks that depend on it (machinery), and a set of overt rhythms driven by the central clock (outputs). The CS ages like any other structure of the organism, this process being characterized by a poorer reception of the temporal information, a general impairment of the central pacemaker and a phase advance, fragmentation and dampening of the overt rhythms. In order to assess the functioning of the CS, some overt rhythms have been selected as markers since they mirror the activity of the central pacemaker. Some of the most used marker rhythms are those of melatonin and cortisol secretion, rest-activity and sleep-wake patterns, and core body and distal skin temperature. Nevertheless, these rhythms can be masked by external variables and thus, to simultaneously record several marker rhythms is recommended. As the CS ages, the ability of an organism to adjust the internal temporal order of physiological, biochemical and behavioural circadian rhythms to the environmental cycles is compromised and chronodisruption can appear, which is related with several diseases. Fortunately, there are some strategies that one person can follow in order to enhance the functioning of the CS: to increase the contrast between day and night (i.e. to exposure to bright days and dark nights), to have melatonin (if needed), to do regular exercise, to improve sleep and meal schedules or to increase social contacts.
Preservation of normal sleep, proper nutrition and physical exercise are key elements in maintaining healthy aging. Their deficiency predisposes to fragili-ty, a pathophysiological condition that leads to greater vulnerability to diseases and adverse effects, resulting from the loss of homeostasis and a decreased functional reserve. Melatonin, a molecule of extraordinary phylogenetic conservation present in all known aero-bic organisms, is effective both as a chronobiotic and a cytoprotective agent in aging. The late afternoon increase of melatonin “opens the sleep doors” every night and its therapeutic use as a guardian of slow wave sleep has been demonstrated. There is a grow-ing use of hypnotics such as benzodiazepines (BZP) and Z drugs, which have shown a deleterious effect on slow wave sleep and, due to their tolerance and dependence, are a serious problem of public health. Thirty years ago, we demonstrated the interaction of melatonin with central BZP receptors and in 1997 we published the first demonstration of the reduction of BZP consumption in melatonin-treated elderly subjects. The approval by the EMA of melatonin as a drug in 2007 has allowed obtaining pharmacoepidemiologic information on this topic. Several studies have found that more than half of patients treated with BZP and who had started treatment with melatonin abandoned BZP consumption. In another study in 9 European countries it was concluded that campaigns to reduce BZP consumption fail if there is no availability and reimbursement of the melatonin received in replacement. The data support the use of melatonin in patients who chronically use BZP or Z-drugs. Melatonin has no addictive and tolerant effects and thus becomes the treatment of choice for the preservation of slow wave sleep in the elderly .
Most Aesthetic Procedures are highly dependent not just on the correct technique but also on patient's body response. In this article we emphasize telomeres vitality (length) with final results of aesthetic procedures, going over the telomeres concept, function and factors that interfere with their length. Skin is built up by eukaryote cells with active stem cells. After analyzing telomere functions specifically linked to cell multiplication, we suggest that a healthy life style according to epigenetic facts improve telomerase, the enzyme that recuperates telomeres vitality and is responsible for cell mitosis. We also revise skin aging factors that correlate directly with the final results of most Aesthetic Medicine procedures such as chemical, mechanical and physical stimuli and the response at molecular level of successive mitoses produced by a programmed inflammation as growth cellular factors. Studies of Molecular Biology, Histochemistry, and Genetics establish a direct relationship between telomeres vitality (length) and Aesthetic Medicine Procedures.
The Central Sensitization Syndrome (CSS) includes some of non-yet well understood health problems where a high vulnerability to environmental factors highlights as its main common characteristic. The group encompasses the Fibromyalgia (FM), the chronic fatigue (CFS) and the multiple chemical hypersensitivity (MCH) syndromes. Other distinguishable features are represented by the heterogeneity of symptoms, the coexistence of comorbidities, especially affecting gut health, and the extremely difficult management and control to ameliorate their clinical outcome. Due to this heterogeneity we can never claim to reach a universal treatment, thus we have to recognize that if we are facing to any of the CSS syndromes, it will be always mandatory to individualize our management and therapeutic protocols. We must discover these peculiarities (metabolic idiosyncrasies) and adapt our treatment strategies to them. The only route which allows us to discover these characteristics is genetic analysis, so the different combinations of gene versions (genetic polymorphisms) present in each individual for each of these routes are what determine the variability observed both in the presentation and clinical evolution and the response to the treatment. Considering this premise, the present paper is focused on the study of genetic polymorphisms at different pathways related to the CSS and in accordance to the prevalence of each analyzed pathway, the proposed method facilitates the detection of the most probable clinical picture to expect in each analyzed patient. Thus, the present method is a useful analytical tool to incorporate in a clinical protocol designed to facilitate distinguish among FM, CFS or MCS syndromes.
After more than 30 years of seeing patients with headache and panic disorder, we have found a strong relationship with mitral valve prolapse (PVM), probably by the activation of the sympathetic-adrenergic autonomic system. From 1985 to date, we have frequently observed patients who suffered headache of the migraine type, and patients who suffered panic disorder associated with the Mitral Valve Prolapse or "leaky heart valve", clinically diagnosed on a physical exam or confirmed by an ecocardiography study. Until 1985, Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP), which has a larger incidence in female than in male patients, was linked to sudden death. At the time, the presence of a mono 2 eco, after the prolapse had been diagnosed, it was necessary to therapeutically implement beta blockers. Several years later studies in 1985 showed that there was no link between sudden death and MVP, at which time MVP lost prestige, and when diagnosed, no clinical value was assigned to it. Before the turn of the century, observational studies showed that patients who suffered headache (some of them) responded prophylactically to the use of beta-blockers like propranol or atenolol, having an off label indication for the beta-blockers for headaches. Ironically, the only patients that responded to this type of treatment were those with MVP. We have also found a similar relationship between irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other disautonomic clinical situations and PVM
This article will focus on the health benefits of chestnut consumption. Nutrition is a key element in the strategy for control of aging. Nuts, in general, are considered an important component of optimal diets for the prevention of many age-related diseases but they should be consumed in moderation because of their high energy density. Among nuts, chestnuts have rarely been studied . However, they have much less energy content and many interesting nutritional properties, some of which are listed in this paper.
Introduction: in the last five years PDO (polydioxanone) threads have been used as indication of non-surgical facelit as well as improvement of skin condition (1). Although polydioxanone is a well-known suture in surgery (2), it is necessary to understand the studies performed for this new indication in Aesthetic Medicine. Some discrepancies have also been mentioned in the scientific community related to its efficacy. Objectives: the aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on polydioxanone regarding skin condition improvement and non-surgical facelifts, side effects and follow-up. Material and Methods: an electronic search in the PubMed, updated in May 2017 was done and was completed by manual search. The analysis was based on the Prisma Declaration for assessing the publication of systematic reviews. Results: six studies were included following the specified criteria of non-surgical facelift and neocollagenesis observed around the threads during the first 12 months after treatment.The collagen fibres have adopted a lamellar structure and the quantity of collagen fibres is dependent on the number/type of inserted PDO threads (3, 4). Conclusions: in the analysed studies collagen fibres increased after the treatment while producing a non-surgical lifting effect and improving skin condition. Although this systematic review provides valuable preliminary information about the effects of polydioxanone, results should be interpreted with scientific rigor and more studies are needed in the long run.
Neuroprotection is essential to combat the aging process caused by inflammaging, which produces an impairment of the blood-brain barrier. The hypothalamus is one of the most sensitive parts of the brain to ageing, and is of vital importance as it controls the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis that influences the immune, nervous and endocrine systems (especially controls of the adrenal gland and growth levels of hormone secreted by the pituitary gland). Animals with a performant pathway transection lesion in the hippocampus were treated orally with a compound extracted from a heat-processed fertilized egg yolk named Processed Egg Yolk (PEY), and a significant decrease in proinflammatory cytokines was observed, demonstrating its action neuroprotective. PEY over-expresses growth factors, lipids, vitamins and several compounds with neurotrophic activity. These results can have a significant impact on neuroprotection and on the aging prevention.
Here, it is described the unusual case of a 28 year old female patient with congenital triangular alopecia pathology, with no family history. Thanks to hair transplant this benign pathology was successfully resolved with a FUT hair transplant procedure.
