Do you ever wish you could turn back the clock and feel young again? Well the good news is that your body has anti-ageing proteins known as sirtuins that can do exactly that! Let’s dive into how sirtuin activation can protect you against ageing and chronic disease naturally.
What are sirtuins?
To understand sirtuins, we need to do a quick refresher on DNA. Every cell in your body contains the same DNA – no matter what type of cell it is. But there is something known as the epigenome which instructs each cell what it’s going to be and what it’s going to do. This is also where you can ‘turn on’ or ‘turn off’ genes.
This is where sirtuins come into play. Sirtuins are a group of signalling proteins that help to control the epigenome, and from there, how your DNA is expressed. And one of the big factors they help to regulate on a genetic level? You guessed it – ageing.
Sirtuins can:
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Reduce stress
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Protect against insulin resistance
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Reduce inflammation (and therefore inflammaging)
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Repairs DNA instability and damage e.g. from smoking or sun exposure
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Boost memory
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Increase exercise endurance
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Reduce the risk of depression
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Support optimal metabolism & help maintain a healthy body weight regardless of food intake
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why we would want to turn these signals up!
THE LINK BETWEEN SIRTUINS AND NAD+
NAD+ acts as fuel for sirtuins. Unfortunately, NAD decreases as we age – with estimates of 50% reduction by the time you reach age 50.
This reduction of NAD leads to a big drop in sirtuin activity. Researchers believe that this is the primary reason why we develop age-related diseases such as osteoporosis, frailty (loss of muscle mass) and macular degeneration. It also contributes to:
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More inflammation
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More DNA damage
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Memory loss
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Reduced tolerance to exercise
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Lower metabolism
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Greater vulnerability to stress
But although this is bad news, the exciting thing is that it means we can tackle the major cause of age-related disease at the root!
How to activate your sirtuins
So now you know why we want sirtuins – let’s talk about how to activate them and turn back the biological clock! It’s easy to turn them up by using tools such as:
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Specific foods in the diet to support production (this is the premise of the Sirtfood diet that Adele famously used to transform her body and health)
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Exercise
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Fasting and fast mimicking diets (keep in mind fasting may not be ideal if your hormones are imbalanced or you’re under significant stress)
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Hot and cold therapy
It’s important to note that not all of these will be feasible for everyone. I’ve done ice baths and let me tell you, they are full-on and painful! Starving yourself every other day, cold showers and ice baths are not everyone’s cup of tea.
This is where supplementation may be an easier option to implement. To boost sirtuin activity, we want to increase our NAD levels. But simply taking NAD supplements is not effective, as the NAD molecule is too large to enter the cells. That’s where precursors that convert to NAD are the better option.
The precursor with the most human data and clinical trials to date is NR. Research shows that NR supplementation can increase NAD levels by up to 60% in middle-aged and older adults.
This is why NR is the star ingredient in my innovative new supplement, Energy Glow NR. If you’re looking for a simple way to support your NAD levels and sirtuin activation, learn more about Energy Glow NR here.
Susie Garden
I help women feeling stressed, flat and older than they’d like regain their youthful energy and glow using a proven method so their natural beauty and confidence shines through.