[This article was reprinted from Consumer News]
Aging is a process that begins at birth, not something that begins on our
fiftieth birthday. If we are lucky, we get to take part in that process for a
long time. Some people manage to keep the process going for 90 to 100 years.
Others of us aren't so lucky. Aging is measured by time passing, but all of our
clocks are not running at the same speed. Some people become old and frail at 40,
while others stay young and vigorous until they die at 90.
There are three elements that contribute to the speed of our individual
clocks. The first is our genetic or individual makeup, the second is human aging
as a group or a species and the third is environmental factors. Few of us know
what our individual genetic composition is, and there is therefore very little we
can do about it. At this stage of our understanding, blaming our problems on our
imagined genetic composition is more like making an excuse for not trying to do
better than offering a scientific explanation. How we age as a species is
important, but it is also out of our individual control. Understanding the stages
we pass through, such as crawling, walking, reaching peak muscle mass and losing
bone density, gives us a yardstick to measure ourselves against. The
environmental factors, such as our diets, our exercise habits, the way we manage
stress, our use of medical and dental facilities and our social and work lives,
are the issues we have some control over. Simply put, the better we take care of
ourselves, the better off we will be as we age.
One of the environmental factors that affects us in the aging process is
illness. Although an illness has parameters and does not have a single defined
impact unless it kills us immediately, how we deal with the illness is very much
under our control. HIV is such an illness. A person can deal with HIV disease
either as an old 40 year old or a young 90 year old. Our aim should be to try to
eliminate all the non-HIV related problems that we confront daily and concentrate
on improving the quality of our lives. For example, we should stop using
recreational drugs, stop drinking alcohol and stop smoking tobacco. What we
should do is take part in some sort of stress reduction activity like yoga, do
some kind of physical activity and try to get enough sleep.
Nutrition is a key factor in the aging process and a key issue in dealing with
HIV. How the problems of aging and the problems of HIV mesh is important to
understand. One of the most common misunderstandings is misinterpreting a
nutritional or an aging problem as an HIV related illness. The two may look the
same, but their roots and solutions are quite different. For example, we tend to
exercise less and less as we age, resulting in the loss of muscle mass. This is
not HIV wasting syndrome at work; it is lifestyle. Older people are not expected
to be active or dynamic, especially not sexy. They are expected to sit at home in
front of the TV and knit. However, if we were to pick the single factor that has
the most dramatic impact on an older person's life, it would be muscle mass. Good
muscle mass has a positive effect on appetite, metabolism, the working of
insulin, energy level, breathing, ease of movement and self esteem. If HIV
wasting syndrome attacks an older body that is well muscled, the person will have
a much better chance of withstanding that attack before it does harm.
Other symptoms that could be mistaken for symptoms of HIV disease are caused
by nutrient deficiencies, for example, inadequate Vitamin B12, folate and Vitamin
E. In the case of Vitamin B12, inadequate intake may not be the culprit. Unless a
person is a strict vegetarian who doesn't eat any animal products that are high
in Vitamin B12, he or she will usually get enough in the daily diet. The first
problem is that aging stomachs don't secrete enough gastric acid or a gastric
hormone called pepsin to break the bond between the animal protein and the B12.
The second part of this equation is that the lack of gastric acid in the stomach
allows the overgrowth of bacteria. This bacteria needs B12 for its own health,
and it competes for the available B12 being released. Gastric bacteria can also
set the stage for the beginnings of a gastric ulcer, which will further cut back
on the stomach's ability to digest food properly.
The lack of Vitamin B12 has serious consequences. The covering of certain
nerves in the peripheral and the central nervous systems is made up of myelin.
Myelin is an insulator that helps move impulses along the nerve. Without adequate
B12, the production of myelin is damaged, and nerve impulses don't move as well
as they should. This could lead to poor balance, neuropathy in the hands and
feet, confused thinking and dementia.
Lack of folate can contribute to anemia and depression. It is also believed
that a folate deficiency can contribute to increased homocysteine levels.
Homocysteine is an intermediate form of the amino acid methionine (an essential
component of our diet) on its way to becoming cysteine, another amino acid. An
elevated homocysteine level is considered a risk for both heart disease and
stroke.
Vitamin E belongs to the famous class of nutrients called antioxidants. Simply
put, Vitamin E helps to reverse the age related decline in T cell response to
infection. It does this by destroying free radicals that can attack T cells.
Two other nutrients that contribute to improved immune response are zinc and
protein. Does adequate nutrition mean that if some is good, more is better? No.
In fact, too much of an essential nutrient can be toxic. Too much zinc, for
example, impairs immune function. Too much protein can contribute to kidney
failure, and too much vitamin A can damage the liver.
Generally speaking, it is very difficult when eating a mixed and varied diet
to overdose on any one nutrient. There are three notable exceptions: salt,
protein and Vitamin A. The Innuit knew that vitamin A stores increase as we get
older. They also knew that old polar bear livers contained toxic levels of
Vitamin A. So if they had these symptoms, nosebleeds; incessant headaches and
pressure inside the head; blurred vision; dry, rashy skin; cramps; nausea;
vomiting; diarrhea; weight loss; tiredness and irritability they knew that the
polar bear liver and onions they had had the night before was too old. They knew
they had overdosed on Vitamin A.
It is too easy to blame all our ills on HIV. Sorting problems into their
proper categories helps us to deal with them better. Improving our nutritional
and age related problems frees our immune system to fight the hardest battle, the
one against HIV. As we age, we must continue to exercise, remain socially active,
work at stress reduction, eat a varied diet, take a multivitamin/mineral
supplement daily and keep in touch with our health care providers, and our
nutritionists.
This article is dedicated to my stepfather, Lou Kaplan, whose long,
healthy
life and interest in nutrition have inspired me.
