[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.
