"Don't Die"." This is a phrase that U.S. venture businessman Brian Johnson (born in 1977) likes to use after selling his fintech company for $800 million (about 1 trillion won) and dreaming of "transcendence of death" as his next goal.
Since 2021, Johnson has been spending $2 million (about 2.6 billion won) a year to conduct a "老 project" on himself as an experimenter. He analyzed more than 1,000 papers and publications, saying he would return his mid-40s to around the age of 18, and has set up more than 30 medical staff to participate in the project.
Johnson eats beans before 11 a.m., and takes more than 100 pills a day. I go to bed at 8:30 p.m. and wake up at 5 a.m. In addition, they continue to examine internal organs, blood vessels, and muscle strength, and they do not neglect their efforts to keep their skin clean with infrared rays or lasers. Sunggi, a male symbol, also seeks rejuvenation with shock wave treatment. He stopped bad habits such as overeating, eating low-quality food, lack of sleep, and excessive drinking. Johnson achieved about five years of epigenetic age reversal in just two years. More than 100 items were identified as "reverse biomarkers," and aging was delayed by about 30%. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) determination revealed that the muscle and fat composition was similar to that of the 18-year-old.
Will humanity be able to slow down biological aging like Johnson and realize a long, healthy life in the age of 100?
Human life span more than doubled in 100 years around the age of 30 in the 19th century due to medical advances and improvements in the sanitary environment. The desire to live a healthy life is leading to efforts to challenge the limits of "life expectancy 120 years" with genetic engineering that emerged in the 20th century. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted Kenji Hayano, Japan's Keioji University, famous for his aging research, as saying, "Human life expectancy can be aimed at over 250 years old. You can also achieve your dream of moving to a distant star country, which takes a long time," he said. Dr. Hayano said that when mice around the age of 70 were injected with anti-aging drug candidates, their muscles became younger and moved actively like they were in their 40s. He will also start clinical trials in 2026 for patients with sarcopenia or dementia, whose muscle strength declines with age. Clinical trials using genome editing technology will also be conducted in 2027.
Human aging and diseases are related to cells, and the energy source of cells is 'mitochondria'. We move our bodies, think with our heads, breathe, move our hearts, digest and absorb food.
As such, all life activities require energy. The source of energy is a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is produced in mitochondria. Our body is made up of tens of trillions of cells, with as many as thousands of mitochondria in one cell. For example, there are 1000 to 3000 mitochondria per liver cell and 100 to 200 plant cells.
ATP is constantly made using oxygen, which enters the body with breathing, as the main ingredient for sugar or lipids in the food ingested. However, when mitochondrial numbers decrease and function decreases due to aging or bad lifestyle, ATP becomes difficult to make. This leads to a lack of energy, which weakens several organs and degrades their function. In addition, the oxygen used to produce ATP is easily converted into active oxygen that damages cells. It is the main cause of aging or disease. In other words, mitochondria must be healthy to maintain their youth and health.
So how can mitochondria get healthy and get out of the disease with ageing prevention?
Experts cite △ restrictions on calories consumed (calorie) △ activation of ketone bodies by reducing sugar △ lactic acid exercise △ high-pressure oxygen therapy.
Various studies have shown that 食 activates hormones and genes as well as mitochondria. If you reduce your caloric intake through news and fasting, you will be angry that mitochondria, which are usually tingling due to overeating, cannot be used. Professor Hiroshi Ito of Keio Kizuku University's Preventive Medical Center explained, "When you are hungry, a hormone called ghrelin is secreted from your stomach. This activates mitochondria." In particular, fasting stimulates sirtuin, which is known as an anti-aging and longevity gene. When the sirtuins begin to move, the mitochondria also regain their vitality.
Dr. Kazuo Tsubota (author of "Train Your Longevity Gene" in Japan) said, "If you enjoy the right lifestyle, that is, eating news and vegetarianism (菜食), the remaining 95% of cells that are asleep are activated and the number of mitochondria increases, leading to a long life." The sirtuin gene was first discovered in yeast by U.S. MIT professor Leonard Garrenti in 2000, but it has also been confirmed to be present in nematodes, fruit flies, some mammals, and humans.
Several studies have shown that news is good for you. Dr. Clive Mackay, a nutritionist at Cornell University in the United States, conducted an experiment to limit caloric intake to 65% of normal in mice, and the average lifespan of mice nearly doubled. A research team at the University of Wisconsin also tested rhesus monkeys for 20 years and found that the monkey group that ate a diet that reduced calories by 30% looked glossy, less white hair or wrinkles, and much younger than the monkey group that ate as they wanted.
Ketone bodies are attracting attention as substances that activate mitochondria. Ketone bodies are intermediate metabolites that occur when body fat is synthesized or broken down. When the action of insulin, a hormone that lowers blood sugar, weakens, ketone body synthesis begins. And it becomes an energy source and is transported to the mitochondria.
The ketone body that comes into direct contact is very efficient. "Keton bodies are easier to reach the brain than other compounds and are particularly effective in brain neurons called neurons (a unit of the nervous system responsible for stimulation and excitement)," said Takumi Sato, a professor of applied biology at the University of Tokyo. "The activation of mitochondria in neurons leads to dementia prevention."
Reducing sugar intake is necessary to produce ketone bodies. Eating less rice, increasing side dishes, or quitting snacks helps increase ketone body concentration. Professor Sato said, "It is also good to change your breakfast to coffee with saltless butter. However, excessive sugar restriction is not desirable. "Saccharide is essential as a material for ATP that activates mitochondria," he said, stressing that "the appropriate combination of sugar and ketone bodies is important."
Carbohydrates contain 糖質 (glucide) most frequently. Carbohydrates are made up of 'sugar + dietary fiber', and most of them are sugar. Ramen has 78g of carbohydrate and 0g of dietary fiber, so it has 78g of sugar. We pay attention to sugar because carbohydrates are the main culprits of sugar poisoning. Most of the sugars that cause obesity are unsweetened carbohydrates such as rice, bread, and noodles.
"Saccharide addiction is a serious chronic disease that leads to obesity, the root of all diseases," said Genji Makita, director of AGE Makita Hospital (author of "Saccharide Addiction"), a Japanese diabetes expert. "Heart disease is not the only disease that causes obesity." Diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, stroke, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease are all related to obesity.
Mitochondria are also activated by exercise. Aerobic exercises such as walking and jogging speed up your breathing and increase your heart rate. In other words, when oxygen is scarce, the body feels a sense of crisis and boosts mitochondria. When blood flow improves due to exercise, sodium diuretic peptides are secreted from the heart and nitrogen monoxide (N О) from blood vessels, said Hiroshi Ito, a professor at Keio Kizuku University. Like ghrelin, they activate mitochondria," he explained.
Exercise strengthens muscles, boosts immunity, and improves blood flow. When blood flow improves, blood circulation is promoted, oxygen and nutrients are transported well to every corner of our body, and carbon dioxide and waste are discharged well. In addition, when exercising, more than 30 kinds of substances such as "myokine" and "cytokine" are made, which act on cells or tissues throughout the body, such as fat, nerve cells, and blood vessels. These substances begin to be secreted from the muscles after an hour of aerobic exercise such as cycling and 10 minutes of intense muscle training. Typical aerobic exercises include hiking, jogging, biking, swimming, tennis, badminton, and fast walking. Aerobic exercise that focuses on burning body fat is most appropriate three to four times a week, within an hour at a time.
Recently, "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)" has attracted attention as a way to activate mitochondria. According to a study published in September 2022 by Yonsei University's Wonju Industry Cooperation Group, hyperbaric oxygen activates mitochondria, suppressing the generation of free oxygen and reducing blood sugar and fatty liver. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy causes 100% oxygen to be inhaled in an enclosed space (chamber) that applies pressure of 2 atmospheres or higher, increasing the oxygen concentration in plasma by more than 10 times that of normal, thereby healing the damaged area. In addition to various diseases such as cancer, stroke, brain injury, foot disease, postoperative wounds, and sudden hearing loss, hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices have recently been actively used in skin and plastic surgery. It is true anti-aging that increases the natural healing power of cells rather than artificial skin care such as Botox and skincare. Yoon Seok-ho, CEO of Ibex, explained, "It is effective in helping treatment and preventing necrosis by supplying high concentration oxygen into the tissue to activate cells in wounds or tissues that do not recover easily."
Mitochondria are the source of life. However, reactive oxygen is generated as a by-product during cellular respiration, causing various diseases such as cancer along with aging. Humans breathe and use oxygen to create energy, and they cannot be free from free oxygen during their lives. Therefore, each individual has no choice but to produce a lot of high-quality mitochondria in order to live a long and healthy life in the 100-year-old era.
[Lee Byung Moon, a medical reporter]
