Speaker 1: Oh hay, it's your old dad here. Save and use
Speaker 1: some pancakes even though you sleep until eleven am Alley Ward.
Speaker 1: And this is an episode of smologies. If you're like,
Speaker 1: what is that? These are shorter, classroom friendly, kids safe episodes.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking for the full shebang with more
Speaker 1: information and probably me swearing a little bit like a trucker,
Speaker 1: we've linked that in the show notes. There's the full
Speaker 1: episode linked, but this is a shorter one. You can
Speaker 1: listen as your carpool or with your classroom, or with
Speaker 1: my grandmother if she were around, speaking of aging. So
Speaker 1: this is an episode that is probably the least silly
Speaker 1: one that we've ever done. But stick around to the
Speaker 1: end because it ends with a twist that's very funny.
Speaker 1: So enjoy that. And if you want more Smologies episodes,
Speaker 1: if you go to allyward dot com slash smologies, we
Speaker 1: have dozens up that are all shorter, kid friendly if
Speaker 1: that's what you're looking for, And again we've linked that
Speaker 1: in the show notes along with the original full length
Speaker 1: episode that is not kid safe. Okay, ajing, why how
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Let's talk about old age? Okay,
Speaker 1: So biogerontology, etymology. So bio means life and jeron means
Speaker 1: old man. So the biology of an old guy not
Speaker 1: super inclusive in terms of its roots, but it's a
Speaker 1: subset of gerontology. It examines the processes of aging. So
Speaker 1: how does olding happen? Let's talk about metabolisms, modern life spans,
Speaker 1: risk factors for losing your memory, Thoughts on a possible
Speaker 1: cause and cure for Alzheimer's why we age, Secrets of centenarians,
Speaker 1: and what a seventy eight year old professor and globally
Speaker 1: lauded science hero does to stay so fit and so sharp.
Speaker 1: So sit up straight, take some notes for the concentrated
Speaker 1: crash course on the Forward March of Molecules with world
Speaker 1: renowned biogerontologist doctor Caleb tuck Finch sologousglogyges. So what part
Speaker 1: about the aging process fascinates you the most? Is it
Speaker 1: the effect neurologically or is it the entire body?
Speaker 2: It's the unknowns that we are still working out basic mechanisms,
Speaker 2: and we know that it is under some genetic influence.
Speaker 2: If you have the genes of a mouse, you're only
Speaker 2: going to live two years. If you have the genes
Speaker 2: of a human you might get to seventy eighty or ninety,
Speaker 2: so it's genetic. But then among individuals, the role of
Speaker 2: genetics seems to be much less. Roughly identical twins lifespans
Speaker 2: you can attribute twenty percent of their heritability in aging
Speaker 2: is due to genes that influence aging. It's really a
Speaker 2: minority of the individual differences in humans and in other
Speaker 2: animals can be attributed to inherited genes.
Speaker 1: So only twenty percent is attributed to genes, which is
Speaker 1: terrible news for those of us who like to deny
Speaker 1: personal responsibility.
Speaker 2: So I've been working on in many parts of my
Speaker 2: career on environmental aspects of how individual gene responses to
Speaker 2: the environment, to diet influence outcomes of aging. And I'm
Speaker 2: now in the last six seven years been focusing on
Speaker 2: air pollution, which shortens lifespan in proportion to the number
Speaker 2: of particles per cubic meter and also accelerates almost all
Speaker 2: of the diseases of aging, including the risk of Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1: So let's go to the superbasics. As someone who is
Speaker 1: not as well versed in this as you, what exactly
Speaker 1: is aging? How do you define aging?
Speaker 2: Well, the basic way is at a population level that
Speaker 2: after the age of forty, your risk of mortality essentially
Speaker 2: doubles every seven or eight years. Oh, so there's an
Speaker 2: exponential increase in mortality risk. And preceding that is parallel
Speaker 2: risk in chronic diseases, heart disease, cancer, and at later
Speaker 2: ages Alzheimer's. So the individual pathways in this are not understood,
Speaker 2: but as by age group, aging increases the risk of
Speaker 2: chronic diseases that are causes of death. And then you
Speaker 2: can ask at a more fundamental level, what are the
Speaker 2: mechanisms behind that? And that's where the mystery is.
Speaker 1: So our risks of disease and dying go exponentially up. Okay,
Speaker 1: rather than bum you out let that fact. Encourage you
Speaker 1: to write the novel that you've been intending to, or
Speaker 1: Collins sick, go to six Flags tomorrow, or wear the
Speaker 1: shoes you think you should save for fancy occasions were
Speaker 1: today we're all getting old. Just go for it, Champ,
Speaker 1: Speaking of how do you ask a genius expert the
Speaker 1: most basic question ever? You just do it. People you
Speaker 1: live in the now watch is it that ourselves don't
Speaker 1: regenerate as fast? Is it?
Speaker 2: That's part of it. Our molecules don't regenerate as fast,
Speaker 2: and there's some molecules that are as old as we are,
Speaker 2: in our blood vessels and our connective tissue and in
Speaker 2: our eyes that undergo molecular deterioration.
Speaker 1: I know they say you're kind of a new person
Speaker 1: every seven years.
Speaker 2: Is that that's not at all correct?
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's some flim flam to debunk.
Speaker 2: Which is not true. Yeah, that's one of those sort
Speaker 2: of inherited tails that have no scientific substance. I have
Speaker 2: no idea where that comes from.
Speaker 1: I gotta look it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no there's no science there, right.
Speaker 1: I didn't think so it always, I mean it's always.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that came from. But it's an
Speaker 1: interesting myth.
Speaker 2: And no, it's not interesting. It's disruptive because it's wrong.
Speaker 1: Right. By the way, if you're like, was Ali just
Speaker 1: dying at this point? The answer is yes, man, I
Speaker 1: am dying up here, both from a molecular standpoint and psychologically.
Speaker 1: But just stick around because like life, there are twists
Speaker 1: and there are turns around every corner. So how old
Speaker 1: are you really? Okay, there's a cool math trick you
Speaker 1: can do you take your age and multiply it by sixteen,
Speaker 1: then divide it by sixteen, which is your age. You're
Speaker 1: just your age. I made you math for nothing. Here's
Speaker 1: the deal. Your body is a bunch of different ages.
Speaker 1: Like the lining of your guts, which are just constantly
Speaker 1: splitsh splashing in an acid bath. They're newborns. They turn
Speaker 1: over every five days or so, but skeletal muscles are fifteen.
Speaker 1: They're about to get their learning permits. Some part of
Speaker 1: your brain are just as old as you are. Just
Speaker 1: about other parts turnover faster. The core of your eye
Speaker 1: lens you can see ophthalmology episode from more on. That
Speaker 1: is exactly your age from pre birth that never turns over.
Speaker 1: This is fun. This is like antique road show for
Speaker 1: your meat covered bone scaffolds.
Speaker 2: What he's ever looked at it that I'm aware of?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Ted, did you notice when you showed this to me
Speaker 2: that I kind of stopped breathing a little bit?
Speaker 1: Not only that the condition of this is unbelievable. Now,
Speaker 1: how do different animals age? I know you mentioned a
Speaker 1: mouse might have a lifespan of two years.
Speaker 2: Any each species has its own pattern of aging, So
Speaker 2: mice don't get Alzheimer's disease, and they don't get blood
Speaker 2: vessel disease and have heart attacks, but they do get
Speaker 2: cancer and their arteries become more rigid and their lungs
Speaker 2: become more rigid. Because of molecular aging. That part of
Speaker 2: aging happens in humans at a much slower rate. And
Speaker 2: in addition, we have diseases that are special to the
Speaker 2: human species, including Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1: Is the brain the part of our body that ages
Speaker 1: the quickest or where do we see aging happen?
Speaker 2: Well, I'd say blood vessels, and so there's in terms
Speaker 2: of shared anatomy across men and women, the blood vessels
Speaker 2: are already beginning to age even before puberty.
Speaker 1: Really, yes, I just want to acknowledge that the terms
Speaker 1: men and women and male and female are along a
Speaker 1: gender binary that doesn't apply to everyone. And doctor Finch
Speaker 1: is talking about broad strokes in historical studies, and I
Speaker 1: just want to let the non binary folks know out
Speaker 1: there that I see you and I love you. And
Speaker 1: what about male versus female lifespans? Have we seen that
Speaker 1: change over the last few decades or pretty study?
Speaker 2: Well? Both, No, they both increased as overall health has
Speaker 2: increased is observed in the health rich populations of the world,
Speaker 2: and our upper income people in this country are a
Speaker 2: health rich people. That women are living five years longer
Speaker 2: than men.
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 2: We don't know?
Speaker 1: So what are we doing that is helping progress aging
Speaker 1: or what are we doing? What are we doing wrong?
Speaker 1: Essentially when it comes to aging, well.
Speaker 2: The major health concern across the country is people are
Speaker 2: eating more energy rich foods than they need and not
Speaker 2: getting enough exercise. I mean, that's simple lifestyle take home.
Speaker 2: It's boring to say, but if you are even mildly
Speaker 2: obese in midlife and you're not exercising, you're having a
Speaker 2: shorter life expectancy.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned something about sugar, and I know that
Speaker 1: inflammatory foods and inflammation is part of your research. How
Speaker 1: does inflammation affect the human body in terms of.
Speaker 2: It, Well, all of the diseases of aging that we
Speaker 2: worry about, blood vessel disease, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, cancer involve
Speaker 2: the molecules of inflammatory responses. So it's deeply built into
Speaker 2: our systems and in the processes of aging. So that's
Speaker 2: just a fundamental fact. And the term inflammation comes from
Speaker 2: ancient understanding of when you have a cut, it swells
Speaker 2: up and it's red and it's hot and it causes pain. Well,
Speaker 2: the basis for that are the inflammatory cytokines that come
Speaker 2: in to help the body clean up the damaged tissue.
Speaker 2: But responses to damaged tissue happen inflammatory responses in arterial disease,
Speaker 2: in cancer and obesity, and an Alzheimer's disease. So there's
Speaker 2: a shared core of inflammatory proteins that are at work
Speaker 2: during aging from the day were born.
Speaker 1: Flames on the side of my face, breathing breath, heaving breath.
Speaker 1: Is there a way that we should be keeping inflammation at.
Speaker 2: Bay, Well, that's part of the idea of exercise and diet,
Speaker 2: which reduces the level of inflammation.
Speaker 1: So move your bod and eat your greens. We fixed
Speaker 1: it America. What's happening in other parts of the world
Speaker 1: and in blue zones where longevity is higher? Side note,
Speaker 1: what is a blue zone? So this came up in
Speaker 1: the hematology episode and I only know that because I
Speaker 1: searched my Google Drive for the word legomes. So a
Speaker 1: blue zone is a place identified by author Dan Butner,
Speaker 1: who has studied some scientists data and concluded that people
Speaker 1: in five places live the longest okay now with Japan, Sodinia, Italy, Koya,
Speaker 1: Costa Rica, Akaria, Greece, and a small posse of Seventh
Speaker 1: Day Adventist in the La suburb of Low Molinda, California.
Speaker 1: So what saith dan are commonalities among these groups? Apparently
Speaker 1: they are prioritizing family above everything else. They smoke lass,
Speaker 1: they eat a lot of veggies, are semi vegetarian. They
Speaker 1: have constant moderate physical activity, and good social engagement which
Speaker 1: does not mean likes and comments on Instagram, but like
Speaker 1: hanging out with many generations in the community. Oh also lagoomes.
Speaker 1: They eat a lot of lagomes. So does doctor Finch
Speaker 1: think this is just a hello beans?
Speaker 2: I'm not an enthusiastic of something unique about the blue zones.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are peoples in all of the continents
Speaker 2: who are a live a little longer than the average,
Speaker 2: But most of my colleagues don't think there's anything unusual
Speaker 2: about that. But if you look globally, lifespan has been
Speaker 2: increasing as early life mortality decreased because of reducing infectious disease.
Speaker 2: But pushing against that is the global epidemic of obesity,
Speaker 2: the global sale of tobacco, which is huge in Africa
Speaker 2: and in Asia, and the global issues of air pollution
Speaker 2: which is getting worse in most of the world because
Speaker 2: of fossil fuel consumption and global warming.
Speaker 1: So now is the time when we dive into listener questions.
Speaker 1: And also I mentioned that a portion of the podcast
Speaker 1: income goes to a charity each week. This week, doctor
Speaker 1: kleb Vinch chose curealz dot Org. Cureaalz dot org. It's
Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization. They're dedicated to funding research with the
Speaker 1: highest probability of preventing, slowing, or reversing Alzheimer's disease. Now
Speaker 1: to date, they have raised over eighty six million dollars
Speaker 1: to fund almost four hundred studies, and one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of the funds go directly to research. So thank you
Speaker 1: listeners for helping a lab by simpipets getting closer to
Speaker 1: a cure for Alzheimer's. Okay, your listener questions. Now, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to take up too much of the professor's time,
Speaker 1: so I blazed through these questions without reading off a
Speaker 1: bunch of names, but I will insert them when I can.
Speaker 1: For example, the first questions here were asked by Liz Sundon,
Speaker 1: Athena Balisterari, Dion Dabolow, Mike Manakowski, Anonymous, Bob, Anna Thompson,
Speaker 1: Lucille Adinette which might be Audonay, I'm not sure, and
Speaker 1: Taylor Munich I have some listener questions. Almost everyone is
Speaker 1: just asking what's the secret to aging? Well, it seems
Speaker 1: like diet, exercise, rest. Yeah. Do you think that there's
Speaker 1: a maximum age that the human body can reach?
Speaker 2: Well, the evidence is very clear. Almost nobody gets beyond
Speaker 2: one hundred, and there's one person in the last thirty
Speaker 2: years who reached over one point twenty, Jean Calman. But
Speaker 2: there are more people getting to one hundred, but they
Speaker 2: still in the last thirty years, she's the only one
Speaker 2: to get beyond one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 1: So sign note. Jean Coment lived to be one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty two, the oldest human on record, and she
Speaker 1: was fond of wearing headphones and doing chair gymnastics, prayer,
Speaker 1: fruit salad, and smoking well one Dunhill cigarette a day
Speaker 1: and a small glass of port wine until she was
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventeen, which proves that you're never too
Speaker 1: old to quit a bad habit and turn over a
Speaker 1: new leaf. So seriously, let's nope. The smokes folks love
Speaker 1: old Dad. And what's the role of telomeres in aging?
Speaker 2: We don't know. So telomers are at the ends of
Speaker 2: chromosomes that get shortened during cell division. So some of
Speaker 2: our cells do show shorter telomers in the immune system.
Speaker 2: Its actual functional consequence is not clear.
Speaker 1: So that's clearly hasn't been the secret to.
Speaker 2: There's no secret. There's nothing in aging that is a secret.
Speaker 1: Does he hate me again? Twists and turns, Listen to
Speaker 1: the end. What's your favorite part about the field or
Speaker 1: what you do?
Speaker 2: Surprise?
Speaker 1: Yeah, still got a lot of it right.
Speaker 2: Well, the complexities of biology are just awesome, amazing, and
Speaker 2: every year there's a new level of mechanisms subcellularly or
Speaker 2: in how organs talk to each other. It's just endlessly fascinating.
Speaker 1: Any other things that you're excited about working on or
Speaker 1: you think people should know about the aging process or
Speaker 1: taking care of themselves, Well.
Speaker 2: I'm collaborating with some anthropologists and a group of people
Speaker 2: who live in the Bolivian Amazon, And what's fascinating about
Speaker 2: these people that simon a they're living under conditions of
Speaker 2: two hundred years ago without medication, and they're growing their
Speaker 2: own food, and they all have high levels of infection.
Speaker 2: Some of them get to age seventy or eighty. But
Speaker 2: what's remarkable a small percent, ten percent, nobody lives much
Speaker 2: over eighty. What's remarkable is that their levels of arterial
Speaker 2: aging are twenty five years slower than in North America,
Speaker 2: and they have almost no heart attacks or strokes. So
Speaker 2: we're trying to understand what aspects of their environment, their diet,
Speaker 2: and interaction with their genes might slow the arterial aging
Speaker 2: to such a degree.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's anything about the gut biome that's
Speaker 1: at play there?
Speaker 2: That's an open question. I don't know.
Speaker 1: We'll see. I guess there's a surprise and a puzzle
Speaker 1: waiting for you with that. Yep, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for letting me ask you so many questions. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, good questions, he said, I had good questions, y'all.
Speaker 1: He does not hate me. So after the interview was
Speaker 1: over and the mics were off, doctor Finch said, I
Speaker 1: asked great questions. I was doing a service for science
Speaker 1: by making the podcast. I honestly almost joy webbed in
Speaker 1: my car on the drive home. He's just super focused
Speaker 1: and all science on the outside with a very warm
Speaker 1: and curious heart. I love him. He's great and he
Speaker 1: returned my email so fast. I'm a big fan. So
Speaker 1: to learn more about doctor Caleb Finch's work, you can
Speaker 1: go to alliwoard dot com slash ologies or follow the
Speaker 1: links in the show notes to my site. I post
Speaker 1: all kinds of info about his studies and other studies
Speaker 1: mentioned in the episode. Again, his latest book, Global Air
Speaker 1: Pollution in Aging Reading Smoke Signals. It's even available on Amazon,
Speaker 1: as are many of his other books. Ologies is at
Speaker 1: ologies on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at ali Ward with
Speaker 1: one l on both and again we have more ssmologies episodes.
Speaker 1: Go to aliward dot com slash smologies or just click
Speaker 1: the link in the show notes and it'll get you
Speaker 1: a ton of other shorter, kid friendly episodes. And in
Speaker 1: the interest of keeping this small, we've put all of
Speaker 1: the credits in the show notes. And if you stick
Speaker 1: around to the very very very end, then I give
Speaker 1: you a piece of advice. And this is a piece
Speaker 1: of advice that I live by. I always keep a
Speaker 1: dish towel in the car because you never know when
Speaker 1: you're going to spill on yourself. You never know when
Speaker 1: you might have to wrap a baby squirrel in something.
Speaker 1: And having a dish towel in the car has saved
Speaker 1: my pants so many times. Keep a dish towel a car,
Speaker 1: put in the glove compartment, put it in the pocket
Speaker 1: in the back of the seat. There will be a
Speaker 1: time when you will be so happy that you have that.
Speaker 1: Trust me, it's happened to me. Okay, until next time.
Speaker 1: Smologites burbyelog hourglogies