Nutrition Stress And Aging

It can slowly drain the life force from your body over time. Or kill swiftly without warning. But you will never find it on a medical chart or see it listed on a death certificate. It's called stress. It exacts a tremendous toll on our lives. It saps our strength, robs our youth and makes us old before our time. We encounter it day in and day out, yet do little, if anything about it. It's no wonder. In today's 'pressure cooker society', the average lunch hour lasts about 11 minutes. Dinner is often consumed in less than 6 minutes (usually seated in front of the television). The average workday can last 10 hours or more. We seem to be living in a society where there's virtually no time for quality time. Strictly speaking, stress itself is not among the direct causes of ageing, yet it plays an extremely important role in the ageing process. It is a powerful force that serves as a catalyst in every known mechanism that causes us to age. Readers might be surprised to find out that this book has as much to do with ageing, life extension and specific measures we can take to postpone the inevitable as it does with stress. The fact is that stress and ageing are inextricably bound together.

Does a longer life mean a healthier life? The number of adults over 65 in the United States is growing, but many may not be aware that they are at greater risk from foodborne diseases and their nutritional needs change as they age. The IOM's Food Forum held a workshop October 29-30, 2009, to discuss food safety and nutrition concerns for older adults.

Aging: Oxidative Stress and Dietary Antioxidants bridges the trans-disciplinary divide and covers in a single volume the science of oxidative stress in aging and the potentially therapeutic use of natural antioxidants in the diet or food matrix. The processes within the science of oxidative stress are described in concert with other processes, such as apoptosis, cell signaling, and receptor mediated responses. This approach recognizes that diseases are often multifactorial, and oxidative stress is a single component of this. Gerontologists, geriatricians, nutritionists, and dieticians are separated by divergent skills and professional disciplines that need to be bridged in order to advance preventative as well as treatment strategies. While gerontologists and geriatricians may study the underlying processes of aging, they are less likely to be conversant in the science of nutrition and dietetics. On the other hand, nutritionists and dietitians are less conversant with the detailed clinical background and science of gerontology. This book addresses this gap and brings each of these disciplines to bear on the processes inherent in the oxidative stress of aging. Nutritionists can apply information related to mitochondrial oxidative stress in one disease to diet-related strategies in another unrelated disease Dietitians can prescribe new foods or diets containing anti-oxidants for conditions resistant to conventional pharmacological treatments Dietitians, after learning about the basic biology of oxidative stress, will be able to suggest new treatments to their multidisciplinary teams Nutritionists and dietitians will gain an understanding of cell signaling and be able to suggest new preventative or therapeutic strategies with anti-oxidant rich foods

A concise guide to stress and nutrition and its effect on the aging process written for laymen and easy to understand. It covers a multitude of stress related subjects from anti-aging strategies to coping with stress in the post / world.

This edited volume is a compilation of 30 articles discussing what constitutes food for health and longevity. The aim is to provide up-to-date information, insights, and future tendencies in the ongoing scientific research about nutritional components, food habits and dietary patterns in different cultures. The health-sustaining and health-promoting effects of food are certainly founded in its overall composition of macronutrients and micronutrients. However, the consumption of these nutrients is normally in the form of raw or prepared food from the animal and plant sources. The book is divided into four parts and a conclusion, and successfully convenes the well-established information and knowledge, along with the personal views of a diversified group of researchers and academicians on the multifaceted aspects of nutrition, food and diet. The first part reviews the scientific information about proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils, micronutrients, pro- and pre-biotics, and hormetins, along with a discussion of the evolutionary principles and constraints about what is optimal food, if any. The second part discusses various kinds of foods and food supplements with respect to their claimed benefits for general health and prevention of some diseases. The third part brings in the cultural aspects, such as what are the principles of healthy eating according to the traditional Chinese and Indian systems, what is the importance of mealing times and daily rhythms, and how different cultures have developed different folk wisdoms for eating for health, longevity and immortality. In the part four, various approaches which are either already in practice or are still in the testing and research phases are discussed and evaluated critically, for example intermittent fasting and calorie restriction, food-based short peptides, senolytics, Ayurvedic compounds, optimal food for old people, and food for the prevention of obesity and other metabolic disorders. The overreaching aim of this book is to inform, inspire and encourage students, researchers, educators and medical health professionals thinking about food and food habits in a holistic context of our habits, cultures and patterns. Food cannot be reduced to a pill of nutritional components. Eating food is a complex human behavior culturally evolved over thousands of years. Perhaps the old adage “we are what we eat” needs to be modified to “we eat what we are”.

"Food for Thought: Nutrition and the Aging Brain" presents and analyzes the research on nutrition’s impacts on the aging brain, on possibly-declining cognitive abilities, and on changing emotional dispositions. With 40 pages of references, the depth of coverage of the underlying science makes the book appropriate for scientists in fields such as nutrition, geriatrics, and psychology. However, the book was also designed to be understandable for lay readers wanting a deeper understanding than can be found in typical books on food-brain relationships. To make this book useful for non-scientists and for students, the first three chapters provide background. They sketch relevant brain structure and neurochemistry, and then discuss in only slightly more detail how aging and stress affect neurochemistry, brain structure, cognitive capacities, and resilience. The third chapter introduces basic nutrition research issues, and the extensive Glossary provides additional explanations of scientific concepts. The subsequent 14 chapters consolidate modern research on impacts of nutrition on brain and cognitive capacities. The research shows how much various nutrients can affect cognition in aging people, and then how those impacts are achieved—that is, how genes are affected that in turn have impacts on neural structures and neurochemistry. That series of 14 chapters begins with analyses of general diets such as the Mediterranean and the MIND, but subsequent chapters examine impacts of specific classes of nutrients. Chapter 18 describes nutrition that affects resilience, interpreted as stress tolerance, and resistance to both anxiety and depression. Chapter 19 describes how other types of activities that affect brain and cognition, such as programs of physical exercise and cognitive stimulation, can interact with nutrition to build brain and sharpen cognition. The final chapter summarizes the information on nutrition impacts on brain and cognition, and extends the discussion of interactions of nutrition with other brain-enhancing activities.