Читать книгу Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever онлайн

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The key to success with any of these interventions is to start them now, even if you don’t think you need them. After all, humans are good at avoiding things that hurt. You don’t step on nails or burn yourself because you feel the impact of those cuts immediately. But when it comes to aging, you’re the proverbial frog in a pot of slowly heating water. You keep taking the hits because you don’t feel the impact right away. But cutting down on just a few of those hits by making small changes in your environment can really ramp up what’s possible for you. Perfection not required.

PILLAR 2—MITOCHONDRIAL MUTATIONS

Mitochondrial mutations—aka damaged mitochondria—are the second pillar of aging. The importance of this aging pathway cannot be overstated. When the power plants of your cells—the very things that create the energy that keeps you alive—start mutating, is it any wonder everything goes haywire?

Unfortunately, this is a cause of aging that is often overlooked. Even those on the forefront of biotechnology have been so focused over the past several decades on mapping the human genome that they have paid little attention to mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Don’t get me wrong—the sequencing of the human genome changed the world, and I’m grateful for the scientists who accomplished this monumental task. But unless you have a significant genetic disorder, it turns out that the human genome is not usually of great value in predicting how you’ll age compared to your mitochondrial DNA status.