Gwyneth’s Goop Lab presents itself as a gift that keeps on giving by showing us cutting edge research on wellness, vitality, and beauty. Episode 4 of their Netflix series gives us a heady mix of frontier research on aging that we lay out here.
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In this article:
- The Goop Lab Talks Longevity
- Hitting the Pause Button on Aging
- Looking at the Epigenetic Clock to Tell How Truly Old We Are
- Telomeres, Cell Renewal, and Aging
- The Danger of Inflammation and How It Makes Us Old
- Places in the Planet Where Age Slows Down
- How Sitting All Day Can Age You
- Dieting Secrets to Prolong Your Life
The Goop Lab Works the Aging and Nutrition Connection
The Goop Lab Talks Longevity
Gwyneth Paltrow and her Goop Lab crew set their sights on longevity and how nutrition prevents aging in episode 4 of their Netflix series. What’s compelling about the series is how the people behind Goop Lab talks to experts to provide scientific evidence and separate their research from pseudoscience.
Their approach in the show highlighted how longevity involves more than wishing for immortality. It’s all about prolonging your life span while remaining well and enjoying a degree of youthfulness.
Here are some studies that the Goop Lab references or connects to during the episode. New research on longevity and wellness therapies make healthy and successful aging possible.
Hitting the Pause Button on Aging
According to David Sinclair, genetics determine only 20% of our longevity. The rest of the 80% comes from our own decisions about our diets, what supplements we take, and the therapies we treat ourselves with.
At the heart of the science of longevity lies the concept of epigenetics. Simply defined, epigenetics talks about how outside influences like environmental factors affect how genes express themselves.
What’s intriguing about epigenetics is the idea that we can reverse the harmful effects these external factors inflict on our genes. This has huge implications for cancer treatments, aging, and weight loss.
Looking at the Epigenetic Clock to Tell How Truly Old We Are
Dr. Morgan Levine, a medical researcher and assistant professor at Yale University who specializes in aging, developed an algorithm that calculates our epigenetic age.
The algorithm allows for the testing of DNA samples and researchers can tell how old a person’s body is at the DNA level. The test also allows us to gain insights and explain what parts of our lifestyle had led us to that age.
This links to the test Gwyneth, Elise, and Wendy took prior to taking on different diets in the latter half of the episode.
Telomeres, Cell Renewal, and Aging
Scientists like Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn and psychologist Elisa Eppel also study and unlock another gene expression related to aging: telomeres.
Telomeres Definition: You can find telomeres at the ends of DNA strands. They serve as the protective caps of our DNA and their shortening or absence signals the end of cell healing or growth.
According to Elisa Eppel, people can elongate their telomeres by making changes to their lifestyles.
The Danger of Inflammation and How It Makes Us Old
Dr. Sara Gottfried, an expert on aging, warns about the effects of inflammation. Inflammation can hasten aging and we must avoid triggering it as much as we can.
People can put a stop to it by exercising and eating right. These lifestyle changes allow one to enhance their health and well-being.
Places in the Planet Where Age Slows Down
Dan Buettner, a researcher, went to places where people possess the longest life spans like Okinawa, Japan, and Ikaria, Greece. He traveled to several continents thanks to a grant from the National Institute on Aging and came up with the concept of Blue Zones.
His research found that diet played a part in longevity by studying the diets of people living in Blue Zones. He also discovered that philosophy or worldview centering on wellness as well as simple lifestyles aided in longevity.
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How Sitting All Day Can Age You
Sitting for long hours will not just affect our posture, they can build up tension in our bodies. A sedentary lifestyle, one we imbibe thanks to office life can affect our health and longevity.
Osteopathy practitioner, Dr. Tudor Marinescu advises his patients to stand up for 10 minutes after every minute of sitting down. You can spend these moments looking out the window and stretching to energize yourself.
Dieting Secrets to Prolong Your Life
During the Goop Lab episode, Gwyneth and her colleagues undertook diets to decrease their epigenetic ages. Gwyneth followed a fasting diet, while her co-workers went with a pescatarian diet and a vegan diet.
Gwyneth’s fast mimicking diet and the pescatarian diet reduced epigenetic ages while the vegan had no reductions or changes. If you’re interested in what diet has to do with longevity, here are some theories Goop Lab tackled or at least had connections to:
1. Food’s Connection To Mood
What you eat may influence your mental health. Dr. Felice Jacka of the Food and Mood Centre in Australia’s Deakin University shows that whole foods can reduce bouts of depression.
Other experts also connect what we eat to the quality of our mental states. Dr. Ellen Vora uses food to help her patients who are suffering from anxiety, while fellow psychiatrist Uma Naidoo also advocates about eating right to prevent depression and anxiety.
2. Eat the Right Fats
Dr. Gerda Endemann, Goop Lab’s senior director of science and research, advises their audience to partake of Omega-3 and Omega-6. Fats can leave you full for hours and top you up with steady energy.
Fat gained a bad rap but not all fat will raise your cholesterol. We all just need to research what fat to eat.
3. Eat more probiotic-rich food
Some great options of probiotics are kimchi and greek yogurt, but even sourdough is rich in this good-gut bacteria.
Medical researcher William Li claims sourdough bread can give your gut biome a boost. Sourdough happens to house Lactobacillus reuteri, a good bacteria that can help your tummy digest and detox.
4. Follow A Plant-Based Pescatarian Diet
Dr. Valter Longo, the creator of the fasting-mimicking diet that Gwyneth tried, advocates a focus on eating plant-based whole foods and fish two times per week. Dr. Longo claims we need to vary our meals to 40 foods that work for us.
5. Intermittent Fasting (IF)
There’s a wealth of research on how intermittent fasting might help with longevity and youthfulness. Intermittent fasting, they say, can reset our bodies and our genes.
Dr. Valter Longo authored a diet where people can eat and hit the required macronutrients and reap the benefits of fasting. He dubbed it as the fasting-mimicking diet and it’s something people at Goop tried for some time.
The Goop Lab clocks in at just six episodes but Gwyneth Paltrow and her team treats us to pioneering research on longevity in just one episode. We should start asking Netflix to order a season 2 of the Goop Lab so Gwyneth will have more opportunities to make us wonder about health and wellness research.
Have you watched episode 4 of the goop Lab yet? What do you think about it? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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