The Real Secret of Youth Is Maintaining Complexity

Our physiological processes become increasingly simple as we age.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” Henry David Thoreau exhorted in his 1854 memoir Walden, in which he extolled the virtues of a “Spartan-like” life. Saint Thomas Aquinas preached that simplicity brings one closer to God. Isaac Newton believed it leads to truth. The process of simplification, we’re told, can illuminate beauty, strip away needless clutter and stress, and help us focus on what really matters.

It can also be a sign of aging. Youthful health and vigor depend, in many ways, on complexity. Bones get strength from elaborate scaffolds of connective tissue. Mental acuity arises from interconnected webs of neurons. Even seemingly simple bodily functions like heartbeat rely on interacting networks of metabolic controls, signaling pathways, genetic switches, and circadian rhythms. As our bodies age, these anatomic structures and physiologic processes lose complexity, making them less resilient and ultimately leading to frailty and disease.

To understand this loss, we must first define what we mean by “complexity” in the scientific sense.

SIMPLE TO SICK: Healthy bone (left) gets its strength from complex scaffolds of tissue. When this scaffolding loses complexity, osteoporosis (right) can occur.

Consider a Rube Goldberg machine, in which one action leads to another, then another, and so on in linear fashion to finally, say, scratch one’s back or bring a napkin to one’s mouth. Although this over-engineered contraption may look complicated, it’s actually quite simple: A given input always produces the same output. Its simplicity makes its behavior easy to predict. It also makes the system vulnerable because a single break in the chain will undermine its entire function.

A complex process, in contrast, involves multiple different components interacting across multiple scales in time and space. Because these interactions are nonlinear, outputs are not proportional to inputs and thus are more erratic and unpredictable.

For instance, think of what it takes just to lift your foot. Electrical, chemical, and mechanical parts must continually coordinate across molecular, cellular, organ, and systemic levels. Genetic machinery inside cells generate proteins to power muscles; gastrointestinal organs digest and metabolize sugars to provide energy; motor centers in the brain plan and command movement, while nerves relay these messages to muscle fibers and deliver feedback to the brain about your foot’s location in space. As a whole, the process is something more than the sum of its parts.

The fractal-like networks of tissue in our brains, bones, kidneys, and skin all lose structural complexity as we age.

 

Fight the Onset of Aging – New DNA Technology

Epitalon was discovered by the Russian scientist Professor Vladimir Khavinson, who then conducted epitalon-related research for the next 35 years in both animal and human clinical trials. The results were astounding. For the first time ever, human clinical trials proved beyond doubt that a substance consisted of powerful life extension and anti-aging properties.

Epitalon’s primary role is to increase the natural production of telomerase, a natural enzyme that helps cells reproduce telomeres, which are the protective parts of our DNA. This allows the replication of our DNA so the body can grow new cells and rejuvenate old ones.

Younger people produce a relatively large amount of telomerase and longer telomeres. The longer the telomere strands are, the better cell health and replication they provide. However, as people age, the production of telomerase falls and consequently cell replication and health decline. This is the main reason that people age.