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Summary
On episode 144 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Josh Mitteldorf, PhD, a theoretical biologist and author of Cracking the Aging Code who has been a visiting researcher and teacher at MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley.
Josh argues that aging is not the body breaking down or going off track. It is programmed into our genes by evolution, which means the paleo diet and other “get back to natural” approaches can restore balance but will not stop cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s.
The conversation covers why inflammation turns against the body with age, why antioxidant supplements have failed in study after study, and the four specific mechanisms Josh says the body uses to destroy itself over time.
Links
- https://agingadvice.org
- https://agingmattersblog.org
- https://scienceblog.com
Key Takeaways
- Aging is programmed, not a malfunction. Josh’s central claim is that the body isn’t drifting off track as we age, it is following an evolutionary program toward self-destruction, which is why “natural” eating alone cannot prevent the diseases of old age.
- Inflammation flips from protector to attacker. Inflammation legitimately defends the body and heals wounds when we’re young, but with age it gets co-opted and turns against healthy tissue, driving the three big killers: Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer.
- Osteoarthritis behaves like a late-life autoimmune condition. Cartilage doesn’t just wear out. Stem cell rebuilding slows down while inflammation destroys cartilage faster, so the loss compounds from both directions.
- Antioxidant supplements don’t work and may accelerate aging. A large 1990s Finland study on antioxidant vitamins was halted early because participants taking them were dying faster, not slower, than those who weren’t.
- Stress signals trigger the body’s own repair systems (hormesis). Reactive oxygen species generated during exercise act as a stress signal that switches on defenses so strong the body ends up better off than if it had never been stressed at all. Suppressing that signal with antioxidants may be why they backfire.
- The body has four self-destruct mechanisms. Inflammation, immune derangement (the thymus gland shrinks after age 50, weakening immune training), apoptosis (programmed cell death that starts killing healthy cells like muscle and neurons), and cellular senescence (telomeres shortening until cells become inflammatory).
- Practical anti-inflammatory tools exist. A low-carbohydrate, low-insulin diet, anti-inflammatory herbs like ginger and turmeric (curcumin), and for many people a nightly quarter aspirin.
- Apoptosis has no known drug counter, but training and learning help. Heavy resistance training slows sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) by fighting the cell-suicide process directly, and continually learning new material is described as the best protection against Alzheimer’s.
- Short, intense exercise is the most effective anti-aging stimulus. Josh recommends brief, all-out efforts, lifting to failure or sprinting to the point of gasping, done a few times a day, over longer moderate workouts.
“Aging is not something that goes wrong with the body. It’s exactly what we were designed for.”
Josh Mitteldorf
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 155 – The Art and Science of Aging Well – Mark Williams