Why We Age | Lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair - S2, Ep. 7

David Sinclair (0:00)

Even before birth, we're aging. We're all aging every day, and how we choose to live our lives has a big impact decades later. Just because you're in perfect health and you look healthy doesn't mean you're not aging. As we get older, like a lot of marriages, communication breaks down, and it's hell. It's true for our body. Our muscles, our brain, most of our cells end up with old, damaged, dysfunctional mitochondria.

Matthew LaPlante (0:22)

There's some research out that talks about leaky mitochondria.

David Sinclair (0:27)

You should think of mitochondria as another species. The DNA in mitochondria is recognized as foreign if it leaks out.

Welcome to Lifespan, a show where we discuss the cutting edge science of aging and how to live healthier at any stage of life.

I'm David Sinclair, a scientist and professor working on understanding why we age and discovering new ways to slow and even reverse the aging process.

On this show, I share an insider's look at the latest from my lab, the field and what's just around the corner.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Lifespan show. It's great to be back. Today, you might see some dirt under my nails and some paint on my hands from working on my house. I'm building a garden to grow fresh food without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We'll do some episodes about how you can do that at home, even in your kitchen during winter. But first, on this show, I'm joined again by my friend and co-host, Dr. Matthew LaPlante. Over the next three episodes, Matt and I are going to walk you through what scientists call the hallmarks of aging, and of course, what we can do about them, slowing them down and even reversing aspects of some of them. Just over a decade ago, Dr. Brian Kennedy and some of my other colleagues cataloged what we now know as the hallmarks of aging, essentially what we knew went wrong inside our cells as we got older. It really was a copy of a paper in the 2000s called The Hallmarks of Cancer, which has been cited over 46,000 times, which is one of the most cited papers ever. So my colleagues wanted to get a paper like that. Their paper, The Hallmarks of Aging, has been cited 20,000 times. They set three criteria for these hallmarks. To qualify, a process had to, one, manifest during normal aging, two, accelerate aging when experimentally increased, at least in an animal, and again, in animals, slow aging or extend healthy lifespan when altered. There were originally nine hallmarks, and in 2023, the framework was updated and expanded to 12 To include more discoveries and hallmarks, it's a useful way to organize the biology of aging and think about where we could intervene. For this discussion, Matt and I will organize those hallmarks into primary, secondary, and tertiary drivers of aging. We'll talk about how the processes of aging begin long before most of us can even see or feel them, and tell you about ways to slow these hallmarks. Today, we're starting with something many people notice as they get older, having less energy.

Why does that happen? What's changing inside ourselves? What does the science suggest we might be able to do about it? That's what we're going to get into today. I'm so excited to share that Lifespan magazine is now available, along with everything we're building around it to help you live a longer, healthier life. You'll get the gorgeous 100-page magazine, early access to Lifespan episodes, my longevity newsletter, clinical trial updates, AMAs, exclusive interviews and a lot more to come. Go to lifespan.com to read the magazine, see what we're building and support medical research too. There's a free version, an $8 a month membership, and a founder membership with lifetime access to the magazine, bonus material, and some personal gifts from me. Life's too short. Let's change that together. So let's go.

Matthew LaPlante (4:11)

This is the Lifespan Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair. David, you are a professor in the Department of Genetics at the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, among many other things.

David Sinclair (4:26)

You are an associate professor at Utah State, and you teach communications among other things. You're a former journalist before that military man, but really what you've done is written some amazing books.

Matthew LaPlante (4:38)

Thank you.

David Sinclair (4:39)

Ten, I believe.

Matthew LaPlante (4:41)

I've honestly lost track, which is cool. It's cool to say I've lost track of how many books I've written.

David Sinclair (4:47)

Well, what's the most important book you've ever written?

Matthew LaPlante (4:49)

Lifespan. That's a trick question.