Before & After Photo: Reduced Wrinkles
April 7, 2010 by Yafa Sakkejha
Filed under Anti Aging Articles, Featured
My 54-year old mother went to get her passport renewed this week. We were so excited to see her new photos that I wanted to share it with all of you.
A little bit of back story – my mother radically changed her diet and exercise habits 4 years ago after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
This is what her life looked like 5 years ago:
- Diet: coffee, toast, cheese, basmati rice, vegetables, lamb, lots of salads, the odd dessert
- Exercise: skiing in the winter & tennis in the summer
- Stress levels: high
This is what her life looks like now:
- Diet: 50% raw, daily green juice or smoothie, no dietary sugar, whole grains, fish, salads
- Exercise: daily 30 min walk, yoga and tennis once per week, 20km bike every week in summer, 1 hour uphill hike twice per week in the summer, and skiing 2 days/week in the winter.
- Stress levels: low (she simply decided to put herself first)
- Creative outlets: paints and plays the piano frequently – something she used to love, and stopped doing when she had a family
Here is what she looked like in May 2005 at age 49:
This is what she looks like now in April 2010 at age 54:
She’s had no botox, no surgery, and no cosmetic procedures at all. The photo isn’t photoshopped. She’s not wearing makeup. And because it’s a passport photo, it’s taken with the exact same specs, per passport photo regulations.
You can also see that the “Date of Issue” is 5 years apart.
It doesn’t matter how old you are – you can reverse the aging process at any age. Remember that Dr. Ann Wigmore had reversed her gray hair through nutrition and exercise in her 60s and had her natural hair colour back in her 70s (read more about her story here).
Although we talk about reducing the outward signs of age every week, it really is your spirit that matters. Being happy and maintaining a youthful optimism bodes far better for external beauty than anything else.
Resistance Exercise Reverses Muscle Aging
August 21, 2009 by Yafa Sakkejha
Filed under Anti Aging Articles, Featured
6 months of resistance exercise training can reverse aging associated with mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness, reports a joint study from researchers at the Buck Institute for Age Research in California, McMaster University’s Department of Pediatrics and Medicine in Canada, and the Center for Genetics, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California.
When we age, our skeletal muscle atrophies, meaning that a decrease in muscle mass is experienced. This is also known as sarcopenia.
Much evidence shows that a main cause of sarcopenia is mitochondrial dysfunction inside cells. (Mitochondria are the cell’s “power plants” as they generate cells’ chemical energy.)
Researchers took skeletal muscle biopsies from 25 healthy older and 26 younger adult men and women and compared them with gene expression profiling.
14 of the older adults had muscle samples taken before and after a 6-month resistance exercise-training program.
Before exercise, older adults were 59% weaker than younger adults, but after 6 months of training, strength improved significantly such that they were only 38% weaker than young adults.
“As a consequence of age, we found 596 genes differentially expressed.” (To learn more about gene expression, watch this TED video from Dr Dean Ornish on how Your Genes are Not Your Fate).
Prior to the exercise training, a large enrichment of genes associated with mitochondrial function with age was seen.
However, following exercise training, aging was markedly reversed back to that of younger levels for most genes that were affected by both age and exercise.
Researchers concluded that mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness in healthy older adults can be partially to substantially reversed with 6 months of resistance exercise training.
The best way to start a resistance training program is to partner with a certified personal trainer. This way, they can observe your movement and correct improper alignment, in order to prevent injury and ensure that you see results.
At the House of Verona, we work with Adam Mogelonsky, who is by far one of the most qualified personal trainers in Toronto. He has a degree in Life Sciences from Queen’s University, and can be reached at 647-448-2326 or adammogelonsky@gmail.com.
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