Normal genes that are essential to fetal and childhood development cause most chronic disease, aging, and death. For example, a normal gene produces a regulatory protein that is essential to kidney formation in the fetus. It is switched to produce oxidants in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount, for the right duration to activate other genes essential to kidney formation. When childhood ends and the kidney is fully formed, that gene switches off and oxidant levels drop dramatically.
Later in life, excess abdominal fat switches on those same normal genes to make the protein that regulated normal kidney formation except this time it is chaotic. It produces excess oxidants and antioxidant defenses are weakened. That oxidant imbalance inappropriately switches on other genes that cause functional organ cells to die, scar tissue to grow, and inflammation to increase. That damages the larger vessels leading to atherosclerosis, heart attack, and stroke. These same processes damage the tiniest vessels including the capillaries, which bring oxygen and nutrition to the cells and take away carbon dioxide and waste. When capillary networks fail, cells and organs lose function and ultimately organ failure causes death.
Understanding this science enables us to slow aging and delay chronic disease much more effectively. ACE inhibitors like lisinopril and ARBs like losartan precisely block the effect of the regulatory protein mentioned above that is so important to normal kidney formation. If a pregnant woman takes one of these drugs, her child will likely have a birth defect of the kidney. Later in life, these medications block excess oxidant production to protect functional kidney cells while inhibiting scar formation and inflammation to slow chronic kidney disease development. Statins, metformin, spironolactone, and eplerenone also precisely block the effects of genes that are essential to normal development but produce chronic disease and more rapid aging when inappropriately activated later in life. Metformin and empagliflozin (Jardiance) switch off the genes that oxidants activate which also coordinate nutrient supply with normal growth. These precise interventions are antioxidants that slow aging and delay chronic disease. They maintain the healthier function of all cells and organs. That means we can have longer healthier lives now.
More importantly, eliminating belly fat using ketogenic eating habits, intermittent fasting, effective stress reduction will reverse the aging process and prevent chronic diseases starting early in one’s life. This is the very core principles of lifestyle medicine. We must start there and throughout one’s lifetime.