Nicholas Perricone - Forever Young: The Science of Nutrigenomics for Glowing, Wrinkle-Free Skin and Radiant Health at Every Age

Forever
Young

Also by Nicholas Perricone, M.D.

Ageless Face, Ageless Mind

The Wrinkle Cure

The Perricone Prescription

The Perricone Prescription Personal Journal

The Acne Prescription

The Clear Skin Prescription

The Perricone Promise

The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet

The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet Personal Daily Journal

Dr. Perricones 7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity

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Copyright 2010 by Dr. Nicholas Perricone

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First Atria Books hardcover edition September 2010

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To Nikola Tesla,
scientist, humanitarian, forgotten genius

THE METABOLIC MIRACLE: LOSING FAT, PRESERVING
MUSCLE AND BONE

It seems impossible that my first book, The Wrinkle Cure, was published well over ten years ago, but time has a way of doing that. In fact, time seems to go by faster with each passing year. Since the excitement generated by that first book, I have continued to devote myself to slowing down time, or at least the toll it takes on our bodies. In The Wrinkle Cure, I introduced the concept that inflammation is at the basis of aging and age-related disease. This inflammation exists over a broad spectrum that ranges from low to high. On the low side, it occurs on a cellular level and is invisible to the naked eye. It can be discerned only microscopically or submicroscopically on a molecular level. On the high end of the spectrum, the inflammation is visibly evident as redness and swelling, as seen in a wound or sunburn.

In The Wrinkle Cure, I explained that this low-grade, subclinical, cellular inflammation is ultimately responsible for cell dysfunction, leading to organ dysfunction, aging, and death. In addition, I identified this subclinical inflammation as being the basis of such diverse age-related diseases as atherosclerosis, diabetes, various forms of cancer, Alzheimers disease, and other neurologic diseases, as well as wrinkling of the skin.

My colleagues and mainstream medicine in general vigorously resisted the concept of the inflammation/aging/disease connection. Fortunately, a great deal has changed in a decade, and in that time, numerous studies have validated this concept. Many therapeutic interventions are now being developed counteracting subclinical inflammation, thereby prolonging both our health and our life span.

The Diabetes/Aging Connection

One of the models I use as an accelerated aging prototype is the disease of diabetes. Studying diabetes has helped me to understand the effects of irregularities in blood sugar and their role in the production of free radicals, leading to glycation and inflammation. Glycation is an inflammatory biochemical process that occurs when a glucose (sugar) molecule binds to a protein molecule without the influence of enzymes. In scientific terms we refer to these sugar/protein bonds as AGEs, an appropriate acronym for advanced glycation end products. Glycation and AGEs are highly damaging to all organ systems, including the skin. AGEs can cause arterial stiffening, atherosclerosis, cataracts, neurological impairment, diabetic complications, wrinkled, sagging skin, and more. The inflammation and glycation that I observed in diabetics whose disease was poorly controlled resulted in those patients aging one-third faster than the normal population.

The Forever Young Approach to Aging

Uncontrolled or poorly controlled diabetes is not the only model for accelerated aging. As we enter a new decade, I am looking at another accelerated aging model. This model has provided me with the information I need to develop novel therapeutic interventions to further slow the aging process and radically decrease the onset of age-related disease. The culprit is an acute, severe, systemic infection known as sepsis, which leads to septic shock, the onset and progression of which closely parallel the bodily changes seen during aging. Sepsis leads to disorders that take place on a cellular level and closely mimics, in an abbreviated period of time, what happens to our bodies over a period of years and decades in the normal aging process.

Understanding how we age on a cellular level gives us the information we need to retard or even reverse the process. In Forever Young you will learn about the science of nutrigenomics and how some very special foods and substances can alter the way you age, both mentally and physically. Nutrigenomics is the study of how nutrition affects gene expression and how certain nutrients can turn on the genes that block disease and turn off the genes that cause accelerated aging and disease. As I have often told my patients, readers, and viewers, the fountain of youth may be no further away than your next meal!

As I observed accelerated models of aging, like poorly controlled diabetes and sepsis, and studied and implemented nutrigenomics, I have developed strategies designed to keep you, if not Forever Young, at least looking and feeling your very best for many decades into the future.

Thank you for joining me on this life-changing journey.

Nicholas Perricone, M.D., F.A.C.N., C.N.S.
Madison, Connecticut
January 2010

Forever
Young