Several years ago, a type of gene called sirtuins (sir-too-ins) was identified, which when activated, can increase longevity by up to 60 percent. It turns out that when these genes are turned on, they promote healthy, graceful, and slower aging.

Conversely, there are genes that promote accelerated aging—the expression of these genes is what you see in people who have the typical conditions that are commonly accepted to be “part of the aging process.”

Yet, to me, the most exciting thing about sirtuins is the amount of leverage you can attain in terms of preventing disease and experiencing healthy aging. Rather than trying to label someone with a disease, such as diabetes, it can be much more effective to look for the process that caused it and make a fundamental change at that level.

This approach greatly simplifies treatment and prevention strategies. There are so many people who are taking multiple drugs for symptoms without really addressing the source of those symptoms. The amazing fact is that sirtuins, when activated, code your cells to suppress not just the mechanism behind heart disease, but also for diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. This is serious leverage.

It now means that instead of trying to treat or prevent three or four of the most serious degenerative diseases separately, treatment can now be simplified into just one fundamental process that brings you quite a ways upstream from a group of symptoms to a causative factor that they all have in common.

In other words, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s are all different expressions of the same cellular and genetic processes. If you know how to prevent one, you can prevent all of them.

Here’s an impressive list of nutrients and herbs that activate sirtuin genes and effectively improve artery health, and help to silence disease-promoting genes.

ome of the above information on sirtuins was transcribed from an interview with Dr. Mark Houston, clinical professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School; medical director at the Hypertension & Vascular Biology Institute, and Life Extension Institute & Medical Center.

He is also the editor-in-chief of JANA, a leading journal of neutriceutical technology and research. He specializes in clinical hypertension, lipid disorders, and prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, nutrition, and clinical age management. I highly recommend his book, “What your Doctor May Not Tell You about Hypertension.”