Expert: Dr. Bruce Forciea - 8/11/2009

Question
Hi Dr.
I am 50.
Until a couple years ago, I looked young for my age-people thought I was 40 or less.
I dont smoke or drink and eat healthy.
In the last few months however my aging seems to have sped up. People I havent seen for a while dont recognise me. I am greying quicly and losing hair, and developing a large belly although actually eating less and being more active.
The only change in my life is changing jobs. I went from a 'soft' job to more lucrative and rewarding although stressfull (at least for the first year) job. I actually developed hypertension.
My stress level has lowered and I feel better, but I wish I could look better.
Do you think that it was the new job that did this, or was it genetic?
Can you reccomend anything, such as a food or  vitamin or supplement? I already have a healthy lifestyle but would consider any new reccomendations.
Thanks!

Answer
Hi Van:

The physical aspects of aging depend on many things including overall health, diet, stress, exercise and genetics. It sounds like there are a couple of things that could be contributing to your aging spurt. Stress is a big issue when it comes to overall health and aging. It could be that your recent job change is contributing to your problem. The weight gain around the midsection may be a sign of metabolic syndrome.

One possibility is that when people are under stress they secrete more of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol increases glucose (blood sugar) which is used by the muscles as fuel. However if there is no need for the extra fuel the glucose gets converted to fat--the type of fat that tends to go to the belly.

In metabolic syndrome (which is usually inherited) the body is unable to use the hormone insulin efficiently. The insulin receptors on the cells become unresponsive to insulin. This also increases blood glucose because the cells need insulin in order to use the glucose as fuel. The result is an increase in blood sugar as well as an increase in abdominal fat. Hypertension also occurs along with metabolic syndrome.

You might want to get checked out by your doctor to see if you have the start of metabolic syndrome. They will do a blood glucose test along with some other tests. Once you know if you have it there are a number of things you can do to treat it. If you don't then you might want to look at visiting a clinical nutritionist or naturopath to do an analysis of your body and recommend some specific nutrients.

If you walked into my office with this issue I would recommend ruling out metabolic syndrome before getting into recommending nutrients. I always found that it is best to find out what's wrong before getting into treatments.

I wish you the best in your healing,

Bruce