Aging is an inevitable stage that a person has to go through as he passes through his timeline. Aging has its own physical impact, making a person physically and mentally handicapped in a way that he has to depend on someone else for his survival. Most of us desire a healthy life towards the end of our life because we don’t want ourselves to be a burden for our children or family. In sum, we know very well that aging is inevitable yet we want to be healthy in our later stage of life.

So what is aging? Aging is a biological process of our living cells where it can no more replicate or grow in other words has achieved its maximum span of life. As we age, we are likely to get osteoarthritis giving as joint pain, we are likely to get a cataract surgery done because of the cataract that diminishes our vision, we are likely to speak out loud as we develop prebycusis which decreases our ability to hear, we are likely to get dementia as our grey matter of the brain diminishes in size making us forget things, we are likely to get weaker as our muscle mass gets reduced due to protein loss and we are likely to become infertile because of the senescence of our gonads.

So how does aging happen? Though there are many biological factors like genomic instability, free radical oxidation, and DNA oxidation and so on, the most striking reason we see today as a cause for aging is telomere reduction. So, what is telomere reduction? Telomere is an extension of the chromosomes in our cell, that help our cells to keep dividing and growing. But as the length of this telomere reduce in size; the capacity of our cells to replicate and grow diminishes thus making us to age faster which is appreciated as wrinkles on our skin and weakness of our body. There is an enzyme called telomerase which help in maintaining the length of telomere in the chromosome of our cells as with every cell division, the length of these telomeres decreases. So, telomerase help in maintaining the length of the telomeres.

Understanding the concept that telomerase enzyme is essential for maintaining the length of the telomeres which in turn promotes the cell division and cell growth is necessary for us to overcome our physical aging. So, if we want to overcome aging the only thing we need is to ensure the function of telomerase because if anything bad happens to this enzyme, it is going to rapidly affect our cell division and is definitely going to make us age faster. So if telomerase can be affected by negative hormones, what would be those hormones and why are such hormones produced in our body?

Interestingly, telomerase are inhibited by cortisols otherwise known as the stress hormones which are produced as result of psychosocial conflicts in daily life. These conflicts include inability to forgive enemies and keep grudges inside, unable to let go of past traumatic memories, hate and revenge against those who have shown injustice towards you in life and inability to accept the bitterness of life the way it is. Inevitably these things are difficult for every one of us in life and situations creating such incidents in life are inevitable and the negative emotions taking birth during those challenging times in life can makes us upset and hurt mentally triggering stress hormones like cortisols from the cortex of the adrenal gland, located above your kidney. These cortisols thus produced can inhibit the telomerase enzyme that is vital for the cell division and cell growth which in turn can prevent aging.

If you want to live longer then you will have to put down your stress and if you want to put down your stress you will have to let go of your past, forgive people who have shown injustice towards you or have hurt you badly and accept the life the way it is. Only then happiness and joy can creep into your consciousness, energizing your mind which in turn energizes your cells and inevitably you will be granted the mercy to live longer and keep away aging from your life. So simple, yet difficult so let it be a good news for those who practices letting go, forgiveness and acceptance in life for their psycho-spiritual well being.