By the doctor Isabelle Meurgey and the doctor Alain Butnaru
In just under a century, our life expectancy has almost doubled. We now live longer, but in what state of health? How can we age well? This question is certainly one worth asking!
In recent years, our increased life expectancy has mainly been due to a lower death rate in the over 65s. In other age brackets, the death rate has not really changed.
Older people now live longer as a result of a very particular situation, one which will never occur again: people who are now aged over 80 were born between two world wars and grew up mainly in the countryside, where there was very little pollution, with a much healthier diet than today and a much less sedentary lifestyle. What is more, especially in the second half of their life, they have benefitted from the advances made in modern medicine.
Unfortunately, the later generations – in particular those born from the 1960s onwards – have had to deal with pollution, the effects of industrialisation and intensive agriculture, food with mediocre nutritional value and a sedentary lifestyle from birth. Though life expectancy is increasing worldwide, the number of years we are expected to live without disability has been dropping for many years now.
It would be much better if these additional years were spent living an active life, looking good and in full physical and intellectual health!
Juvenology® is a new discipline. It became a logical next step for us, following on from the advent of epigenetic medicine and the progress of aesthetic medicine and surgery.
What we want to develop is the science of aging well, in harmony with our environment and enhancing our natural beauty.
Juvenology® is a state of mind that combines beauty and health, which cannot be separated from one another: your in- ner health enhances your external beauty, and your external beauty substantiates your inner health.
To be healthy, we need to implement epigenetics in our every day lives.
Genetics refers to the study of genes, while epigenetics looks into the nature of the mechanisms that modify gene expression in a reversible, transmissible and adaptive way, without altering our DNA.
The overall idea is that our genome is less of a fixed pattern and more like a piano, whose keys make up the genome itself.
Every individual has their own specific set of keys, which are unchanged throughout their lifetime.
You live and die with the same keys, i.e. with same genome with which you entered the world.
However, the pattern of the keys might change: this is epigenetics. It is this pattern that determines what kind of music is played, i.e. which genes are expressed and therefore affect our characteristics: from our hair colour to our health.
In other words, if we have different thoughts, adopt a different lifestyle, different behaviours, have new experiences, new beliefs, new habits, we can transform ourselves neurologically, chemically, genetically and even aesthetically!
What is fantastic is that we now know that by monitoring our own epigenetics, we are in a position to set our own key pattern. In other words, though our genes define our potential, epigenetics defines our destiny, our health.
In terms of beauty, aesthetic treatments have also experienced a revolution and the techniques used are ever more effective. But we must never forget the golden rule for successful treatment: always adapt the techniques to the patient, not the patient to the techniques.
“No external grace is complete unless it is vivified by interior beauty. The beauty of the soul is spread like a mysterious light over the beauty of the body.”
Victor Hugo
By the Doctor Isabelle Meurgey
Doctor of anti-aging and cosmetic medicine. Graduate of the Rouen medical faculty.
Has specialised in preventative and performance medicine since 1997.
Permanent member of the French Society of Aesthetic Medicine. Diplomas in Micronutrition, Auriculotherapy, Hypnosis. More information on docteurisabellemeurgey.com
And by the Doctor Alain Butnaru
Graduate of the Paris Medical Faculty.
Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine since 1985.
Permanent member of the French Society of Aesthetic Medicine.
Degrees in Morphological and Anti-Aging Medicine, Micronutrition, Auriculotherapy and Hypnosis.
More information on docteuralainbutnaru.com
