Association between Indian culture and modern science.
How human civilization has evolved over time leaves us awe-struck when modern scientific development are compared with ancient religious texts.
Scientific research in the field of aging-
A recent experiment at Harvard Medical School was carried out for reversing the aging process of the eye of an old mouse using the principles developed by Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. In the experiment, different procedures were carried out on the mouse and the results were observed.
Research shows that the cause of aging is more related to the loss of information in the individual epigenome of our cells. The epigenome is the protein that contains the information required for each cell to function correctly. So basically our skin cells have a different epigenome than our heart cells which describes that particular cell to perform a specific function. Although the genome(DNA) is the same throughout.
Aging is basically the loss of information in the individual epigenome which results in a loss of functioning of that particular cell.
It has been identified that a living organism has longevity genes that dictate the state in which our cells function. Longevity genes when dormant, result in ‘growth and reproduction’ while activated longevity genes result in a ‘protect and repair mode’ of our cells. In the dormant state of longevity genes, our cells lose epigenomic information and result in aging while in the protect and repair mode, the information is recollected and strengthened.
In order to ‘slow down’ aging or even reverse it, there are different factors identified by scientists that have been shown to do so. Some of the factors include avoiding DNA damage(sunlight, smoking, chemical exposures, radiations, etc), fasting, intensive workouts, less protein intake, extreme hot or cold temperatures, etc. All of these factors activate our longevity genes and put our cells into a ‘protect and repair mode’ resulting in slower aging.
For more information about the topic watch this video by Veritasium.
Lessons from ancient Indian culture on aging-
The ancient Indian scriptures including the Vedas and Upanishads have discussed ways of living a healthy life. Some of the lessons include: not consuming non-vegetarian food, fasting between specific intervals of time, living an active lifestyle, etc. Some of the saints and gurus still follow a rigorous lifestyle of starving and putting the body to hardship in extreme climatic conditions and living in isolation.
Even though the scriptures are not able to describe the mechanism behind such findings, it’s fascinating to come across linkages between what has been traditionally known and the new scientific discoveries.
There are other numerous examples of ancient texts which were able to describe scenarios and developments that are being identified by modern science only recently.
The position of the Pyramids of Giza has the same latitudinal value as the speed of light(although it’s debatable as to the exact value and no comparison of the longitudinal component) and the position right below the Orion constellation.
The unexplained phenomena at the Jagannath Puri Temple in Odissa(India) include the direction of the flag opposite to the direction of the wind, an echo sound while entering the main entrance, and many more. Read here for more insights on Jagannath Puri Temple.
The fact that ancient civilizations knew the working of living beings and other physical phenomena which are only being discovered now is evidence that somewhere between the process of evolution we have missed a lot of knowledge in our understanding of the human body and the universe.
Maybe Humans already reached great heights of development in the past and some natural calamity or some catastrophe caused the extinction of the whole species and brought us back to the origin?
That’s why we need to work together to avoid any such calamity from happening again be it Climate Change, Biological outbreaks, or irreversible damage to our planet.
Follow for more such cross-dimensional topics to broaden your knowledge base.
