Healthy past 100

Panchita, had recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Hojancha, where they live, has one of the healthiest, longest-lived populations on the planet. 

Watch a video of 100 yaer old Panchita Castillo. 

Learn about life from some people who have been around for over 100 years.

 

Some simple Costa Rican secrets for living a long life.

Have a strong sense of purpose – Costa Rican centenarians have a clear mission in life, what they call a plan de vida. They feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good.

Drink hard water – Nicoyan water has the country’s highest calcium content, which perhaps explains the centenarians’ lower rates of heart disease, as well as stronger bones and fewer hip fractures.

Keep a focus on family -Nicoyan centenarians tend to live with their families, and children or grandchildren provide support and a sense of purpose and belonging.

Eat a light dinner -Eating fewer calories appears to be one of the surest ways to add years to your life. Nicoyans eat a light dinner early in the evening. Their traditional diet of fortified maize and beans may be the best nutritional combination for longevity the world has ever known.

Maintain social networks -Nicoyan centenarians get frequent visits from neighbors. They know how to listen, laugh, and appreciate what they have.

Keep hard at work – Centenarians seem to have enjoyed physical work all their lives. They find joy in everyday physical chores.

Get some sensible sun -Nicoyans regularly take in the sunshine, which helps their bodies produce vitamin D for strong bones and healthy bodies. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a host of problems, such as osteoporosis and heart disease, but regular “smart” sun exposure (about 15 minutes on the legs and arms) can help supplement your diet and ensure you’re getting enough of this vital nutrient.

Embrace a common history -Modern Nicoyans’ roots, among the indigenous Chorotega, and their spiritual traditions have enabled them to remain relatively free of stress.

 Adapted with permission of the National Geographic Society from the book The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer Freom the People Who’s Lived the Longest - Dan Buettner. Copyright © 2008 Dan Buettner.

 

How’s your metabolism?

So, How’s that metabolism working for you?  It’s bound to happen to your friends. It’s likely to happen to your family. In fact, if you take a look around, about 95 out of every 100 people will experience the dreaded age-associated metabolic decline.

Research now shows that, on average, folks experience a 2-4% decline in their resting metabolic rate with each passing decade after the age of 25. Add to this metabolic decline a 5lb loss of muscle mass with every decade and getting older is a depressing proposition.

Read the full article by Ryan Andrews on why you should be doing High Intensity Exercise.

Who rules your body?

Are you a slave to your own body?

 

Food Focus – sprouts

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Sprouts

In the spring season, seeds flaunt their vitality and energy by sprouting. Sprouts of all varieties contain the building blocks of life in the form of vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and simple sugars. In their early growth state, sprouts are very easy to digest, allowing our bodies to access many wonderful nutrients. Recent research by the American Cancer Society has backed what holistic nutrition has known for years: that sprouts contain anti-cancer properties, high levels of active antioxidants, concentrated amounts of phytochemicals and significant amounts of vitamins A, C and D.

In their raw form, sprouts have a cooling effect on the body, and therefore are best consumed in warm weather or by robust, warm body types. Those who tend to feel cool can try steaming spouts or adding them to warm dishes such as stir-fries and soups, to reduce the cooling effect. There is a wide variety of edible and delicious sprouts, each with a different texture and flavor: alfalfa, mung bean, lentil, radish, clover, sunflower, broccoli, garbanzo and adzuki.

Here are some great ways to serve up sprouts:

• add to salads
• combine with other vegetables in wraps, roll-ups or stir-fries
• use as garnish on top of soups, stews, omelets or scrambled eggs
• add to rice or whole grain dishes
• use in sandwiches instead of lettuce

Exercise – the magic bullet

“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise.”  Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Did you know  -  Exercise has been shown to help the following conditions:

1. heart attack
2. stroke
3. hypertension
4. diabetes
5. obesity
6. depression
7. demetia
8. osteoperosis
9. gallstones
10. diverticulitis
11. erectile dysfunction
12. rheumatoid arthritis
13. multiple sclerosis

You name it, exercise helps it.

 So, there it is.  You just got the magic bullet to better health.  Now what are you going to do?

Now you can drink your grains

I like to use Almond milk in my smoothies instead of real milk, but once again we have a great example of just how stupid the big companies think we are.  Why do we need more liquid grains?  I guess that since we don’t eat enough of them, we should start drinking them.

I don’t know about you, but when they start adding more nutraceuticals to my food, I start to wonder what I am really eating.

Consumers are now fully accepting of grain-based dairy substitutes and the trend is only growing. Moreover, it’s a valuable trend as processors continue to incorporate more — and more diverse — nutraceuticals and other health components into these beverages.

From Mark’s Daily Apple

link to the Food Processing.com article

King Corn – the documentary

Your genes are not your fate

Dr Dean Ornish – Via TED on how our genes are not necessarily our fate.

Is exercise the magic bullet?

Next to diet, exercise is the simplest and most effective way to prevent illness, yet fewer than 20% of healthy Americans exercise regularly.  Drug companies have no financial incentive to fund research into the healing effects of exercise, and without large, controlled studies documenting exercises’ healing power, many doctors opt to dole out drugs rather than urge patients to break a sweat.  Despite the undeserved lack of attention, more and more studies are emerging that back the use of exercise for prevention of disease.

A 16,000 – person study of twins at the University of Helinski found that taking brisk, half-hour walks just six times a month cut the risk of early death by 44%.  Even those who exercised occasionally – less than six times a month – were 30% less likely to die early than their sedentary twin.

Medical research has focused a great deal on the identification of specific disease-causing genes, leading some people to mistakenly believe that health is primarily determined by heredity.  But this twin study, the first to separate out mortality due to genetics, versus mortality due to fitness, clearly shows that exercise can have dramatic benefits.

A study of 707 healthy older men found that, over a 12 year period, 41% of the men who walked less than a mile a day died, but only 24% of the men who walked more than 2 miles a day died.  Cancer was the disease that walking was most likely to prevent.

Women who walked an hour every day had only about half the colon cancer risk than did sedentary women.  the same risk reduction was found for those women who engaged in more vigorous forms of exercise.

A group of overweight, sedentary women suffering from a condition called insulin resistance were put on a program in which they worked out for 50 minutes each day.  Half of these women experienced a complete reversal of their conditions in only one week, while the remainder had lowered their resistance to a level sufficient to avoid developing diabetes, if that level ware maintained.

Researchers in Britain enrolled 66 patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome in a 12-week program of either aerobic exercise or flexibility training.  At the end of the study period, those doing aerobic exercises showed more improvement on measurements of fatigue than those doing flexibility training.

Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital discovered that men who exercised once or twice a week lowered their risk of heart attack by an average of 28% over sedentary men, and those exercising five times a week cut their risk by 44%.  When looking at the length of the workouts, those who exercised 11 to 24 minutes reduced risk by 35% over those doing shorter workouts; exercising for longer  than 24 minutes, however, did not bring any added advantage.  For exercise to be effective it apparently doesn’t have to be lengthy.

In addition to the benefits outlined in the studies above, exercise has also proven to be helpful in relieving the pain of arthritis, halting bone loss (some people can even rebuild bone), and alleviating the symptoms of depression.

Source – Garynull.com  Excerpted from Spectrum Magazine

Based on information in: San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribute, 2-11-98; The New England Journal of Medicine, 1-8-98; Health, Mar 1998; Prevention, Jan 1998; Health, Oct 1997

Keys to a longer life

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Living past 90, and living well, may be more than a matter of good genes and good luck. Five behaviors in elderly men are associated not only with living into extreme old age, a new study has found, but also with good health and independent functioning.

The 5 keys are:

1. Don’t Smoke

2. Exercise

3. Manage your Weight

4. Control your blood pressure

5. Avoid diabetes

What the Bowhead whale can teach us about living a long life