Eighteen Ways to Grow Younger Everyday

"It takes a long way to become young".
Pablo Picasso

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The body is truly a miracle. Each of us contains more than a thousand billion cells. Our body builds more than three hundred billion cells per day; blood cells are replaced every three months, our platelets every ten days, our bones every two years, and our taste buds every day! On a molecular level, man renews himself every eleven months. By adopting the following anti-aging strategies you can help your body repair itself and celebrate every year a birthday in which you are getting younger instead of getting older. You can be “a sixty year old” or “sixty years young”, the choice is yours. When you think about it, you will realize that most people are in the habit of keeping habits. Get into the habit of breaking habits. Imagine if you only changed four habits every year. Five years from now you would have twenty positive new habits.

Seven quick and easy anti-aging habits to adopt:
1. Drink plenty of clean water: We live in an increasingly toxic world. To some extent the solution for pollution is dilution. It is a lot easier for the liver and kidneys to get rid of toxins by flushing them with plenty of water. Extra water prevents skin dehydration and wrinkles, helps you lose weight and helps lubricate your joints thereby decreasing the incidence of arthritis.

2. Floss and brush your teeth at least before going to bed (twice a day is even better). Gum disease increases the C-reactive protein (CRP) which ruins your arteries and increases your chance of heart attacks and weakens your immune system. Flossing is much more important than brushing. Most patients do not know how to floss properly. Have your dentist show you. This simple step makes you six years younger.

3. Take one baby Aspirin per day: It is now clear that using one baby Aspirin per day (80 mg) can prevent heart attacks by fighting chronic inflammation and by thinning the blood. However, Aspirin can have serious side effects such as gastric bleeding and inducing cataracts. Coated Aspirin may cause less gastric irritation. Aspirin should not be used if you have asthma as it may trigger attacks. One possible alternative for lower risk individuals is to eat two pieces of fresh garlic per day. Garlic thins the blood, prevents clots and lowers inflammation. Garlic pills found in most nutritional stores are worthless. The only form other than fresh that works is the aged garlic variety whereby garlic is fermented over two years in special barrels similar to the way we ferment wine. Another excellent alternative is to consume at least 1-2 grams per day of quality mercury free fish oil

4. Wear a seat belt or a helmet if you ride a bike: Most car accidents happen within ten kilometers from where you live. Be a defensive driver. Drive a well-constructed car that performs competently in crash safety tests as you have a much better chance of not getting hurt in an accident. Never drive if you are sleepy or drunk.

5. Avoid getting hepatitis: Hepatitis or liver inflammation is the number one cause of liver failure after alcohol abuse. Vaccination is probably valuable in preventing hepatitis B for high risk individuals such as drug addicts and HIV patients. Hepatitis C is a lethal form of hepatitis that has no vaccine yet. Abdominal obesity results in liver failure due to hepatitis brought about by fat cells infiltrating the liver.

6. Patrol your health: Check your blood pressure every two years starting at age twenty then yearly from age forty, also check your blood sugar once at age twenty, once at age thirty five, and then every five years after that. Check your cholesterol and lipids regularly which climb as you age. Half the people with these abnormalities are not aware they have a problem. That is why they are called silent killers. Women should have annual PAP smears, mammograms, and perform self-breast examinations monthly. Everyone above 50 should get regular colonoscopies for early colon cancer detection, routine digital exams to detect prostate cancer (in men) and routine eye exams. Check your thyroid once at age 55, and every five years thereafter.

7. Laugh more often: It has been proven that laughing is an effective method to reduce stress and increases the calming neurotransmitter, serotonin, in the brain. Laughter also releases nitric oxide which in turn reduces blood pressure and cardiac overload. So switch to a comedy show instead of the depressing news. Try to remember and share jokes and take things easy. A study comparing optimistic versus pessimistic individuals revealed that the risk of death was 29% lower among highly optimistic men and women. In addition, the most optimistic study participants experienced 77% less likelihood of dying of a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular cause as compared to the most pessimistic group. Take your fun and entertainment seriously. Sometimes you can get so serious about getting your health under control you make yourself sick with worries and obsessions. Introduce changes gradually and accept occasional failures in trying to be perfect. Remember life is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be enjoyed.

Six moderately difficult anti-aging habits to adopt:
1. Get a good night sleep regularly: Men need seven hours and women need eight. During deep uninterrupted sleep, melatonin and growth hormones are secreted and the brain repairs itself. To sleep better, avoid heavy dinners eaten too close to bed time and exercise regularly, though experts suggest not within an hour or two before going to bed. Driving without proper rest can be as risky as driving drunk. Excessive sleep is correlated with depression or hypothyroidism both of which ages your heart a lot faster.

2. Cut down on caffeine: Millions of people cannot get going in the morning without a double espresso or a large mug of American coffee. Do not replace enough sleep with excessive caffeine. Excessive caffeine raises the blood pressure further in patients with hypertension, speeds up your heart, increases stress and anxiety and may interfere with deep and sound sleep. Caffeine is a diuretic and depletes stores of magnesium, calcium, zinc and other trace minerals—many of which, ironically, are also needed to buffer coffee acids. Caffeine adds to your body's acid load, resulting in calcium being robbed from your bones to offset this acidity. While caffeine contains many anti-oxidants and provides a temporary energy boost, the overall rise in heart rate, stress and brain nerve stimulation outweigh its benefits in many stressed out patients. Caffeine taxes an already challenged liver busy clearing other substances. You should not decrease caffeine abruptly as you risk a rebound headache and you’ll feel too tired; cut down gradually.

3. Eat better by eating out less frequently, drinking more water, eating less saturated fat and refined sugar and more fruits and vegetables.

4. Read more, challenge your memory with quizzes and learning. Watch less TV, and build social networks. Reading helps you become a more aware person. Knowledge and awareness changes behavior. Knowledge empowers us. Decrease your brain’s exposure to electromagnetic fields by decreasing the use of mobiles, pagers and Blackberries.

5. Make exercise part of your realistic routine. Exercise reduces stress, anxiety, fears, depression and Alzheimer’s. Exercise boosts your immune system, thereby preventing chronic diseases and cancer. Building muscle prevents osteoporosis and increases your sexual performance.

6. Take some good vitamins and supplements. Ideally, these should be customized to your needs. Some marketing driven companies offer you “compounded individualized vitamin pills” based on the results of your vitamin blood levels. There is no science to support this expensive practice. There are no known levels for what is “optimal”. It is more logical to check for indirect laboratory indicators that are affected by lack of vitamins. An evaluation of your needs is much better when it is preceded by a comprehensive questionnaire and physical exam through a visit to a competent and caring physician who is familiar with prevention and anti-aging medicine. There is no point in jumping on the newest or latest supplement craze. The point is to understand the basics and find those that will benefit you. You do not need to take twenty different pills a day.

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Five hard habits to adopt:
1. Quit smoking: What is the purpose of thinking about anti-aging if you smoke? Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death and sickness. The success rate in quitting is tenfold higher when you get professional help.

2. Reduce your weight and maintain an ideal weight and muscle mass. Obesity is the number one cause for diabetes and second after smoking in being the leading cause for preventable illnesses. It will soon overtake smoking as public enemy number one. Eating better does not mean perfection nor does it mean deprivation. By being too demanding you get discouraged and you get nowhere.

3. Reduce your blood pressure: Keeping your blood pressure at 115/75 Hg or less makes you nine years younger than if your blood pressure were 130/86. It also makes you 25 years younger than someone with a blood pressure of 160/90. Reducing your weight decreases your blood pressure. Exercise reduces your blood pressure even if your weight does not change. Cut down on salt. Adding a single daily serving of potassium-rich food to your diet lowers your blood pressure and could cut down your risk of stroke by 40%. One banana or one baked potato per day would do. Other sources include avocado, oranges and skimmed milk.

4. Avoid poisoning your body: Passive smoking of 4,000 different chemicals is bad for you and for your kids. Expecting a smoke-free section in a restaurant is like searching for a chlorine-free section of a swimming pool. Restaurants that allow smoking can have six times the pollution of a busy highway. Alcohol is a neurotoxin. You kill brain cells with every drink rendering you less and less intelligent. The liver is your waste factory getting rid of all the medications you take and the poisons and pesticides that we get with food. Do not ruin your liver with alcohol. Women have a smaller size liver and are therefore more susceptible than men to alcohol. They also have less of the gut enzyme needed to break alcohol down. A recent study revealed that resveratrol, a good antioxidant found in red wine, is equally available in a glass of grape juice. They are both however, rich in high glycemic calories. Avoid polluted air and water.

5. Reduce stress: Life is stressful and always will be. Eliminating stress entirely is unrealistic. Uncontrolled stress ages your heart, arteries, brain, and immune system profoundly and prematurely. Without controlling stress, it is nearly impossible to control your weight. The following chapter on reducing stress can help in your quest not only to live longer but happier.

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