Living in hi-density urban environments is obviously good for the environment.  If we all tried to live in the woods there would be no woods left.  But are these urban environments good for us?

I’ve always felt restored and calmed by simply exposing myself to the natural environment.  In addition there have been a number of studies that link amounts and types of green space to all kinds of physical and mental health benefits.

You have to be careful when interpreting the results of studies because there could other confounding factors; see my article Common Thinking Traps – Correlation and Causation.  But I think there is enough accumulating evidence to draw a reasonable conclusion that natural environments may benefit us in some significant ways.

Here is a sampling of some of the studies.

Our brains identify and categorize natural settings almost instantly and far faster than artificial settings.  Natural settings are clearly programmed into our brains in some fashion so it shouldn’t be surprising they have some beneficial effect on us.

A Dutch study found a significant correlation between the amount of green space within a 3 km radius and the number of reported health issues.  This study was controlled for age, gender, education, income, and urbanity.

Several studies of hospital patients have shown reduced need for pain medicine and shorter recovery times for those with views of or access to natural scenes.

Study subjects were given difficult cognitive tests that required focused attention.  Half of the subjects were then sent on a walk down a busy city street.  The other half were sent on a walk in a secluded green space.  All of them returned for more testing and those who walked in the green space performed far better on subsequent testing.  They obviously were more restored by nature than those who had to navigate the city street.  However, I would be curious as to a comparison between walking in nature and simply relaxing or meditating.  In any case it is clear if you want to get the health benefit of a walk, it is far better to walk in a park than down a city street.

Workers in an office were exposed to low-level stress that increased heart rate.  The subjects were then measured on how long it took them to calm down.  Those workers who had an actual view of a natural setting through a window calmed down faster than those with a fake view (HDTV displaying natural setting) or no view at all.  Interestingly, those workers with the fake view had a higher sense of well-being than those without just a blank wall.  So evidently fake nature is better than nothing, but not as good as the real thing.

Some early experiments in using virtual reality to simulate nature seems to provide evidence that it can provide similar benefits to the real thing.

Why do we like to go to the zoo?  Why are nature shows popular (although clearly not popular enough in my view)?   Why do many people like to go camping?  If you’ve ever been to a national park on a holiday you will know that they are very popular destinations.  There is clearly something that draws us to wild animals and natural settings.

Conclusion

I find nature and natural settings extremely restorative and I head for them often when I’m feeling stressed or need a break.  I would recommend that everyone give it a try.  Of course this is just anecdotal evidence from my personal experience and doesn’t prove anything.  However a number of studies and probably many which I’m unaware of are showing that there probably is indeed real beneficial physiological effects from being exposed to natural environments (even artificially created natural environments like urban parks and green spaces).

I also suspect that the more natural the better.  Our brains are probably better tuned somehow to the patterns nature creates as opposed to overly planned landscapes.  I certainly find natural forests more restorative than a sculpted park.   However, there is evidence that viewing pictures, HDTV, and immersive virtual reality can also help.

So the bottom line seems to be to surround yourself with as much natural scenery as possible and expose yourself to natural environments as frequently as possible.  I’m not aware of studies with indoor plants but I’ll bet they make a difference too.  None of this can hurt and it might just help make you healthier and more relaxed.

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I don’t often dedicate an article to one book recommendation but I’m going to do it today, and maybe more often in the future.  I’m not going to write a book on what this book is about because there are 21 five-star reviews (including mine) that you can read on Amazon if you want more information.  The only other none five-star review was a two-star review that complained about typos and not content.  Interestingly enough I never saw a single error in my book and the author came on and challenged the reviewer to provide examples, which if course didn’t happen.

You can read the reviews and get the book here: Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

Why You Should Read This Book

Having read the entire book and parts of it more than one time, I think from end to end it is the best general book on why we aren’t eating healthy in modern diets and why even people who think they are eating healthy are probably actually killing themselves.

The book starts out explaining how our genes have been altered by what our parents and grandparents ate.  If I was thinking of having children it would frighten me and make me clean up my act big time.  There is a fascinating section on how our looks are seriously degenerated by our direct ancestors’ diets.  I’ve encountered this before and find it decently convincing but for me it’s pretty much irrelevant.  My development is over and I’m not having any more children.

For me the book shines like the stars when it gets really deep into why what most nutrition experts and the establishment recommend is flat out wrong.  It’s not just wrong but it is damaging your health.  The chapters on sugar and fat metabolism are superb and provide readily understandable descriptions of what really happens inside your body when you eat them.

If you care about your skin and your collagen then this book explains why what you are eating is probably ruining them.  The side-by-side head and neck pictures of two sixty year old men were almost by themselves worth the price of the book.  One is Dr. Dean Ornish a “non-smoking American physician and a well-intention proponent of low-fat, industrialized interpretation of the Mediterranean diet.”  The other is a Himba tribesman who “spent most of his life out in the sun eating a traditional Himba diet composed of 50 to 80 percent animal fat.”  Those pictures are worth way more than a thousand words.  Of course, by themselves they don’t prove anything, but they are a remarkable and visual example of exactly what the author is talking about.

This book was highly motivating to me and I learned from it; for example why you should cook and eat meat on the bone.  If you care about your health you should read this book even if you don’t ultimately agree with it or follow it.  It’s good to challenge your thinking regardless.

For motivation here is a quote from an entirely different book and that has nothing to do with this book or its material.  I use it because I think it is just a wonderful reason to care about what you put into your body.

For me, I have an amazing wife, four wonderful children, and a new grandson, Elias.  My grandfather was one of the most important people in my whole life.  I was named after him and he was my best friend growing up.  I know important grandparents can be.  The day Elias was born I thought about my grandfather all day long.  I want to be healthy to be able to  love Elias like my grandfather loved me.  When I really think about what’s important to me, no amount of cheeseburgers, sodas, or double-fudge chocolate chip brownies is worth the price of damaging my health and stealing the time I have with my family.

– Dr. Daniel G. Amen, M.D.  Quoted from The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to Lose Weight and Keep It Off

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Every month new studies seem to be released documenting a new benefit of Vitamin D.  It truly is the ‘it’ vitamin (it’s really a type of hormone) and for very good reasons.  You can question these studies as many do, but the evidence is mostly swinging in the direction of benefit.

Vitamin D along with Omega 3 fatty acids are almost universally recommended as supplements, even by people who don’t recommend much else because the vast majority of people simply don’t get enough.  On the controversial subject of supplementation, vitamin D simply doesn’t seem to be controversial any longer.  What does remain controversial is how much you should take.  And this matters a lot because in my opinion and that of many others, the ultra-conservative mentality of public institutions is still harming the general public by recommending amounts that are simply not sufficient for optimal benefit.

There is so much information out there that it is very difficult for the average person to know what to make of it all.  For my own benefit, I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching vitamin D and so I hope this article will help you cut through the mass of conflicting information and make a healthy decision for yourself.

Of course this is just my opinion and everyone is ultimately responsible for themselves.

Safety

Toxic effects in humans have been observed in amounts of 50,000 IU per day taken over a period of months.  To put that into perspective if you drank 10 times the amount of water that is usually recommended I think you might die.  That doesn’t make water unsafe.

The conservative Institute of Medicine (IOM) advises governments in the U.S. and Canada and is part of the same overall organization as the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in the U.S.  The IOM allows up to 4,000 IU per day as safe which is 1/12 of the observed toxic amount. They recommend far less but they clearly believe much larger amounts are safe. They probably believe even higher amounts are safe but as with all such recommendations they are erring far on the side of being conservative to avoid any possibility of blame.

They raised the safe limit to 4,000 IU from 2,500 IU in 2010 so clearly they believe the safety evidence is trending to higher amounts.  I think 4,000 IU amount is unjustifiably small.  If a light-skinned Caucasian like me spent 30 minutes in the sun wearing only a pair of shorts, his skin will produce about 10,000 IU of vitamin D.  I think it is ludicrous to believe therefore that 10,000 IU is unsafe for humans.  A long-time researcher has challenged anyone to provide evidence that 10,000 IU daily is unsafe and as far as I can tell nobody has been able to provide it.  If spending 30 minutes in the sun would create an unsafe amount of vitamin D, our natural biology is seriously screwed up.  Interestingly enough, the body degrades any further production after about 10,000 IU.  A very popular author and renowned health and brain expert, Daniel Amen, says he personally takes 10,000 IU.  Obviously he isn’t worried.  Neither am I; I take 6,000 IU daily.

Cost

Vitamin D is extraordinarily inexpensive.  My cost on Amazon is about $0.15 per day (that’s right 15 cents) and I take a 6,000 IU per day.

Benefits of Increased Vitamin D

This list probably understates the benefit of vitamin D, but it is a list for which I believe there is sufficient evidence.  The cancer benefit alone should make anyone who questions taking it think again.

• Lower overall mortality
• Significantly lower rates of many types of cancer
• Lower risk of bone disease
• Improved weight loss when combined with dieting
• Improved energy
• Slowing of Parkinson’s
• Lower risk of mental illness
• Lower risk of diabetes
• Lower risk of heart disease
• Lower risk of lung disease
• Lower risk of MS
• Lower risk of depression

It’s not dangerous, it’s cheap, and it might be more beneficial than anyone currently imagines so what are you waiting for?

How Much Should You Take?

Very few people, unless they work or play a lot outdoors without sunscreen and live at less than 37 degrees latitude (North or South) are getting the amount of sun that will provide them with optimal amounts of vitamin D.  Even when people work and play outdoors they have lathered up with sunscreen which prevents vitamin D production.  We don’t naturally get enough from diet.

So how much should you take?  That’s not an easy question to answer which is another reason why “recommended” amounts tend to be very low.  Nobody wants to over recommend.  It’s really ludicrous in my opinion.  The ideal amount is enough to raise the level of vitamin D in your blood to optimal levels.  Of course what is optimal is up to interpretation.  From what I can determine most people consider the bottom end of optimal to be either 20 ng/ml or 30 ng/ml.  I think the evidence is clear that higher levels are better but consider that I can find no evidence that anyone thinks 40 ng/ml is too high.  Many experts believe optimal levels to be above 50 ng/ml and as high as 90 ng/ml.  Most people agree 150 ng/ml is too high.

Young healthy people who spend a significant amount of time in the sun have blood levels between 20 ng/ml and 60 ng/ml.  Assuming that nature knows what it is doing with your body’s vitamin D production, you would have to assume 60 ng/ml is not too high and I can find no evidence that says it is.  So why don’t you just be conservative and try to achieve around 40 ng/ml which virtually everyone agrees is safe?  I think that is conservative but by taking the recommend amounts you will likely be way below that level.

Most people are not going to get their blood tested.  Even I haven’t had a blood test where I had an opportunity to have it measured in the last few years.  I hope to have one in the next few months but I’m taking high amounts to be safe.  Since I am convinced that even higher levels are safe I’m not going to make a special trip to the doctor.  It’s about time for me to have a middle-aged physical and I will not lower that amount unless my blood level turns out to be over 80 ng/ml; which I consider to be highly unlikely.

Given all of the evidence available I think everyone that doesn’t get frequent sun exposure year round should take an absolute minimum of 1,000 IU per day.  If you don’t, I think you are crazy.  The risk of low blood levels is simply too high.   Still to my mind 1,000 IU daily is an extremely conservative recommendation.  If I was advising a friend or family member I would recommend that without blood tests and decent sun exposure, they should take 4,000 IU daily.  If you do get decent sun exposure you can adjust that down between 4,000 IU and 1,000 IU depending upon the levels of exposure.  I would call decent at least 30 minutes daily on your hands, arms, and face if you are light-skinned and live in lower latitudes like where I do in Southern Texas (around 30 degrees North).

If you live above a latitude of 37 in the northern hemisphere or below 37 in the southern hemisphere your skin simply cannot make sufficient vitamin D except in the summer months.  That comes from Harvard Medical School, a conservative traditional medical establishment.  In the U.S. that’s basically a line north of San Francisco, Denver, and Richmond.  In Europe it’s about everyone (e.g. Madrid is 40 degrees North).

Get Tested

Few people will get tested but I think you should do so at your next opportunity when you visit a doctor.  It’s the only way to really know.  You should probably take a summer and winter test until you know how much to take to achieve your optimal blood levels.  Most experts recommend waiting a couple of months to get tested after changing your intake in order to allow your blood levels to stabilize.

The danger of low blood levels of vitamin D are MUCH greater than high levels in my opinion.  So rather than error on the low side like public officials recommend, why not error on the high side?  The way we live indoors now is not natural.  The best thing to do is get tested.  You only have your health to lose.

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If you haven’t read  Part I please do so before reading Part II.

I’m going to use health as an example to illustrate some principles I think are important in balancing short and long term thinking.  With slight changes these same principles can be applied to almost anything.

I really didn’t even begin to cover the subject.  I had to cut out other really good ideas and compress the explanations.  Such is the problem with blog articles that people will read.  I hope I pique your interest enough to give some of this a try though.

I’m going to assume throughout this article that if you could snap your fingers and ensure a long and very healthy life without any cost, you would.  If you wouldn’t then you aren’t going to agree with much of what I have to say.

The other side of that is that being healthy does incur costs and to have a good life you must balance the ideal whole-life health state with the pain it creates to achieve.  Therein lies the problem for most people.

The future is unknowable.  I am a huge proponent of living and enjoying life now and I refuse to give up life’s pleasures so I can live to be a healthy old curmudgeon.  I say this because there truly are people who take this way too far and they will look upon the rest of us as inferior beings.

On the other hand I also refuse to destroy my long term health for the sake of fleeting and momentary pleasures.  I’m going for the optimal whole-life balance and there are ways to accomplish it.

Most people have a steep discount rate.  Discount rate is an economic term but it basically means we place a much higher value on the present than the future and the farther into the future we go the faster the discount rises.  This factor alone plays heavily into most short-term / long-term balancing decisions; it heavily biases us to short-term thinking.  Our ancestors were just trying to find food and avoid being eaten; they weren’t too concerned about how functional they would be in their 9th decade of life (which very few of them would ever see).  The genes they passed on to us reflect adaptations that made them successful in getting through their prime reproductive years and anything beyond that didn’t matter much.  For some reason knowing this makes me desire long-term benefits more. 

Our natural impulses weren’t designed for the 21st century. Our natural impulses are going to drive us to be sedentary, eat too much of the wrong food, and not be concerned about our old-age.  Since those are our natural impulses and we derive pleasure from them, it is reasonable to expect that there is going to be some discomfort required to avoid them.  That discomfort is highly variable among individuals.  Some people are going to have a much easier time being fit, trim, and healthy than other people.  It’s surely not controversial to state it is much more painful for some people to be healthy than others.

So aside from personality differences, there are going to be dramatic differences in what individual people should give up to achieve greater health.  It’s a highly personal decision and yet in general I think most people for the above reasons take a view that is mistakenly too short-term.

The obvious question then is how can we reduce the pain and discomfort of going against our natural impulses in the short-term?  That’s the only way most people have a chance.  What we really want to do is make the pleasurable bad things more painful and the painful good things more pleasurable.  Here are some of my techniques.

Deep Understanding Changes the Pleasure/Pain Balance. We all know exercise is good for you and it helps your muscles, lungs, and heart.  We know being fat is bad for you and we know too many calories make you fat.  We may know carbohydrates increase insulin which stores fat.  I knew all that stuff and it made very little difference.  Over the years though my natural curiosity led me to study much more in depth how all this fits together and it has had a surprising impact.

Yes, carbohydrates still taste delicious but I know a lot of the dirty details about what they do to me and that has created an offsetting pain that I feel when I’m eating too much of them.  Yes, green leafy vegetables are still bland and have a texture that sucks, but I know a lot in-depth as to what good they are doing in my body and that has created a offsetting pleasure in eating them.  I get uncomfortable when I don’t eat them.  Unbelievable!  I hate exercise but I can almost feel the extra oxygen and the sprouting neurons in my brain (exercise has a dramatic effect on brain health) and that makes a huge difference.  The more you know the bigger the change.  What a wonderful benefit in addition to the good feeling you get from simply being informed about something important.

Short-term pleasures are often very fleeting. Food seems like one of life’s great pleasures but I think if you evaluate it objectively it is mostly a very short-lived pleasure.  I absolutely love sugary deserts, especially those made with a lot of chocolate.  But moments after the last bite is gone it’s pretty much over.  It’s hard to get a long glow from something like that.

Achievement of Goals Provide Long Lasting Pleasure.  While impulsive pleasures fade quickly, achievement does not.  You can make use of this by creating health goals – a lot of them in small increments that you can achieve and reward yourself for conquering.  More than a decade ago I lost 70 lbs. in less than a year (I got quite slim).  It was fairly painful but not excessively so.  I can still feel the pleasure from that accomplishment years later while the pain was quickly forgotten.

Anticipation is often better than the real thing and Peak end experiences matter most.  For more on the importance of the peak end experience click the link.  You can use these two factors to huge advantage in diet.  First plan guilty pleasures rather than eating them on impulse.  Say you will allow yourself a sinful desert twice a week on the same days.  This allows you to anticipate them and research has shown that anticipation is very pleasurable for most people.  Secondly you can almost totally eliminate the bad effects of sinful food by eating very little of it without loss of the experience.  The first and last bites are about all that matters.  I can anticipate that luscious chocolate fudge cake on Saturday.  When the waiter brings it I can cut off three nice size bites and have him take the rest away.  I savor the first bite and then wait a bit before eating the second bite building the anticipation.  I wait until we are ready to leave and then eat the last bite very slowly, letting it dissolve in my mouth.  This might sound ridiculous and silly but it works.  The pleasure is far greater than eating bite after bite and I get almost no ill effect from my small indulgence.

End your exercise routine with the most fun thing you can think of and it will significantly improve the overall experience of your entire workout.  It really does make a lot of difference; it’s the way your brain works.

Participation sports are very good for you and also very fun! If you can get past the inertia of sitting, summon the effort to play a sport with other people you will get incredible social benefit (which keeps your brain healthy) as well as health benefits.  This is something healthy that people enjoy if they will just DO IT!

You can get a lot of bang for small bucks.  For some of us exercise is painful but the good news is that it doesn’t have to last hours.  In fact short, intense, interval type exercise is better for you than long aerobic exercise.  There is plenty of research to back this up and I’m not going to argue it with anyone.  Dr. Sears Pace program is excellent but with some Google searches you can find all kinds of information about this kind of exercise.

I wish I could say a lot more but most of you probably quit before you got this far.  This stuff is pretty basic but most people just don’t stop to think about it.  If you spend time getting creative with these ideas you can significantly change the pleasure / pain scale of healthy living or about any other short-term / long-term problem.

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This is all my personal opinion of course, but if you are interested in what I think, here it is.

Manage Stress

Read Andrew Bernstein’s fabulous book The Myth of Stress: Where Stress Really Comes From and How to Live a Happier and Healthier Life.

Child Raising

Stop hovering and helicoptering around your children.  Give them a break.  Give them a chance to relax and participate in unstructured activities – to be kids in other words.  Giving them more unstructured free time and fewer adult-run activities and lessons will result in a more capable child and future adult.  Leave them alone if you want them to grow up to be self-reliant, resilient, and well adjusted adults.

Freedom

If you cannot spend at least several hours every day doing something for no other reason than you want to do it, then I consider that slavery.  Drop commitments like they are poison.  Avoid spending yourself into slavery (see below).  Absolutely do your own thing and not what anyone else thinks you should do, whether that anyone is society, your family, or your partner.

Spending

Avoid the Golden Handcuffs.  One of the biggest threats to your future freedom is to lock yourself into a lifestyle that forces you to stick with a job you would rather not have.  If you want an eye opening view into how little somebody can live on read John Robbins’ (of Baskin Robbins fame) book: The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less.  I wouldn’t recommend following his approach totally, but a happy medium seems very appealing to me.  Would you rather experience a free life or live in a big house and drive an expensive car so you be enslaved to the corporate world to pay for them?

Free Yourself From Manipulative Relationships

Time does not run backwards.  You do not get a do-over.  When you are lying on your deathbed, it is highly unlikely you will say “Boy I’m so glad I wasted my precious life putting up with all the drama and crap in my relationships.”  Read more…

Spend Time With Other People

Even if you tend to be introverted like me, maintaining and active social life is critical to long-term well-being.  This factor is showing up repeatedly in study after study.

Exercise

Strength training once a week for maintaining function as you age.  High intensity interval training for maximum heart and lung capacity about 20 minutes three times a week.  I highly recommend the Pace Program.  Cardio and Pulmonary maximum capacity is correlated to mortality rates and it is not gained by sustained aerobics.

Nutrition

Avoid what comes in a box.  Eat as natural food as possible with plenty of fruits and vegetables.  Critical enzymes are destroyed by heating, so eat plenty of raw food.  Limit your calories and give yourself permission to eat something sinful on occasion.

Limit Time With Doctors

A great many treatments simply don’t work and it is easy to get caught up in a prescription domino effect; take it from someone who has experienced it.  Get medical treatment for serious issues but consider non-drug, non-traditional approaches if they are available.  This is an area where balance and judgment is critical.  Just don’t overdo the doctor thing.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

The books of Richard Carlson are great.

“Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” — Robert Elliot

What do YOU think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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Imagine the same diet; the same calories, fat grams, etc.  In one group of mice, a high fat meal is consumed early in the day and a high carbohydrate meal later in the day.  In the other group of mice, the a high carbohydrate meal is consumed early in the day and a high fat meal later in the day.  Most of us tend to eat more fat later in the day at the big meals, so we are like the early-carb / late-fat mice.

But the mice with high-fat breakfasts had “significantly lower body weights and body fat composition” than their counterparts who ate high-fat dinners, according to their study published this week in the International Journal of Obesity.

Those weren’t the only differences. The mice that began the day with more carbs developed insulin resistance, a condition that increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also wound up with more insulin, leptin and triglycerides circulating in their blood, which are also associated with diabetes and heart disease. –- LA Times

So at least in mice and most likely in humans too, the timing of daily fat intake may be very important in setting your daily metabolic cycle.

I have the perfect solution for you.  In order to make sure you get fat early in the day, try Udo’s Choice Oil Blend (see below) with breakfast.  You get a boost to a good metabolic cycle and an ideal fatty acid balance. My bottle says one serving is 14 grams of fat, but it is good fat.  It says you can put it in drinks or food, but it tastes fine and I just take it straight.

Udo’s Choice Perfected (Ultimate) 3, 6, 9 Oil Blend is a certified organic blend of guaranteed GMO-free, unrefined edible oils. This unique blend delivers a reliable source of the n-3 and n-6 essential fatty acids that are essential to life. Based on 15 years of practical experience with fats and oils, this formula is a 2:1:1 ratio of n-3: n-6: n-9, a combination most therapeutic for the n-3-deficient, n-6-rich diets, as well as ‘low’ and ‘no’ fat diets, common today. The Perfected Oil Blend includes oils from fresh flax, sesame and sunflower seeds, as well as oils from evening primrose, rice germ and oat germ.

Note: I have no financial interest nor get any commission or anything else from you buying Udo’s Choice.  I just recommend it because I think it is excellent.  I find it at most vitamin stores, health-food stores, and some supermarkets.  It is widely available.

What do YOU think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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Surveys show most people do, but only a little bit longer.  75% do not wish to live to 100 and very few want to live to 120 even if that were possible.  I am among the minority who want to live as long as is possible.

I think the key is where the emphasis lies; whether it is on the word live or on the word longer.  People are concerned about quality of life in old age; things like losing their health, losing their mind, and losing their ability to live independently.  I don’t want to live like that either.  Those humans who live to a very advanced age, like the current record holder Jeanne Calmet who died in 1997 at the age of 122, don’t just live longer; they age slower.  They stay healthy, vibrant, alert, and independent into advanced ages.  Jeanne was still riding her bicycle at 100,  a good 20 years after the average woman has already died.

Researchers are beginning to understand the mechanisms of aging and this makes it very likely they will uncover ways to slow it down; anti-aging drugs for example.  At the end of this article I will list some natural substances that may affect gene expression and offer promising possibilities while research continues.

The Naked Mole Rat

The naked mole rat is an interesting creature when it comes to aging.  First of all, they are very long-lived for animals of their type and size.  But even more interesting, is that they don’t seem to show signs of aging.  They live healthy and active lives into their third decade and then often just drop dead with no obvious cause.  That is the way I want to do it. That’s the kind of aging that I think most people want, and while it is not likely we will be able to achieve it exactly, I certainly believe we can age much more gracefully than we do now.

Genes

Experts currently believe that the way we age is about 1/3 genetic and about 2/3 lifestyle.  Jeanne Calmet obviously was dealt a very good genetic hand and that is likely the case for about all people who get past 100.  About twenty years ago I told my doctor that I was concerned about my low body temperature and that maybe it was the sign of some metabolic problem.  He told me the only thing I had to worry about was a long life because low body temperature was found in many long-lived men.  I have since learned the other common biomarker is low insulin levels.

There is a known correlation between versions of the APoE gene and longevity.  Various alleles are also known to be positively or negatively correlated with heart disease and neurological disease like Alzheimer’s.  There are a set of genes called SIRT that are likely involved in aging.  Given the complexity of human disease and aging there are likely many, many genes involved.

Lifestyle

Regardless of your genetic makeup, most people can significantly impact the way they age through lifestyle choices.  Most of the major disease of aging like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and bone loss are significantly impacted by lifestyle.  Just as importantly it also appears that loss of physical and mental function are just as sensitive to lifestyle choices as disease.

In a nutshell for physical health:

• Eat a low calorie diet
• Eat natural foods rather than man-made or processed foods
• Get most of your carbohydrates from low-glycemic fruits and vegetables
• Raw is better than cooked, because cooking destroys enzymes
• Get plenty of protein but try to avoid too much grain-fed meat; grass-fed and free-range are best
• Eat nuts and berries which are loaded with phyto-nutrients and antioxidants
• Eat plenty of the good fats from small fish, olive, coconut, and canola oils, nuts, and seeds
• Restrict sodium intake
• Supplement with non-contaminated fish oils, potassium (you don’t get enough), vitamin D (if you don’t get sunshine), selenium, and a good all-around vitamin and mineral mix.  I recommend Life Extension Mix as I think it is unparalleled and is much cheaper than all the ingredients separately.
• Move, don’t sit.  The human body is made to walk and move so walk and move as much as you can.
• Strengthen your muscles as muscular atrophy is the main reason for loss of physical function as you age
• Increase your maximum heart and lung capacity by short bursts of intense activity followed by rest.  This is something like interval training but it consists of very intense intervals.  Maximum heart and lung capacity are correlated with mortality.  Constant aerobic activity does not increase maximum capacities and is less beneficial.

In a nutshell for brain health:

• Do everything listed in physical health because your brain is part of your physical body.
• It appears in the case of brain health, sustained aerobic activity increases nerve growth and reduces age-related loss of brain matter.
• All forms of exercise, including strength training, seem to protect brain health
• Be socially active.  For whatever reason, it appears that maintaining an active social life (friends and family), confers a strong protective effect on the brain function.
• Cognitive exercise unambiguously reduces the risk and amount of cognitive decline associated with aging.  Combining cognitive activities in a social setting seems particularly helpful (playing bridge with friends for example).

Calorie Restriction

If there is any universally agreed upon way to extend life-span and enjoy healthy aging, it is calorie restriction.  Calorie restriction is a semi-starvation diet that amounts to eating 30% fewer calories than you would normally eat to maintain weight.  There is recent evidence that an alternate day calorie restricted diet in which every other day you eat 50% fewer calories may also provide the same benefit.  There is a lot of research going on right now to uncover what genes or other processes are being activated in calorie restriction.  Some genes known as SIRT are prime candidates.  The goal is to come up with a way to mimic the effects of calorie restriction without having to half-starve yourself.

Anti-Aging Nutrients

Resveratrol

Resveratrol may be a miracle molecule.  It is found in grapes and peanuts.  There are indications it has anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-viral, neuro-protective, and cardio-protective effects.  It can reduce both insulin and blood glucose, which are both markers for improved health and longevity.  It seems to dramatically increase physical endurance if given in high enough doses.  It is believed to be an activator of the SIRT longevity genes.

How much humans need to trigger these effects is disputed as is almost anything new.  It may be more potent in sub-lingual form so it can be absorbed into the blood stream without being metabolized.  Twinlab vitamins has just introduced a sub-lingual version.  I am not waiting for further studies to get more evidence and judging from the shelves at vitamin shops neither are a lot of other people.  It appears to be perfectly safe in massive doses far exceeding what anyone takes.

Quercetin

Quercetin has gotten a lot less attention, but it may also be another potent activator of the SIRT genes.  There are many promising indications of various benefits in initial studies of this substance.  It is found any many plants that are good for you like tea, green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, onions, and apples.

Fisetin

Fisetin is another activator of the SIRT genes and is found in strawberries.  Some studies have shown it to be synergistic with resveratrol.

CR Mimetic Longevity Formula contains all three of these nutrients and more.

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This is Part II.  The other parts can be found here:

How to Live Longer Part I

As I described in Part I, these are from the book 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life: Everyday Techniques from the Forefront of Science Here are the next 9 simple ways to live longer (I thought the 10th was kind of stupid).  I’m supplying them right out of the book.  After part V, I’ll give you some of my own ideas.

1. Tea Party

   The polyphenols in tea do all kinds of wonderful things from reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer to boosting the immune system’s ability to fight bacteria and viruses. White, green, and black teas are all good but for a certain kind of antioxidant, white and then green are best.  Something you might not know is that your bloodstream will only carry about one cup worth of tea polyphenols and only for about one hour.  So it doesn’t do much good to just drink a cup or two in the morning.  You should drink 5 to 10 cups sipped throughout the day for maximum benefit.  Secondly you need to drink it within an hour or two of brewing or else the polyphenols disappear.

2. Stress Reduction

   That’s a shocker!  Anyway to anyone who hasn’t been living in a cave, you should already know stress kills.  You might not know it actually can kill brain cells.  The best stress reducers are social connections (good ones obviously), exercise, belly breathing, and meditation.

3. Exercise

   Another shocker.  Besides eating well (and less), exercise is the best anti-aging drug you can take.  Walking is great, but you really need to bump it up into more intense aerobic exercising for maximum benefit.  Three to five workouts a week at 30 to 60 minutes are recommended.  Strength conditioning is just as important if not more important so see the next one.

4. Lift Weights

   Actually, as you age, lifting weights may be more important than aerobic exercise.  It delivers the same basic health benefits as aerobic exercise.  But in addition, the loss of function in aging is primarily a result of muscle and bone atrophy.  That can be delayed, reversed, and almost eliminated by strength conditioning.  If you want to be active when you are old, then lift weights.  It also prompts your body to produce growth-hormone and testosterone.  These are powerful anti-aging hormones.  Even nursing home residents can start lifting weights!

5. Unclog Your Pipes

   Your artery health is critical to a long and healthy life.  They need to be elastic and free of plaque.  Best methods for keeping your pipes healthy?  Exercise and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts.  Reduce animal protein, especially grain feed beef, take fish oil supplements or eat fish like salmon, and yes consider aspirin.

6. Lower Your Blood Pressure

   Do everything listed under Unclog Your Pipes, but also make sure you stay trim and get plenty of potassium.  Potassium lowers blood pressure so reduce salt and increase potassium.  The ratio is critical – lots more potassium than salt.  Calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D are also important.  Long life is definitely correlated with low blood pressure.

7. Avoid Diabetes

   Type II diabetes will knock 12 years off your life on average and make the years you have a lot more miserable.  The single best way to avoid it?  Get thin and then stay thin.  Any movement towards thin helps.  After that aerobic and anaerobic exercise both reduce the risk.  Eat the diet listed under unclog your pipes and avoid high GI carbohydrates like they are poison – because they are.  A high-fiber diet slows glucose absorption.

8. Prevent Colon Cancer

   Early detection through colonoscopy is critical.  For all you supplement avoiders out there, listen up.  Selenium supplementation is highly correlated with reductions in colon cancer.  Folic acid supplementation may be even more important in avoiding it.  Vitamin D and calcium are also correlated with lower rates of colon cancer.  Selenium is so powerful in so many ways, you have to be crazy to not take it.  That’s my opinion anyway.  Keep your food moving through your system with plenty of fiber.

9. Prevent Prostate Cancer

   If you are a man and you live long enough you’ll get it.  Almost all 80+ men have it, but they may not know it because it grows slow.  Prostate cancer is highly correlated to lifestyle such as excessive consumption of red meat.  So reduce red meat, increase fish and/or take fish oil supplements, drink white or green tea, drink red wine, and eat soy.  Remember I said something about selenium supplements above?  Well guess what?  Selenium supplementation reduces prostate cancer 62%.  That’s selenium supplements.  Take a lycopene supplement or eat a lot of tomato paste products like pizza sauce!  Saw palmetto is a superior prostate health supplement and if you are a man over 30, then take it.  All this supplement advice is backed by a lot of research so ignore it at your own risk.

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I’ve got a fabulous little book 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life: Everyday Techniques from the Forefront of Science, and I recommend you get it and read it.  But in the meantime I know most of you won’t, so here are the first 10 simple ways to live longer.  Some of the ways the book listed these don’t make sense to me so I’m making a few modifications.  Other than that, I’m supplying them right out of the book.  After part V, I’ll give you some of my own ideas.

This is Part II.  The other parts can be found here:

How to Live Longer Part II

1. Visualize a long and healthy life

   Your non-conscious mind will then drive you to to do things that you know contribute to a long and healthy life.

2. Calorie Restriction

   This is one thing on which virtually all aging experts agree.  Calorie restriction increases life span.  Basically a 40% reduction in calories below what you need to maintain will increase your lifespan 40%.  Your body adjusts.  Calorie restriction doesn’t just increase lifespan, it gives you a vital and vibrant life.  Most people will not do this and so I suggest a 20% reduction to get some of the benefit without looking somewhat anorexic.  After I get really healthy and fit, I’m going for the 20% reduction.

3. Skip Meals

   This is a hard one for me. I’m a fan of six small meals, but the research is there. In animals, regular fasting has the same effect as calorie restriction. One recommendation is to skip breakfast, eat a light lunch, then eat a normal dinner.  Experts believe the underlying anti-aging mechanism is probably the same as calorie restriction.

4. Walking

   30 to 60 minutes of brisk walking up to 5 times a week, works wonders.  It’s the 80/20 rule of exercise.  You get much of the benefits without the hard work of rigorous exercise.  I happen to believe that intense workouts provide the maximum benefit, but I’m not there yet.  I’m past walking, but I haven’t achieved the intensity level I believe is needed to really get the most benefit.

5. Defy Stereotypes

   I think this one goes right along with visualization in number 1.  Don’t accept or act like you are getting old.  Don’t buy into stereotypes or allow others to talk about what it’s like to get old.  I’m guilty as hell on that one so I need to clean up my own act.

6. Supplement

   Even the conservative establishment has come around to supplementation – slightly.  People simply don’t get the optimal level of nutrients from their diet and the JAMA recommends daily multi-vitamin supplementation.  Most studies on vitamins have either used isolated supplements (they work synergistically) or bad supplements (vitamin E studies don’t use the right kind of vitamin E).  There is conclusive evidence and many good studies (selenium and C taken together for example).  In any case if you don’t overdo it they can’t hurt.

7. Take Aspirin

   Note: This can be dangerous for some so you might want to check with your doctor. In addition to the well known heart and stroke benefits, aspirin is becoming the super cancer prevention supplement.  For no other reason than that, you should consider it.  A 50% reduction in colon, prostate, melanoma, skin, stomach, and esophageal cancers?  A 20+% drop in breast and ovarian cancer?  I’m headed to get my baby aspirin right now!

8. Keep Your Bones Strong

   It turns out Vitamin D and exercise is more important in preventing bone loss than calcium supplementation.  Ladies take note!  Take a D3 supplement and exercise for healthy bones.

9. Social Connections

   This is a big one.  It seems that people who have strong social and family connections live longer and healthier lives.  It has also been linked strongly to having a healthy brain in old age.

10. Volunteer

    I don’t really know why this helps, but I guess it has something to do with feeling good about yourself and having less stress.  Regardless of why, it turns out to be one of the most powerful ways to ward off premature aging and death.  Volunteering is correlated with a 50% reduction in premature death.  That’s hard to believe, but that’s what the book said.  I’m a little skeptical, but I don’t doubt it has some and maybe a lot of benefit.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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This article is the fourth in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first three articles are:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress
Energize Your Success – Use The Right Fuel
Energize Your Success – Potassium

Exercise that increases your cardiovascular fitness will actually increase your body’s ability to produce energy.  Some very good studies have confirmed that moderate aerobic exercise increases the energy of otherwise sedentary people.

Aside from aerobic exercise, I believe everyone should lift weights.  Loss of function in aging is more related to loss of muscle strength than anything else.

I think there is great value in Pilates.  Strengthening your core and learning to move correctly is very important.  Other exercises that increase flexibility and range of motion like yoga are also probably very valuable.  I took a few yoga classes a few years ago and I thought it was very beneficial.  I quit doing it and regret that decision.  I intend to start up again.

Our bodies developed in an environment where we moved.  In fact we moved almost constantly.  Therefore it makes sense they we need to continue to move throughout our lives.  They are making treadmill desks now so you can actually walk slowly while working on your computer!  I have an adjustable desk that can be raised or lowered to sit or stand.

I read a lot, which is very easy to do in a recliner.  I have been doing a lot of standing and walking while reading.  I just walk around my house.  There are many ways to move more if you get creative.

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What do you think?  Leave a comment below.