To Live to a Healthy 120!

This thread is for people who want to read and discuss Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta or any other book on anti-aging!...

I have started that book, and am on page 30. I expect it will be very current on the latest info. I drink green tea, a little red wine, and have started eating dark chocolate. I am looking forward to the info on supplements because I take tons! I need to exercise more....

I like dark chocolate too! I don't eat it often and I need an excuse to do it more! I do not ever drink alcohol but there are people in my life that I love who do from time to time, like special occasions, family gatherings and nice dinners out. I take supplements too and look forward to what is written about that. I currently take all the bioenergetics and supplements suggested in The Metabolic Plan. I've seen results in the past 4 months using them. Thanks for posting! are you the same Lizzybennet from Persuasion? If yes, then I'm happy to keep the thread open!!!...

I read to about 32. Digesting some of the comments about Okinawans and their longevity. Portion size is something I settled on a long time ago and I understand the whole concept of eating everything in front of you. Been there. Still trying to unprogram myself from that. I hate the portion sizes served by restaurants. Recently, I've gotten in the habit of ordering and asking the server to take half of whatever is on the plate a pre-box it to go. Then I feel better about eating what's left.

You sound like a smart guy, and you are probably very healthy! There is not as much detail yet as The Metabloic Plan, but it's easy reading. I'm around page 42.

ANd I got past 50 this morning. So far it is as you say: Not as much detail. I am not very smart but I can learn. The jury is still out on whether I am healthy.:flare:

I stopped at 51 last night. I thought that "Hormesis Hypothesis" was something I made up! I used to imagine in school that all the stress I was under was making my body able to withstand even more stresses that might come my way. And I worried that if I was under no stress, then when something major occurrred, my body would not be able to deal with it. I think it has to do with the cortisol production going on.
Who has time for 7 servings of fruits, vegetables and grains every day??!! I eat 3 meals and NEVER snack. I just don't have time for it, and I am too busy to even think about eating between meals.

I think that most things experienced a little at a time help build up resistance to something full blown. Take immunizations for instance. That's just what it is.

I think that in "community" (as a tool for longevity), though, the little things that stress a relationship don't make it easier to handle something bigger later. Handling anything "big" takes commitment, communication, belief in another person, and desire to be one with the other person.

I'm at page 79 and haven't really gotten any meat. There is a very brief mention of DHEA on 67 with nothing really positive to say about it, Rather flat.

I find the account of James Hammond to be motivating. He's in his 90's and started sprinting the 100 meter dash in competition at the age of 86 where he posted a time of 30 seconds. With determination and later, coaching, he got his time down to 18.3 seconds,

To me, this demonstrates a couple of things. First is that with time and attention a person can improve anything they want to. The second is that aging and ability are largely controlled by what goes on in a person's head.

I thought of this as I considered stopping my workout early so that I would have a little more time at home before leaving this morning. I finished my workout....:banana:

Stretching. This is a big deal to me. In my line of work I spend time in Retirement and nursing homes and also facilities for people transitioning through the final stages of life.

I have often observed the elderly in a fitness class where they sit in a circle and engage in a variety of stretches. I've seen few who are capable of much range of motion. Sanjay suggests at the end of 4 that stretching should be half the workout. My first thought was that that is excessive but I can see the value. I've been stretching regularly and have learned to love it. I might have already written that I stretch in the sauna starting at my feet or fingers and work toward my core.

I believe stretching is a component that will help me age healthier.

The proposal that the bench press is an important excersize for health also got my attention....

The workout I do, I think, is pretty complete. The problem is finding the time to do it, and then doing the whole workout. Sometimes I just run, and sometimes I do stretching and weights. I would rather do it all every workout. My problem with running has always been "the wall." I start and stop alot because of it. I am envious of people who can run long distances without stopping. Sometimes I think it's mental and sometimes my lungs and legs are just screaming at me. I would like some advice on how to build endurance and stamina if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks!

A lot of the physical aspect of conditioning is mental. Coaches extract more from individuals than the individuals are capable of on their own in large part to the coach's ability to see more in a person than they see in themselves.

I've often pondered why, when I'm at the end of my physical endurance, I can't push myself further--coach myself, so to speak. When I test for physical fitness and run the two miles, I find myself struggling. But everytime, for the past 24 years, I tell myself that it will be over in 15 minutes. Push. Push. I tell myself that I control my body, not the other way around. Of course, this can get you in trouble as you age if you push too hard. Joints and ligaments can't handle what they could when I was 20. So I don't "Max" on weights anymore. 8-12 reps is a good goal to shoot for for most excersizes.

So, in many respects, I agree with you. It's a mental thing. But you must listen to your body too (but not to the point that it becomes a cop-out).

One technique you might try is to tell yourself that (as you reach the limit of your stamina) you will now push hard for another minute of running. The 60 seconds is a relatively short period of time and as you do this again and again your body and mind will become conditioned to that level of activity. I see this again and again. When I run a hill for the first time it seems huge. But as I do it again and again it seems shorter and more manageable.

I hope this is useful to you in your efforts to live to a healthy 120!!...

Thanks so much!!!!! I'll try it!

Chapter 8 is a perfect description of why I think it is so important to have a positive attitude. Lots of bad things happen in life to good people but "As we'll see, our mental life--how we perceive the world--can affect our body in significant and not always beneficial ways. A bleak outlook can have very real physical consequences." Read the first full paragraph on page 183 where it talks about a study of people who experienced trauma early in life, such as the loss of a parent [perhaps thru divorce]. THese people had a muted response to positive images and a heightened response to negative ones.

Otimism is not a sure-fire route to long life, but I beleive that just as a person programs themself to amplify the negative, so can they reprogram themself to amplify the positive and push the negative aside.

Quote:

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THese people had a muted response to positive images and a heightened response to negative ones.

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This sounds very interesting! I'm curious to know if either of you have gotten to the point in the book where it deals with supplements, or more of the superfoods, such as the green tea mentioned. I haven't read Sanjay's book yet but having been reading alot of what Dr Perricone recommends pertaining aging.

Hello, Gracewings!

Regarding supplements, Sanjay recommends that supplements be used just for that. To supplement during times where you know you will be difficient.

My understanding hasn't "matured" yet to the point where I agree with him. He goes on in Chapter 9, I think, to talk of the future and writes of a scientist who has been doing a life experiment on himself over the past 15 to 17 years. Starting when he was 37 he began to believe that he could live to be a 1000 years old and takes approximately 250 supplements a day. He claims that he has biologically aged 2 years over these past 15 to 17 years (the book is upstairs and I don't want to be grossly wrong here, so I'm giving myself a range!)

I think supplementation is important and I follow the guidelines in the Metabolic Plan by Steven Cherniske. My work on this is not purely random or guesswork. Before I started any supplementation I had some bloodwork done to establish a baseline so that I could observe what my body is doing. That was Dec of 06. In April I had the bloodwork redone and charted the two differences. Then I added DHEA. Steven Cherniske stated that the DHEA levels in the body will naturally increase with the use of two supplements he recommended. B6 and Chromium. At the 2nd testing in April, my DHEA had gone from 195 to 221 (which is still deficient for me). In August or Sept I will retest. NOTE: Today is Nov 8, 2007. In April after my second test I began taking 25 mg of DHEA at night and 25mg of 7-keto DHEA in the morning. My test in Sept 07 put my DHEA level at 622. The range for a male in the prime peak of life (about 25 yrs of age) is 450-600 mcg/dL. So I've now cut my DHEA in half and will test again in April.

THe best place I've seen for understanding the qualities of green tea or any other tea is Teavana.com. They are a commercial site that sells tea but they explain the qualities of each of the different kinds of tea.

Regarding the superfoods, I don't know a lot about them yet. But this is what I THINK I know: They are made up of fruits and vegetables and give you a lot of servings and nutrients that most of us are difficient in. I will eventually learn more about this but since I'm not fanatical (just urgent!) I take new knowlegde in a little at a time.