Medical and scientific discoveries are leading us toward optimal healthy longevity. Know the facts. Replan your future.
For us all the implications for a full optimal healthy longevity are real.
Help the indigent. They can get free medical prescriptions from research based pharmaceutical companies through their physician.
The very long lived have always been with us. The first to be fully documented was Jeanne Calment who lived to 122.
The new science of Genomics is now a fundamental tool of public health programs and the pace of discovery is astounding. We need more scientists. Encourage the young to study chemistry, physics, mathematics, and molecular biology. Support them in application for athletic scholarships.
It's been known for decades that poor eating patterns are the leading cause of obesity and cause consequent health problems. Public attention to various kinds of 'diets' is strong and enduring. One major culprit is the rise in the consumption of sugar (sucrose) over the last century. Sensible eating habits require the removal of sugar and saturated fats and processed foods from consumption.
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'Longevity syndromes' in the human population in which individuals do not develop atherosclerosis or its consequences are known to be due to high HDL levels or low LDL levels in the individuals inheriting those genetics.
The expansion of homo sapiens since 1750 has been remarkable but trends first observed over thirty years ago on the growth rate of human populations indicate that maximum global human population will reach about 9 billion about the year 2050 and some suggest after then will begin to decline. The extent of such decline is as yet within the province of science fiction writers.
Stand up, look up, look out, see the wonder.
I invite you to become a member of The Life Extension Foundation........John Fahey
A profound result of discoveries in the field of genetics is that all people on earth today are descended from the same remote ancestors. Humankind appeared on this planet about 200,000 years ago evolving from archaic homo sapiens. However a geological catastrophe, possibly the climatic effects of thousands of years of mega-drought or the explosion of a super-volcano, almost ended the human lineage so that about 70,000 years ago human beings like ourselves comprised 2,000, or fewer, men, women and children. We are their descendents.
When such events occur in other species they are called 'population bottlenecks'. When population falls too low, and genetic diversity sparse, 'extinction events' can even occur. We survived and our ancestors increased their numbers and set out in migrations out of Africa to populate the world. We are all distant cousins descended from that ancestral population. As we developed cultural arts and technologies, probably beginning about 45,000 years ago, we diversified into the various inhabitants of the world, adapting and evolving in response to the environments we moved into. We continue to adapt and evolve within the DNA common to us all. Modern genomic analysis shows that we are all more alike than we are different despite superficial differences. We truly are all distant cousins, all descended from the original 2,000 founders of the lineage of homo sapiens. As we advance into the decades ahead it would be well to keep that in the forefront of our minds. There is work ahead. Over one billion of our fellow human beings suffer appalling privation, lacking rudimentary standards of living, lacking access to modern medicine, living lives of lowered expectations. Our hopes rest with the young, that with the tools of modern technology and the idealism of youth will tackle the immense problems of humankind, will set forth and bring care and comfort around the world.
So although homo sapiens had existed at least 130,000 years before that 'population bottleneck', the result for humans today is that we have a low genetic diversity which has made us vulnerable to diseases and disorders with a genetic basis. The growing ability to identify genes encompassed in DNA is leading to methods of finding medical approaches to correcting genetic errors, to protecting ourselves against bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and even to the ancient human dream of an extended healthy longevity.
There is, and will be for decades ahead, only one thing to slow down the momentum of discoveries being made on this frontier, and that is the shortage of young scientists heading for the laboratory benches, and organic chemistry, gateway to genetics.
The high rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other degenerative diseases indicates that our genome is not well adapted to a modern diet and lifestyle.
For those wishing to have a satisfactory healthy longevity the real determinant of our nutritional needs and exercise requirements lies in our distant ancestors from Paleolithic times and before.
Archeological, anthropological, and genome studies have shown that the 'paleolithic genome' we all inherited relied on a diet high in lean protein, vegetable matter, polyunsaturated fats (especially omega-3 fatty acids), monounsaturated fats, fiber, minerals, antioxidants and other beneficial phytochemicals.
Such a diet is described as a 'hunter-gatherer' diet.
It has long been known that a very small percentage of the population lives well beyond a century in good health. Such individuals are described in the medical literature as having 'longevity syndrome' and are known to have an unusual distribution of certain fats found in their bloodstream.
Death from cardiovascular disease or cancer is the fate of most people, falling short by decades the potential of a healthy lifespan extending beyond a century. One culprit is the accumulation of arterial 'plaque' on the walls of arteries. It has been found that plaque formation can take decades before it begins to hinder active exercise and become life threatening. It can begin between the age of 20 and 30 and yet not become a problem until decades later.
Until recent years invasive surgery for heart attack and stroke patients was the only option for those with cardiovascular disease, and still is for those who have reached that stage.
However, a revolution in thinking about heart disease is taking place. The major focus in this therapeutic approach consists of lowering low density lipoprotein (LDL, so called 'bad' cholesterol), which distributes cholesterol (made mainly by our organs), to all body tissues where it is used. It is believed that modern human diets and lifestyles have led to our organs producing excess amounts of LDL-cholesterol which is vulnerable to oxidation and is deposited as insoluble clogging plaque along the walls of arteries and other vessels of the circulation system. Hindered circulation of blood leads to high blood pressure; inflammation of plaque leads to rupture and release of contents and clot forming events, leading to heart attack, stroke, degenerative disorders and death.
The reason to use medications (statins) to help prevent this is because of a fuller understanding of how the body produces cholesterol, distributes it to the tissues, and retrieves excess amounts in a process known as 'the reverse cholesterol transport system'.
Other blood fats, triglycerides, form part of this system and can usually be readily lowered to healthy levels with adoption of healthy diets, exercise, and supplements of omega-3 fish oils.
The fat that retrieves excess cholesterol and returns it to the liver for disposal is known as high density cholesterol (HDL, so called 'good' cholesterol'). Frontier clinical trials by research pharmaceutical companies are aiming at raising HDL levels by substantial amounts in order to rebalance our LDL/HDL/triglyceride blood fats to levels in which plaque deposited on blood vessel walls goes into regression. Once such objectives are achieved it will then be possible to begin the adjustment of blood fats when young so that blood vessel clogging will never occur. Leading medical scientists are already talking about the possibility of eliminating heart attack and stroke as such research advances.
Respected medical professionals are beginning to call for CT screening of the entire adult population to identify plaque location and severity.
It is a characteristic of modern times that our inhererited DNA genome has been assaulted by sedentary ways of life and a demand for copious amounts of rich food. Many studies have shown the benefits of extension of life for animals placed on a calorie restricted, barely sufficient, diet. Episodic periods of starvation have shown the slowing of metabolism. But in being homo sapiens we are disinclined to adopt the exercise habits and struggle for sustenance experienced by our paleolithic ancestors. Consequently research is taking place on molecules that could mimic calorie restriction/starvation effects of slowed metabolism and extended healthy lifespan.
We are entering decades of discovery in which a young person living in western society today can reasonably expect to live well beyond a century in age. Let us at least hope they will take this gift of modern science and use it to reach out to our distant cousins who suffer and need their care and concern, need their work, need their endeavors, and need it soon.

Eradication of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke is in progress.
Begin with Vitamin C. Puritan's Pride is the very best source of Vitamin C in the Ester-C form which does not cause stomach irritation when taken in multi-gram quantities. Vitamin C is the prime anti-oxidant with which to begin an anti-oxidant regimen. It rapidly depletes from the bloodstream when an individual is sick.
Are you trying to lose weight and have been misled by the billion dollar industry selling pills, potions, and 'magic cures'? You are not alone. A survey backed by a commercial drug company reports that approximately 70% of American dieters have tried scientifically unproven methods to lose weight. That's an astounding number of people who have tried dietary supplements in the form of pills, herbs, and powders. About half of survey respondents incorrectly think supplements are approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, while about two-thirds believe such products must carry warning labels for side effects. People in the United States spend about $1 billion a year on herbal formulas and other supplements that have no proven effectiveness and can be dangerous. All that happens is maybe temporary loss of weight and the emptying of your pocket. Resist the temptation to believe in those seductive commercials. The only way you can lose weight and keep it off is by a commitment to a change in lifestyle. In the summer of 2007 the FDA officially approved a weight loss drug available over the counter to American consumers. This drug is called Alli and is a lower dose of the prescription drug Xenical. It is marketed with an emphasis on taking it with diet and exercise. It does have side effects and should only be a temporary crutch to those having difficulty adjusting to a lifestyle changes. Do not think it is a simple solution to obesity. It is not. As alarm grows among medical experts about statistics revealing the increasing incidence of obesity among the young, news from the Journal of Pediatrics makes it clear that the potential risk of obesity leading to heart disease is evident in data collected from pre-teens. Surely this is a clarion call to all parents to immediately take action to prevent or reverse obesity in their children and protect them from future heart disease.
I very strongly recommend that you take immediate steps to adopt lifestyle changes. The information here can guide you in the right direction but the responsibility is yours alone. Recent exciting and provocative news from analysis of coronary heart disease events in middle-aged high-risk men support a hypothesis that statins are slowing biological aging processes by preventing telomere shortening as cells divide. Adopt measures to live a healthy lifestyle because you may have many more decades ahead - see the wonder - encourage the young to migrate to science - they will forge the way ahead on the frontiers of human longevity.
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