Dr. Maher’s “ Five Steps to the 100 Year Health Span”, Part I of III

How to Die Young…at a Ripe Old Age!

Nowadays, we can all greatly increase our likelihood of enjoying 100 or more fully functional, vibrant and robust years of health. But just like increasing our chances of a robust and healthy bank account in our “golden years”, investing in our health takes proper planning, diversification, and sound strategies.

And of course, the sooner you start the better!

Therefore, I proffer the following “Five Steps to the 100 Year Health Span”.

Before we start, I wish to underscore that I use the term “health span” to indicate that we are not talking about merely continuing to breath, (perhaps w/ the assistance of oxygen canisters) as we begin slow decades of decline into a more or less vegetative state in a nursing home, bereft of mind, memory and mobility and/or blind, crippled, hunched over and dependant. No, the goal here, to quote a famous anti-aging doctor, is to “die young…at a ripe old age!”

The Five Steps

Step 1> Cultivate and inculcate “Ha-Ha-Hah!”; healthy attitudes, healthy activities and healthy alimentary habits!

Step 2 > Keeping moderation in mind, endeavor to minimize exposure to oxidants and toxicants, while optimizing antioxidant and detoxicant intake.

Step 3 > Endeavor to keep the “Hormones of Age”, insulin and cortisol, under control.

Step 4 > Endeavor to maintain the “ Hormones of Youth” at optimum levels. These include human growth hormone, melatonin, thymosins, thyroid (and perhaps parathyroid) hormone, and the steroid hormones pregnenolone, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone and the estrogens.

Step 5 > Reviewing as best you can your historical lifestyle and genetic risk factors, “shore up” your likely weak points with a specific strategy. For example, do lifetime habits and exposures and/or genetic tendency strongly predilect you to heart disease, diabetes, dementia, or cancer? Have they perhaps already shown themselves to one extant or the other? Than take preventative action specific to said threat in addition to the four steps above.

These steps might be visualized as steps along a pyramid. By this I means that each step is best built upon the foundation of the previous more basic and foundational step. The best way to build your own “pyramid of health” is to build the foundation first, and then proceed one step at a time, in order.

Step One: Ha-Ha-Hah!

“The more you cover the basics, the less you need of anything else.”

The above quote of Rick Armstrong, heavyweight kickboxing champion, was oft repeated to his students. It is just a applicable here.

Ha-ha-hah! Stands for healthy attitude, healthy activity and healthy alimentary habits! The later means those things we habitually put into our mouths. (The former two oft relate to what comes out of them!)

The primacy of healthy attitude is perhaps best argues by Lynn Peters Adler, J.D, author of "Centenarians: The Bonus Years".

“I have found after interviewing thousands of centenarians and their families and in my 14 years of working with centenarians in public and private celebrations, media events, travel and leisure that centenarians who are successful in active, engaged living at 100 years have the following five traits, attitudes, behaviors or as some would say, personalities:

A love of life A positive, yet realistic attitude The courage & willingness to use modern medical interventions when needed A spiritual or religious belief And a remarkable ability to renegotiate life at every turn adjusting to and accepting the inevitable losses that come with longevity."

Healthy activity encompasses not only physical activity, but mental activity (left and right brain), social activity and spiritual activity.

Physical activities should be varied and promote strength, flexibility, endurance and balance.

Mental activities should include the new, different and challenging. These may range from a new avocation, taking a new class, taking up chess and crossword puzzles, and staying active in those fields about which you are still passionate, to writing/playing music, engaging in works of art, or writing prose or poetry.

Social activity is always essential to robust health, particularly as you begin to outlive your family and friends. We must commit ourselves to constantly building and re-building close meaningful relationships.

Spiritual activities refers to any activity that gets us in touch with what we feel as our deepest selves. No matter how hard we try, as we age our ability to engage in physical activities diminish. For is not the “gold” of the golden years in the enjoyment of the fruits of wisdom and awareness that comes from a life of reflection, a life based on sound values, and of knowing for oneself what really matters?

Healthy alimentary habits refers to what we eat and drink, the alimentary canal being that tube that begins at our lips and ends at our anuses. Whether it be a Seven Day Adventist, Mediterranean or Okinawan diet, the core essentials are more or less the same; eating smaller, frequent, and varied minimally processed of mostly plant based meals. And lots of pure fresh water!

It is of interest to note that the latest “diet” of interest is the Okinawan diet. The Okinawan islands have the highest proportion of centenarians in the world - 33.6 per 100,000 people. A low-calorie diet abundant in soy, vegetables and fish is being credited for the fact. But also note that a study of 600 Okinawan residents who are 100 years old or older found that they share the same lifestyle factors - regular exercise, moderate alcohol intake, strong belief systems and social networks.

It has been said that “laughter is the best medicine”. So let me encourage you to take the first step and start, “ha-ha-hah-ing” your way to a 100 year health- span today!

End Part I of III

Come and grow younger with us!

Vitally yours, Dr. John H. Maher, ABAAHP Editor, "Longevity News" subscribe@rxforwellness.com www.RxforWellness.com "Your FREE AntiAging Prescription Online!"