ONE HUNDRED YEARS LIFESTYLE
MORE OF US ARE LIVING LONGER, MORE WILL LIVE LONGER THAN EVER BEFORE, BUT HOW WILL THAT QUALITY OF LIVE BE?
SOME GOLDEN NUGGETS
From the book: "The 100 Year Lifestyle"
Leading Causes of Death for Females—United States, 2002
Number 1: Heart Disease
Number 2: Cancer
Number 3: Stroke
Number 4: Chronic lower respiratory diseases
Number 5: Alzheimer's disease
Number 6: Diabetes
Number 7: Unintentional injuries
Number 8: Influenza and pneumonia
Number 9: Kidney disease
Number 10: Septicemia
Leading Causes of Death for Males—United States, 2002
Number 1: Heart Disease
Number 2: Cancer
Number 3: Unintentional injuries
Number 4: Stroke
Number 5: Chronic lower respiratory diseases
Number 6: Diabetes
Number 7: Influenza:and pneumonia
Number 8: Suicide
Number 9: Kidney disease
Number 10: Chronic liver disease
Falls and drowning are also leading causes of fatal injury. Commonsense precautions include using a safety ladder, placing nonskid mats in showers and tubs, and never swimming alone. Also, many fatal injuries happen at work. So please follow all necessary precautions while on the job. Everyone says, "This cant happen to me." Use common sense. If you say to yourself, "I shouldn't be doing this," don't.
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's affects approximately one in ten people in this country over the age of 65 and about one in two over the age of 85.. However, this isn't the case everywhere. Elderly villagers in India have the lowest rates of Alzheimer's in the world and scientists are starting to suspect why. They think it's connected to their high consumption of curcumin. Curcumin is a compound found in the spice turmeric. Curcumin has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and Indians eat turmeric with most every meal. Animal studies are starting to confirm the connection. Also, older adults whose total folate intake is at or above the recommended daily guidelines can cut their risk of developing Alzheimer's by as much as 50 percent. Folate is found in liver, leafy green vegetables, broccoli, oranges, asparagus, and many other foods.
Centenarian Secret One-third of centenarians have had no significant changes in their thinking abilities. High homocysteine levels, on the other hand, may contribute to dementia or Alzheimer's. However, homocysteine levels may be reduced by taking folate with vitamins B6 and B12. You can further reduce your risk of Alzheimer's by maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system. Visit the Alzheimer's Association Web site for more information.
Stroke
Strokes can be debilitating, and they are also preventable. Over time, sufferers often develop symptoms of dementia. A small stroke can also masquerade as dementia. The guidelines for reducing your chances of a stroke are similar to those for heart disease. Work to keep your blood pressure within normal ranges. You can't control some risks, such as family history, age, and race, but you can control the leading cause—high blood pressure—as well as contributing factors such as smoking and diabetes. Follow the diet of populations around the world that tend not to have strokes. This means a low-calorie, plant-based diet that is high in unrefined carbohydrates. Additional preventive measures include:
Lower your intake of cholesterol and saturated fat.
Don't smoke. Control diabetes. Maintain a healthy weight.
Get at least 30 minutes of exercise three to five days per week.
Manage stress.
Limit alcohol consumption.
Visit the American Stroke Association Web site to learn more.
Continuous exposure to any type of toxin will force your body into a chronic stress reaction-—draining your energy over time and distracting your body from its genetic goals. As it moves into and stays in a reactive mode in an attempt to ward off the side effects of these toxins, your body can move into survival and shut down. Why not prevent this and keep yourself pure with good filtration.
MANAGE STRESS
Managing stress is a key component of the 100-Year Lifestyle. A benefit of our extended life span is the knowledge that we can survive the challenges that life throws our way.
Your body is adaptable, with remarkable capacities to heal. Empower it as much as you can through your lifestyle. Nurture and cultivate your health reserves, much like your savings account. This way, you'll be prepared to handle everything the future brings—which you can count on as being a mixture of good and bad—joyous times and challenging ones. Knowing that you have survived thus far will keep you from suffering extreme ups and downs that can increase your stress unnecessarily. Decide whether you will be the kind of person that makes a situation better or worse when you are exposed to a challenge. Having faith that you will make the most of every situation will certainly bring you through the challenging times and help you come out on top.
Think about all the events or issues that we have worried about over the first half, or first two-thirds of our life. Isn't it great to know that we have come through them all with the wisdom and confidence that we will survive and maybe even come out better from the experience? Combining this wisdom and maturity with the fully developed talents and the inner knowledge about ourselves is another aspect of the 100-Year Lifestyle that is exciting and can help us to manage stress more effectively, and the benefits are many. I'll discuss methods that can be used to achieve these benefits in the following sections.
LIVING THE 100-YEAR LIFESTYLE:
Jon Butcher, chairman of the Precious Moments Family of Companies and cof ounder of the Creating Wellness Alliance, and creator of mylifebook.com, offers this story of creating an environment to match his 100-Year Lifestyle.
"When my wife and I sat down to design our dream house, we made a conscious decision to build a home that clearly projected the values, moods, and feelings we wanted in our lives on a continuous basis. Although there were a number of key values we focused on, we defined the most important group as the "healing values" of tranquility, peacefulness, and serenity. I run a number of big businesses and life can be stressful, so we wanted to create an environment that would care for us, revive us, and allow us to recover from the day's demands. Like most people in industrialized countries, we spend 90 percent of our time indoors, so we saw a healthy building as part of our health plan—-an investment in our physical and mental well-being.
We used the following recipe to achieve our goal: First, we invited nature into our home. We focused on the sight and sound of water by building small waterfalls throughout the house, so we could see and hear flowing water from just about every room. We built planters around our waterfalls so we would be surrounded by growing, living things 365 days a year. We flooded the house with natural light by utilizing skylights, windows, and sliding glass doors. We installed a music system with speakers throughout the entire house and spent many hours compiling play lists of soft, relaxing music (there is no single factor that is more important to setting a mood than music). We welcomed health and fitness into our home with a major commitment to a gym and a small spa, and designed numerous relaxation and meditation areas that melt away stress. We chose natural materials and a neutral color palette for the entire home to assure that nothing shouts for attention—and the effect is a sedate, peaceful, and calm environment. Finally, we built in two large fireplaces for warmth and comfort—and we focused on comfortable, informal furniture throughout the home.
As a couple, our commitment to our environment has kept our relationship passionate and alive, has been instrumental to the growth of my company, and has been a catalyst for me helping to transform other people's lives."
CONNECTING WITH MULTIPLE GENERATIONS
AND CIRCLES OF PEOPLE
In my interviews with people all over the world, another key concern that people have about aging is loneliness.
NOBODY WANTS TO GET TO 100 ALONE
This chapter is about creating a rock solid support system that you can enjoy for 100 years. I call this the Surround Sound System of Support. This type of support system enhances the quality of our lives and our experiences-—-just like our home entertainment centers enhance our enjoyment of music and movies. This is extremely important for you today—and even more important for you tomorrow. Study after study has shown that strong social relationships are essential for a healthy mind and body, while also enhancing our life experience. They reduce some of the bad effects of stress, and help speed recovery from psychological and physical illness. They also support our desire for longevity. After all, nobody wants to make it to 100 alone. Relationships sustain us. The following are seven ways to bring companionship into your life:
Eat with a friend.
Go for a walk.
Go to the gym.
Go shopping.
Go to the movies.
Go on vacation.
Devote yourself to a cause.
The.Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported on a study in which several hundred volunteers were exposed to a cold virus. The study showed that the volunteers with the most socially diverse networks were the most disease resistant-—-only 35 percent of the volunteers with six or more close relationships caught the cold. But 65 percent of the volunteers with three or fewer close relationships caught it. You may have also read the recent study showing the potent, positive effect that support groups have on breast cancer patients, improving their healing ability. It's exciting news to know that good support is not only more fun, but it also makes a difference. It's exciting to know that so many factors that affect our quality of life are under our control.
Now it is time to establish the support that you'll need for life. You may be pretty adept at this. Or you may be starting out-—-or going through a transition—and need some guidance. A support system is really pretty easy to create. However, it's going to require an investment of time.
The place you begin is with yourself. As I'm sure you've heard before, this is one of the most important relationships you'll ever have. The way you treat yourself is reflected in all of your key relationships. You magnetically attract people and circumstances into your life based on the energy and effort you put into nurturing them. If you ever happen to wake up one day and realize that you've ended up in the wrong relationship—or the right relationship gone wrong-—-and it is time to make a change, the place to start is with you.
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