and thats good enough recommendation for me as he lived to 106!

See the raw garlic thread for more info.

Wallace

wallace Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and thats good enough recommendation for me as he
> lived to 106!
His Gravestone shows he lived to be 99...still
a long time. He drank a lot of Carrot Juice on a daily basis.
I'd say one should eat what 'feels' right. Garlic and Onion
don't do it for me.....WY
[img.photobucket.com]

In another thread, wallace said Walker lived a lot longer than Shelton. Shelton lived to 90, so 9 years is a significantly longer time (its roughly 10% longer). Also, Shelton's health started to decline when he was kicked in the head by a horse.

i look at food as; well if you eat red meat, beer, and no vegetables, you will probably die sooner then everyone else. But it's not liek it will come as a surprise because chances are cancer or a heart attack will tell you, along with how you feel

haha

so i guess...strive to feeel good, and as long as you feel good you will probably live long - or however long you wish to live unless yeah, you get kicked inn the heaad or something unfortunate like that.

Well, coincidentally, my latest blog article is on 'How longer do raw foodists live?', and I have included mini-biographies on both Shelton and Walker.

www.debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com

(I didn't know about Shelton's being kicked in the head by a horse though!)

Love

Debbie Took
www.rawforlife.co.uk

he got kicked in the head by a horse???

wow, what an ignominious thing

but ...well... something about that strikes me as hilarious as well

sorry for saying it

but it is true

this just struck a funny bone

and i can't stop laughing

i hope no one tells me " you obviously were never kicked in the head"

yeah, i wasn't

but if i were

i would still laugh in retrospect

through the pain

cuz that's just the kind of person that i am

there's nothing else left for me to do

but laugh

this world is crazy

Debbie

I read your blog entry and thought it was very balanced.

The only thing I would add is that my top foods

are garlic,lemons and onions in that order along with herbs.

The country with the longest longevity in Europe is crete and they eat a lot of garlic and lemons there as well as a lot of raw food in general. What raw foods they eat in crete should be taken on board by the raw food community in my opinion.

Wallace

I went to debbie's website and you seem to support eating herbs and spices which I agree with.

Garlic in particular(which is dose dependent so it depends how much you take-minimun 3 raw cloves a day but it should really be more. I take 12.) which is pointed out in a book called the Garlic cure raises you body temp which I feel is a chronic problem with people with poor health.

They feel cold all the time hence dont feel like eating much raw food.

So for people new to eating a lot of raw food in my view garlic is essential as well as being a great cancer preventive if you eat enough of it.!

Its all very well eating raw food in Hawaii its another question in Iceland!

Wallace

Dr Mercola believes taking raw garlic is much better than taking a supplement and I agree with him.

Here is the book I mentioned.

ook Review: THE GARLIC CURE
Review by Tamara Jankoski


Quote of the Month



Editor's Note
This month, we have a review on the brand new book, "The Garlic Cure", by James F. Scheer, Lynn Allison and Charlie Fox. An informative, easy-to-read book, "The Garlic Cure" is packed full of solutions for an extensive variety of health issues, including cancer, fatigue, and heart problems.

Last week, Bill Evans and I had the opportunity to have dinner with both James Scheer and Charlie Fox. Afterwards, when we dropped them at their hotel, Charlie challenged us to a race to the opposite side of the parking lot. We gullibly accepted, and promptly lost. I should admit that we were in a car while Charlie was on foot. I should also mention that Charlie is seventy-five years young. He is remarkably fast and a strong testimony to the healthy lifestyle he practices. Charlie attributes his amazing energy and health to his eating habits and, of course, his regular consumption of aged-garlic extract. Listed in "The Garlic Cure" is a long list of ailments that can be improved, or even cured, by a daily dose of garlic. It is great reading!

For your best health...

Tamara

Back to the top of the page

Book Review: THE GARLIC CURE
Authors: James F. Scheer, Lynn Allison and Charlie Fox
Review by Tamara Jankoski
It was almost 24 years ago when I first met Charlie Fox, at the place of business where my husband worked. The most unusual and humorous characteristic about him was that - even though none of us were in the nutrition business at the time - whenever Charlie was coming down with a cold, he would walk in the office reeking of garlic, chomping on cloves in hopes of rebuilding his immune system and avoiding the annoying ailment.

One day Charlie was offered a "perfect-fit" job. He was asked to be the sales manager for a new, little-known company called "Wakunaga of America", makers of Kyolic Odorless Garlic. At Last! Something that would protect all of Charlie's family, friends, and associates whenever he was feeling a bit under-the-weather. That was 22 years ago, and Charlie is still at Wakunaga, though it is no longer a little-known company. Kyolic garlic is now the most recognizable name in odorless garlic supplements.

Charlie Fox and another friend of mine, James Scheer - former editor of "Let's Live" health magazine have teamed up with Lynn Allison to write "The Garlic Cure", newly released and published by Alpha Omega Press, of Fargo, North Dakota. In the fresh, bubbly, sprinkled-with-humor writing style that I have come to recognize as James Scheer's writing, this book is an easy-read for anyone interested in discovering the healing properties of garlic.

"The Garlic Cure" reveals a multitude of benefits for an amazing variety of ailments. Backed with clinical trial references and dosage instructions, I was fascinated to read all that garlic can do.

As an example, "The Garlic Cure" contains an extensive discussion on cancer and heart disease. Also mentioned is what it does for the herpes simplex virus II and candida albican. Both natural garlic and aged, odorless garlic extract are shown by dozens of studies - many double-blind - to outwit allergies, arthritis, Alzheimer's, cancer, candida albicans, colds, flu and sore throat, toxins, fatigue, and cardiovascular complications. The list goes on.

Probably the biggest surprise to me was how garlic relieves fatigue. "The Garlic Cure" states that even "Egyptian laborers who constructed the Great Pyramid at Giza were issued a daily supply of garlic to renew their energy."

Equally impressive was how garlic is considered by the National Cancer Institute's Designer Foods Program to be the most promising food for the prevention of cancer and other devastating diseases.

Dr. John Pinto and Dr. Richard Rivlin, researchers at the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, found that, "aged-garlic slowed the progression of prostate cancer by means of its unique sulfur compound called by the unspellable name S-allylmercaptocysteine - SAMC, for short." "The Garlic Cure" notes how prostate cancer is highly prevalent in countries where large amounts of animal fat are consumed. In Thailand, where little animal fat is consumed, prostate cancer is almost non-existent.

Another topic covered pollutants and toxic substances. Garlic can help protect us against the effects of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides in our environment - including additives that are found in our processed foods. One statement in this section that I found particularly interesting was the comment on fluoride. The Garlic Cure states, "A former rat poison, called fluoride, widely used in drinking water, toothpaste and mouthwash to prevent tooth decay, fails in its main purpose (as shown by solid studies in respected publications); reduces our immune power; and makes us vulnerable to many serious diseases."

"The Garlic Cure" also discusses how heavy metals poison our bodies. One such heavy metal, aluminum (found in foods, beverages, medicines, cosmetics, antacids, antiperspirants, antidiarrhetics, and medications) is considered to be a prominent cause of Alzheimer's disease. How many other ways are we exposed to toxic metals, such as mercury, cadmium and lead? There is neither any way of knowing, nor any way to prevent it. However, by turning to foods and nutrients that detoxify, such as aged-garlic that binds heavy metals, we can limit the effects such pollutants have on our bodies.

Overall, however, what caught my attention the most was when I read that aged-garlic extract reduces homocysteine levels. Many health professionals now regard homocysteine levels as a far more serious threat to the heart and arteries than cholesterol.

Evidently, garlic is better than the proverbial "aspirin to the thin the blood" as a crucial factor in heart health. Aspirin prevents abnormal blood clotting, yet often causes the unpleasant side effect of bleeding in the stomach and elsewhere. Also, aspirin cannot cope with excessive blood fats, cholesterol, triglycerides and the ravages of homocysteine. Aged, odorless garlic can, as demonstrated by many cited studies.

Gary Gordon, MD, DO, cofounder of the American College for the Advancement in Medicine and president of Gordon Research in Payson, Arizona cites the overlooked importance of lowering homocysteine levels. In a five-year follow-up study of 14,916 doctors, there was a three-fold increase in heart attacks in those with the highest blood levels of homocysteine. Dr. Gordon states that soon it will be a common practice for doctors to pay more attention to their patients' homocysteine than to their cholesterol.

Susan Lark, MD, a prominent heart specialist, alerts us to the fact that "women with high levels of homocysteine have 24 times the risk of heart disease than those whose levels are low." Some 80 clinical studies reveal that homocysteine damages the lining of veins and arteries, stimulating the harmful growth of smooth muscle cells over injured areas. This limits or blocks critical blood flow.

Research by Dr.Y.Yeh, at Pennsylvania State University, reveals that when there is not enough folic acid in the diet - a widespread condition contributing to higher homocysteine levels - the most powerful biochemical is aged-garlic extract, which slashes blood homocysteine levels by 30 to 70 percent.

A nutrient that revs up the immune system for minimizing the risk of killer diseases, garlic also helps in fending off and treating minor but annoying ailments. With the common cold, most people - at the first sneeze - think of vitamin C, vitamin A and zinc. Not bad thinking, but it excludes another helpful nutrient: garlic. For a recurrent sore throat, natural health guru Andrew Weil, MD, recommends a modern version of grandma's cure: two diced cloves of garlic mixed with food.

A frightening problem that The Garlic Cure deals with is the increasing impotency of antibiotics against disease. Even powerful antibiotics cannot seem to control the resurgence of tuberculosis (T, an old scourge that is once again being brought to the forefront. Farm animals are regularly dosed with antibiotics, not just for infections but as growth promoters, also. Patients quite readily pop antibiotic pills to prevent the most minor of infections. These are some of the reasons that people have developed a resistance to antibiotics faster than drug companies can develop new ones.

Highly contagious, TB can be spread by a cough in an airplane, or any other pubic area where stagnant air is present. These words are intended as a wake up call, not as a scare tactic. This book tells exactly how garlic, "Russian penicillin," was used early in the 20th century for the prevention or treatment of TB, and how it can be used effectively today.

Dr. James A. Duke, one of the world's foremost authorities on medicinal plants and herbs, writes: "The Chinese use garlic to treat TB with decent results. If I feared that I had been exposed to TB, I would take at least one garlic capsule a day, and I would make sure the label said that each capsule was standardized to the equivalent of at least one gram of fresh garlic."

The list goes on for ailments that can be cured, prevented, or at least improved by garlic and aged-garlic extract. "The Garlic Cure" also reports on preliminary studies that indicate aged garlic extract may prevent Alzheimer's disease. In-depth research also shows it to be effective in coping with stomach ulcers and even sickle cell anemia! Some of the most interesting sections of "The Garlic Cure" are chapters featuring testimonial letters from people with ailments that range the total medical alphabet.

Overall, I was highly impressed with the information found in this book, and surprised at the extensive ways that garlic and aged-garlic extract can help critical ailments - not just viruses and colds. I appreciate "The Garlic Cure" referring to the solid, double-blind studies that show this herb's effectiveness in disease prevention and treatment. In addition, the book offers 139 gourmet garlic recipes created by Lynn Allison.

This post mentions Bulgarians who are centurians eat onions!

W

Onion helps colour the hair and foster hair growth

onion.jpg (18017 bytes)by Namini Wijedasa
Onion juice has the ability to increase vision and relieve ear-ache. For increased vision, mix juice with bee’s honey and apply on eye-lids. For ear-ache, put a few drops of hot onion juice on ear or cut a red onion in half and plug affected organ

Bombay onion is identified botanically as Allium cepa while red onion is called Allium rubrum. The former is known as Bukhadusana (having bad smell in the mouth and the latter as Palandu (protecting body from diseases) in Sanskrit. These are the two common varieties, though there is also another kind with a large, yellowish-white bulb.

Onions alleviate vatha and kapha but increase pitta. It is a highly nutritive, energy-giving food, as well as a good medicinal herb. It is a good appetiser, anti-flatulent, antiseptic, antipyretic, aphrodisiac, tissue-building cardiac tonic. Chewing on raw onions has proved efficacious in cases of spongy and bleeding gums, and for inflamed sore throats. It is a recommended tonic and medicine for menstrual disorders in females, and increases the amount of healthy sperm in males. Onion strengthens the heart muscles and promotes circulation within the heart, preventing and curing ischaemic conditions.

According to the Web site <www.hinduismtoday.com> both garlic and onion have been used for centuries as food and medicine. They help increase digestive secretions, promote proper fat metabolism, and aid in liver detoxification. It specifies that though they have similar action, garlic is much more potent than onion. Both help relieve abscesses, asthma, atherosclerosis, coughs, diabetes, digestive disorders, dysentery, ear-aches, haemorrhoids, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hysteria, inflammation and parasitic conditions.

Dosage: A medium sized raw onion can be chopped and eaten as a salad with lemon juice. Also, 10-30 cc of raw onion juice can be mixed with honey. This is an especially helpful remedy for asthma. Onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon twice a day, can also be taken. Meanwhile, cooked onion is particularly good for vatha people.

The site warns, however, that neither onions nor garlic should be consumed by those with gall bladder problems or kidney stones. "These foods have a contracting action and could increase the pain caused by such conditions," it explains.

According to Dr. Lakshmi Senaratne, chief scientist (Ayurveda) at the Bandaranaike Memorial Ayurveda Research Institute, onion is used externally to reduce pain, oedema, fat, boils and skin disease. The juice has the ability to increase vision and relieve ear-ache. For increased vision, mix juice with bee’s honey and apply on eye-lids. For ear-ache, put a few drops of hot onion juice on ear or cut a red onion in half and plug affected organ.

Internally, says Senaratne, onion reduces pain, increases appetite, is laxative and stimulates the liver. She cautions, however, that too much onion is not good for the brain. "It is referred to as amedhya in effect," she noted. "This means that it reduces brain capacity."

The large variety stems bleeding. Red onion is expectorant, increases urine output and sperm count. In some parts of the country, particularly in the north, a tablespoon of red onion is taken with meals to increase virility, Senaratne said. It is effective in sperm disorders and is used in cures for impotency.

So valuable is onion in Ayurveda that the late Seela Fernando has dedicated an entire chapter to the herb in her book "Herbal Food and Medicines in Sri Lanka." She observes that onion is a diuretic and vermifuge (expels worms from the body), emollient (having softening and soothing effect) and antiseptic.

Fernando says that onions have been considered a contributing factor in longevity. "The Bulgarians are known as great eaters of onions and it is believed that they have a good record as centenarians," she explains.

Onion helps colour the hair and foster hair growth. It has been recommended in old Ayurveda texts for obesity — fat people were advised to eat raw onions.

Fernando explains that onions give the best results when eaten raw because cooking partially destroys active properties contained in a highly volatile oil. "Their raw juice is an irritant, but onions should be eaten raw as often as possible, in salads or added (chopped finely) to soups and vegetables," she recommends, adding that drinking a cup of mild after rinsing the mouth well with cold water helps rid the breath of onion smell.

For general health, Fernando has two preparations: Take four medium size onions, sliced. Pour one cup of hot water, leave to macerate for two or three hours. Strain and drink two or three times a day, before meals. Secondly, grate one or two onions as finely as possible. Mix together with a spoonful of bee’s honey, and take two to three times a day. In the West, she says, the same preparation is taken with a glass of wine.

For anaemia, exhaustion, bronchial complaints, flatulence, dropsy, urinary infections, arthritis, rheumatism, diabetes and gravel retention in urine: Macerate 100 grams of finely-chopped onions in a litre of pure coconut arrack for 48 hours; press and strain through a fine cloth and drink two tablespoons in the mornings on an empty stomach for eight or ten consecutive days, preferably when the moon is on the wane or at the time of the new moon. This also lowers blood sugar levels.

Fernando continues that onions are a useful remedy for coughs and bronchitis. Cut three to six onions, put into a pint of water, boil for five to ten minutes, strain and sweeten with honey. Drink five to six times a day, three tablespoons at a time.

They can also be prepared as a cough syrup: Boil quarter pound of chopped onions in half a bottle of water for five to ten minutes, strain, add 10 tablespoons of sugar and boil gently until it is of a thick syrup consistency. Dose: two to six tablespoons a day.

Fernando prescribes eating onions baked in hot ashes and mixed with ghee or butter for hoarseness in the throat. For those inflicted with bleeding or non-bleeding haemorrhoids, eating raw onions either daily with food or chopped onions mixed with ghee or sugar is most helpful. Raw onions eaten with food also relieves constipation.

For catarrh: Prepare a decoction of red onions, pitawakka (Phyllanthus debilis), gotukola and hingurupiyali, three kalandas each. Boil in three cups of water and simmer to one. Dose is a quarter cup at a time, taken three times a day.

As an aphrodisiac: Steam a few onions, squeeze and extract the juice (half-a-cup), add two tablespoons of ghee. Drink daily on an empty stomach.

Fernando says that red onions corrects menstrual disorders. Remember to eat raw onions a few days before your period.

Eating raw red onions with your dinner induces sound sleep. Meanwhile, a crushed onion held to the nose has the same effect as smelling salts during a fainting fit.

Externally, grated raw onions applied as a poultice is a prescribed remedy for arthritic and rheumatic pains, burns and migraine. Place on the forehead for the latter ailment. In retention of urine, place poultice on lower abdomen.

To remove freckles, apply crushed onions in vinegar daily on the face. This is specially effective in fangi skin or aluhan.

For ear-ache or buzzing in the ear, heat the onion juice and put few drops in ear. This juice can also soothe an acute toothache.

Fernando says that onions baked in hot ashes or in an oven and reduced to an ointment, mixed with ghee and applied very hot on abscesses helps to bring abscesses or boils to a head more quickly and relieve the pain.

Onions for an effective antidote for bee stings and as an aid for serpent bites, she describes. Crush the onions and rub briskly on affected spot.

The Web site <www.ayurveda.com/materiamedica> of the Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that onion juice has anti-asthmatic, digestive, cardiac and antispasmodic qualities.

One home remedy for asthma: Give a solution of onion juice with one tablespoon of honey and 1/8 tablespoon of black pepper.

According to <www.holistic-online.com> onion has significant blood sugar lowering action. The principal active ingredients are believed to be allyl propyl disulphide (APDS) and diallyl disulphide oxide (allicin), although other constituents such as flavonoids may play a role as well. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that APDS lowers glucose levels by competing with insulin for insulin-inactivating sites in the liver, the site elaborates. This results in an increase of free insulin. APDS administered in doses of 125 mg/ kg to fasting humans was found to cause a marked fall in blood glucose levels and an increase in serum insulin. Allicin doses of 100 mg/kg produced a similar effect.

It also says that onion extract was found to reduce blood sugar levels during oral and intravenous glucose tolerance. The effect improved as the dosage was increased; however, beneficial effects were observed even for low levels that used in the. The effects were similar in both raw and boiled onion extracts. Onions affect the hepatic metabolism of glucose and/or increases the release of insulin, and/or prevent insulin’s destruction.

"The additional benefit of the use of garlic and onions are their beneficial cardiovascular effects," the site adds. "They are found to lower lipid levels, inhibit platelet aggregation and are anti-hypertensive. So, liberal use of onion and garlic are recommended for diabetic patients."

For high blood pressure, mix juice of onion and pure honey in equal quantity. Two spoons of this mixture once a day is an effective remedy for high blood pressure. Take for about a week. Upon noticing improvement, take for few more days as needed.

Onion juice reduces cholesterol and works as a tonic for nervous system. It cleans blood, helps digestive system, cures insomnia and regulates the heart action.

As a home remedy for boils, apply hot paste of onion. For scars (such as those left behind after chicken pox or as a result of wounds) apply juice or paste. It can also be massaged into the skin.

For haemorrhoids and passing of blood with urine, crush together red onion and kohila, extract juice and administer.

For bleeding nose, eat red onion with salads or inhale fumes of onion during bleeding. The flow stops almost instantly.

Because of its ability to expel phlegm, onion is good for cough and sinusitis.

For disurea, eat onion curry or in raw form.

garlic is dose dependent. You need to take a lot of it to have an effect or a herx.

This is from www.garlicworld.co.uk

A Dozen Cloves of Garlic a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?
The classic fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears showcases a bedrock principle of pharmacology. The beneficial effect of drugs often is dose-dependent. One dose is not enough. Another is too much. Yet another dose is just right. Shela Gorinstein and colleagues in Israel and Poland have discovered that the Goldilocks rule prevails for garlic. Past scientific studies suggest that garlic is good for the heart. Garlic lowers total cholesterol levels, for instance, and levels of LDL ("bad" cholesterol. It also makes the blood less likely to clot. In experiments with laboratory rats, Gorinstein and colleagues have shown that garlic's effects on total cholesterol are dose-dependent. Lab rats on a high-cholesterol diet got varying amounts of raw garlic each day -- ranging from 500 milligrams (mg) to 1,000 mg per kilogram of body weight. Their report is scheduled for publication in the June 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.
Only the 500 mg dosage lowered cholesterol and had a beneficial effect on blood clotting. Although the results cannot automatically be applied to humans, the dose was equivalent to about 1.25 ounces of raw garlic per day for a 150-pound person. That amounts to a mega dose of fresh garlic -- about a dozen cloves a day. Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry

Hmm...'support garlic and herbs'....actually, I have mixed feelings. I do use them in recipes sometimes, but since raw find I really don't like the taste of garlic very much, and when a recipe calls for 2-3 cloves, I usually use half (because the people I'm cooking for like it).

Right now I have a foot in all camps (am I a millipede?) - I'm studying Natural Hygiene, that says garlic (and herbs) are a no-no and some quite persuasive arguments as to why not, but have not yet got a 'position' on these (it would take a lot of persuading for me to stop using oregano, or cinnamon..yum...)

Shelton's head injury/horse behavior

[www.whmentors.org]

debbie,

You don't need to take a position. If it feels and taste good now, then enjoy the herbs and spices. And if it should ever quit feeling and tasting good, then you can avoid them. As you probably have experienced already, that on this raw diet, your tastes and preferences change over time.

On page 69 of Doug Grahams book he uses a table from John Robbins www.healthyat100.org called Healthy at 100. supporting his low fat thesis what Grahams neglects to mention is that peoples like the Hunza all ate garlic and onions. I reprint the intro from his book which comes from the above website.

A new book called Anticancer by David ..... which is getting rave reviews on Amazon uses modern scientific experiments to show that garlic is the vegetable with most cancer fighting properties followed by onion.


As Doug admits and TC fry couldnt all food is toxic but frankly to rule out sea vegetables, seasalt, herbs, and garlic and onions in the toxic world we live in is a chance I am not prepared to take. Also with a chronic illness this is doubly the case.

We need killers to help us!Introduction by John Robbins

“Every young man,” wrote Ernest Hemingway, “believes he will live forever.” And the same could be said for every young woman. But whatever our beliefs and thoughts about life, there remains an undeniable and ever-present fact: We are, each and every one of us, growing older.
This is true in every country and among every people throughout the world, but the way different cultures have responded to this reality has varied widely.

For many of us in the industrialized world today, our aging is a source of grief and anxiety. We fear aging. The elderly people we see are for the most part increasingly senile, frail, and unhappy. As a result, rather than looking forward to growing old, we dread each passing birthday. Rather than seeing our later years as a time of harvesting, growth, and maturity, we fear that the deterioration of our health will so greatly impair our lives that to live a long life might be more of a curse than a blessing.

When we think of being old, our images are often ones of decrepitude and despair. It seems more realistic to imagine ourselves languishing in nursing homes than to picture ourselves swimming, gardening, laughing with loved ones, and delighting in children and nature.

In 2005, the famed American author Hunter S. Thompson took his life. He was only sixty-seven, and had no incurable disease. He was wealthy and famous, and his thirty-two-year-old wife loved him. But according to the literary executor of Thompson’s will, “he made a conscious decision that he . . . wasn’t going to suffer the indignities of old age.”

It doesn’t help to live in a society where there is so little respect for the elderly. Television shows and movies frequently portray older people as feeble, unproductive, grumpy, and stubborn. Advertisements selling everything from alcohol to cars feature beautiful young people, giving the impression that older people are irrelevant. Colloquialisms such as “geezer,” “old fogey,” “old maid,” “dirty old man,” and “old goat” demean the elderly and perpetuate a stereotype of older people as unworthy of consideration or positive regard.

Greeting card companies routinely sell birthday cards that mock the mobility, intellect, and sex drive of the no longer young. Novelty companies sell “Over-the-Hill” products such as fiftieth-birthday coffin gift boxes containing prune juice and a “decision maker to assist in planning daily activities” (a large six-sided die, with sides labeled “nap,” “TV,” “shopping,” etc.). Gifts for a man’s sixtieth birthday include a “lifetime supply” of condoms (one), Over-the-Hill bubble bath (canned beans), and “Old Fart” party hats.

We may chuckle at such humor, but negative stereotypes about aging are insidious. They attach a social stigma to aging that can affect your will to live and even shorten your life. In a study published by the American Psychological Association, Yale School of Public Health professor Becca Levy, Ph.D., concluded that even if you are not aware of them, negative thoughts about aging that you pick up from society can undermine your health and have destructive consequences.

In the study, a large number of middle-aged people were interviewed six times over the course of twenty years and asked whether they agreed with such statements as “As you get older, you are less useful.” Remarkably, the perceptions held by people about aging proved to have more impact on how long they would live than did their blood pressure, their cholesterol level, whether they smoked, or whether they exercised. Those people who had positive perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative images of growing older.

Negative images not only lead to compromised health and shortened lives—they also are distressing in the present. Dr. Levy’s study found that people with negative perceptions of aging were more likely to consider their lives worthless, empty, and hopeless, while those with more positive perceptions of aging were more likely to view their lives as fulfilling and hopeful.

When we are disrespectful to older people and make them invisible, we attempt to ignore the aging process we are experiencing. We hide its signs and look away from the longer-term consequences of our lifestyles. As a result, we make lifestyle choices that may make sense in the short term but take a heavy toll in the end.

I asked a friend recently how he thought he might age. “I’ll probably end up in a nursing home somewhere,” he replied with some bitterness, “with a feeding tube in my nose, staring at the acoustic squares in the ceiling, incontinent, impotent, and impoverished.” Sadly, such views are not unusual. I’ve seen bumper stickers that say “Avenge Yourself: Live Long Enough to Become a Burden to Your Children.” When you distrust the aging process, it’s hard to imagine yourself enjoying your older years, doing things like dancing, jogging, or hiking. It can be difficult even to consider the possibility that you might, during every phase of your lifetime, have the capacity for growth, change, and creativity.

In the last hundred years we’ve added nearly thirty years to the average life expectancy in the industrialized world, but for many older adults the later years are not a time of happiness and well-being. A century ago, the average adult in Western nations spent only 1 percent of his or her life in a morbid or ill state, but today’s average modern adult spends more than 10 percent of his or her life sick. People are living longer today, but all too often they are dying longer, too—of chronic diseases that cause debility and cognitive impairment.

By 2025, the annual cost of managing chronic conditions in the United States will exceed a trillion dollars. Already, half of those age sixty-five and over have two or more chronic diseases, and a quarter have problems so severe as to limit their ability to perform one or more activities of daily living. Meanwhile, the average age of the chronically ill is continually getting younger. Throughout the industrialized world, people are living longer, but they are getting sick sooner, so the number of years they spend chronically ill is actually increasing in both directions.

Sometimes I think we have not so much prolonged our lives as prolonged our dying. While we have extended the human life span, we have not extended the human health span.

The Age Wave

As our older people are getting less and less well, their numbers are growing, and this process is about to shift into hyperdrive. As author Ken Dychtwald has described in his seminal book Age Power, there are at this very moment approximately eighty million baby boomers in the United States barreling toward old age. (The term “baby boomer” generally refers to people born between 1945 and 1960.)

In 1900, there were only 3 million people in the United States who were sixty-five or older. By 2000, the number had leaped to 33 million.

A century ago in the United States, the odds of living to the age of 100 were less than one in five hundred. Now the Census Bureau expects that one in twenty-six baby boomers will reach that age. Today, the likelihood that a twenty-year-old American will have a living grandmother (91 percent) is higher than the likelihood that a twenty-year-old in 1900 had a living mother (83 percent).

This advancing age wave is the most significant demographic event of our lifetime, and it is taking place in every industrialized nation in the world. About half of all people who have ever lived past the age of sixty-five are alive today.

In Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Venezuela, the percentage of elderly persons in the population is projected to double between 2000 and 2025.5 China is expected to be home to 332 million oldsters by midcentury. That’s more elderly people in a single country than inhabited the entire planet as recently as 1990.

According to the United Nation’s Population Division, roughly 10 percent of the world’s 6.4 billion people are today over sixty. By 2050, 20 percent of the planet’s 10 billion human beings will be over sixty. By then there will be nearly 2 billion people in the world sixty years of age and older. This is a number roughly equal to one-third of the entire current global human population.

This increased longevity would be a blessing if it were accompanied by increased health and wisdom, but sadly it often is not. Close to half of all Americans over the age of eighty-five have Alzheimer’s disease. The toll taken by Alzheimer’s and other chronic diseases on the old is increasing so much today that the average twenty-first-century American will likely spend more years caring for parents than for children.

By 2040, it is estimated that 5.5 million Americans—more than the entire current population of Denmark—will live in nursing homes. Another 12 million—equal to the combined populations of Israel, Singapore, and New Zealand—will require ongoing homecare services. Many will spend their final decades struggling with loneliness and depression.

Although modern medicine is eminently equipped to prolong life, it seems to be far less able to promote healthy aging. What good will it do us, asked a comedian in 2004, if at some point in the future, the human life span is extended to two hundred years, but the last hundred and fifty years are spent in unremitting pain and sadness?

An ancient Greek fable tells of Aurora, the beautiful goddess of the dawn, falling deeply in love with a human being—the warrior Tithonus. Distraught over his mortality, Aurora requests a special favor from Zeus, the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus and of the pantheon of gods who reside there. She begs Zeus to grant her lover eternal life.

Zeus, foreseeing trouble, asks her if she is certain that this is what she wants. “Yes,” she responds.

At first, Aurora is delighted that Zeus has granted her request. But then she realizes that she neglected to ask that Tithonus also remain eternally young and healthy. With each passing year, she looks on with horror as her lover grows older and sicker. His skin withers, his organs rot, his brain grows feeble. As the decades pass, Tithonus’s aging body becomes increasingly decrepit, yet he cannot die. Ultimately the once proud warrior is reduced to a wretched collection of painful, foul, and broken bones—but he continues to live forever.

More Life, More Health

It has been said that we can destroy ourselves with negativity just as effectively as with bombs. If we see only the worst in ourselves, it erodes our capacity to act. If, on the other hand, we are drawn forward by a positive vision of how we might live, we can shrug off the cynicism that has become fashionable today and build truly healthy lives.

It is extraordinarily important for us today to replace the prevailing image and reality of aging with a new vision—one in which we grasp the possibility of living all our days with exuberance and passion. There are few things of greater consequence today than for us to bring our lives into alignment with our true potential for health and our dreams for a better tomorrow.

It is a sad loss that our medical model has been so focused on illness rather than wellness. Until recently, there has been so much preoccupation with disease that little attention has been paid to the characteristics that enable people to lead long and healthy lives and to be energetic and independent in their elder years. As a result, few of us in the modern world are aware that there have been, and still are, entire cultures in which the majority of people live passionately and vibrantly to the end. Few of us realize that there are in fact societies of people who look forward to growing old, knowing they will be healthy, vital, and respected.

There are many people today who want to live in harmony with their bodies and the natural forces of life. You may be one of them. If so, it’s helpful to understand that you are not alone, and that you have elders from whom you can learn how to accomplish your goals. There are cultures whose ways have stood the test of time that can stand as teachers on the path of wellness and joy. There are whole populations of highly spirited, vigorous people who are healthy in their seventies, eighties, nineties, even healthy at a hundred. What’s more, they have a great deal in common, and their secrets have been corroborated and to a large extent explained by many of the latest findings in medical science. New research is showing that we have all the tools to live longer lives and to remain active, productive, and resourceful until the very end.

This is good and hopeful news. It offers us a much-needed paradigm of aging as a period of wisdom and vitality. Through these healthy cultures, we can and a compelling vision of how to mature with pleasure, dignity, purpose, and love. We are being shown that something precious is possible—a far brighter future in which aging is enjoyable and desirable. And we are being shown the practical steps we can take to achieve it.

Aging, of course, is not something that begins on your sixty-fifth birthday. Who you will become in your later years is shaped by all the choices you make, all the ways you care for yourself, how you manage your life, even how you think, from your earliest years, about your future. I have written Healthy at 100 because I have seen too many people grow old in agony and bitterness while others grow old with vitality and beauty, and I know it is possible to age with far more vigor, happiness, and inner peace than is the norm in the Western world today.

No one familiar with my earlier work will be surprised that I am interested in how our diets and exercise can help us to live long and healthy lives. But they may be surprised by some of my findings, including the great emphasis I am now placing on strong social connections. I have learned that the quality of the relationships we have with other people makes a tremendous difference to our physical as well as emotional health. Loneliness, I discovered in my research, can kill you faster than cigarettes. And by the same token, intimate relationships that are authentic and life-affirming can have enormous and even miraculous healing powers. In this book you will and why this is so, and gain clarity about the various essential steps you can take to extend both your life span and your health span dramatically. Reading this book will not only help you add many years to your life, but also help make those added years—and indeed all your remaining years—ones in which you experience the blossoming of your finest and wisest self.

Even if you’ve eaten poorly and have not taken very good care of yourself, even if you’ve had more than your share of hardships and pain, this book will show you how the choices you make today and tomorrow can greatly improve your prospects for the future. It will give you a chance to right any wrongs you’ve committed against your body. You’ll see how to regain the strength and passion for life that you may have thought were gone forever.

Whether you are in your twenties or your eighties or somewhere in between, whether you consider yourself superbly fit or hopelessly out of shape, I believe you’ll and in these pages what you need in order to regenerate rather than degenerate as the years unfold. This book will show you how to regain, and to retain, more mental clarity, physical strength, stamina, and joy.

I have written Healthy at 100 to offer you ways to enhance and improve both the quality and quantity of your remaining years. In this book are steps you can take to shatter stereotypes and misconceptions about aging and to rejuvenate your mind and body. Here are practices you can start today in order to live with greater health and joy no matter what your age.

In our youth-oriented culture, aging is often a source of great suffering. Older people frequently start to see themselves as collections of symptoms rather than whole human beings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It is within your grasp to realize the opportunities for beauty, love, and fulfillment that occur at every stage of your life. It is possible to live your whole life with a commitment to your highest good. I have written Healthy at 100 so that you can learn how to make each and every one of the years of your life more full of vitality and joy, and more worth living, than you may ever have imagined.




Wallace

so true dude, just look at hugh hefner

i have the same point of view in a way; i think if you want to live long, if you're happy with growing and expanding every year and you're happy with your life - you won't die at an age that's unexpected(ofcourse to do this you can't follow other peoples ideas and beliefs, but listen to yourself; that's what you were born to do after all). People sooo underestimate the power of the human brain. it is a big part of us, and there is just as much a mystery about it as there is our nutrition and physical properties.

great post (above) !

Don't know if Hugh Hefner would be a good role model to this health community. From various interviews, he's obviously a devotee of diet soft drinks---either Coke or Pepsi, can't remember which---consuming upwards of a dozen cans/bottles a day.

As to Dr. Walker, there's absolutely no evidence he was in good health at his death at 99. I did his family genealogy, and from that wrote the article on his background that appears on-line. I also requested an Arizona volunteer to take the gravestone photo that accompanies the article (& is linked at the beginning of this thread). No evidence he was a "Dr."of any sort either.

I sure like Dr. Norman W. Walker's books.

Here's a good article on Norman W. Walker. He followed
a raw diet, and was Vegan except for Raw Goats Milk. He
stressed Colon Health as the 'key' to overall Health......WY
[en.wikipedia.org]

BTW, the gravestone photo is from the old Cottonwood Cemetery in Cottonwood, AZ where Walker (& Mrs.) lived over half a decade before he died.

I was referring to hugh hefner's mind - as in, he probably doesn't look at getting old as a bad thing. I don't research what he eats and I don't care, because he seems happy and I think the brain can play a big part in that. That was the point of the post. silly silly.

Quote

I don't research what he eats

I think he eats Viagra.

Yes, he advocated raw goats dairy, as well as honey. Norman W Walker was raw vegetarian, not raw vegan, as some claim.

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