aging-management.com - Optimising Health for Longevity

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What you can do to stay happy and healthy as long as possible

Updated on 31st October 2008 by Dr Charles Tweed and Alistair Tweed.

“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late” [Benjamin Franklin]

Now that we have examined the lifestyle choices that you must avoid to prevent premature aging and a diminished quality of life, let's look at the lifestyle factors and age management approaches we can employ to extend your life and maintain optimal health. To summarise, these are the adoption of a premium quality nutritional regime, exercise and strategies for staying happy.

The importance of the role of nutrition in health and aging cannot be understated. Only a few hundred years ago, human life expectancy was thirty five years. With the advent of modern medicine and an adequate quantity of high quality food becoming available all year round, life expectancy has risen dramatically. At aging-management.com, we believe that both medicine and nutrition have not 'arrived'. Both still have many significant contributions to make in optimising health and extending life span even further.

Furthermore, we believe that it is difficult for most people to derive even their minimum nutritional requirements from food alone on a daily basis. It is almost impossible to achieve the levels of nutrients necessary for optimal health.

Therefore, the only way that you stand a chance of filling all your daily nutritional requirements for optimum health and to prevent premature aging, is to eat the best diet you can and also supplement with the best quality anti-aging supplements available. We believe that nutrition and supplementation are inseparable and all part of the same process.

Eat well and avoid excess.

"I can resist anything but temptation." [Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)]

This subject probably raises more discussion than any other. Look at the number of diet books that come out every year, there is always at least one in the bestselling charts. Even the food pyramids put out by governmental organisations are changing. To get bogged down in the minutiae is to miss the main point: don’t eat too much, and don’t eat junk. Obesity and being overweight are reaching epidemic proportions and attracting increasing amounts of press and official attention. The health costs to the nation in twenty years time are going to a very real challenge for society to meet. Part of the problem is the sedentary lifestyle people have, but a lot is to do with diet: people eat rubbish. Diets in themselves almost never achieve a long-term reduction in weight. It is generally pointless to go on them. You need to adopt a complete change in the way you buy and prepare food. At aging-management.com we advocate a diet that is high in fresh fruit and vegetables, includes good quantities of nuts, pulses, good oils and fish, and less red meats and high fat dairy products. Try to include as many naturally occurring anti-oxidants in your diet as possible and source your produce from growers that keep pesticides, hormones and chemicals to an absolute minimum. Junk food is a killer. This refers not only to fastfood outlets but also to ready-made meals in the supermarket. They contain high levels of hydrogenated vegetable oils, salt, sugar, animal (saturated) fats and a cocktail of chemicals to give them a longer shelf-life. Lastly, too much of any one thing is never good for you. Just because some is good does not mean more is better: the difference between a drug and a poison is only a matter of dose.

For a more complete discussion of diet, refer to our diet page.

Supplementation.

It is becoming increasingly clear that aging is linked to a variety of different processes, and that these processes can be modified to maintain optimum health. Most of these goals can be achieved with a well-structured exercise regime, healthy eating and avoiding poor food options. However, although this is achievable, the reality is most of us are not angels and will not manage all aspects perfectly. In our busy lives today, it is all too easy to not prioritise one's diet and health and become run down. This leaves us open to damage from everyday environmental insults and put us at risk of age related disease and premature aging. However, aging-management.com provides you with access to comprehensive and balanced supplement regimes designed to promote and maintain optimum levels of health and combat aging. Implementing a well structured supplement regime helps fill those nutritional gaps and promotes and supports the smooth running of your metabolic machinery.

For a more in depth discussion of supplementation, refer to our supplements page.

Excercise and keeping active.

Exercise is of huge benefit. That you do it at all is more important than what you do, but properly designed exercise regimes will produce better results, and decrease the risk of injury. There are four types of exercises to consider: endurance (aerobic), strength (anaerobic or resistance), flexibility and balance. There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that all play a crucial role in good health. Some of the benefits are:

Keeping weight and body fat down decreases the risk of type II diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure among many other disease processes.
Exercise produces “heat-shock proteins” that assist in cellular repair decreasing the risks of cancers and most disease processes.
Maintaining muscle mass improves strength and stops you becoming inactive as you age – one of the reasons people rapidly decline as they age. This also improves quality of life enormously.
One of the major causes of pain and suffering is falls in the elderly. The causes are often multi-factorial but having a good sense of balance and adequate flexibility will help prevent them. Good strength and bone density will decrease the risk of significant injury.
Excercise maintains bone strength, something that is very hard to get back once it has gone.
Exercise releases endorphins, which makes you feel great!
You look better on the beach.

We strongly recommend a structured exercise regime overseen by a professional. If this is outside of your budget, then do at least 20 minutes of vigorous walking/biking/running three times per week and some strength exercises with weights a couple of times per week. On top of this, sensible stretching and flexibility exercises can be combined with regimes to sharpen your sense of balance. Yoga and Pilates are especially effective for this.

For a more on the benefits of excercise, refer to our exercise page.

Stress avoidance/management and happiness.

What is stress? Well, it depends who you ask. For most people it means psychological stress, for doctors it means a physiological insult that produces changes in the normal running of the body. We use it here to cover both aspects because they often overlap. Any chronic illness or condition will stress the body’s normal coping mechanisms and produce an inflammatory response. Longstanding inflammation is not good for the body and upsets the fine balance of hormones, mediators and the immune system. In a similar way, longstanding psychological stress states release a cascade of hormones and mediators that produces a chronic “stress response”. It is normal and indeed healthy to have daily challenges and deadlines to meet. People who work longer seem to live longer, but it is not healthy to be in a permanent state of emotional turmoil. Continuous anger and frustration, feelings of being unable to cope, and anxiety or depression are all associated with poor health and a loss of quality of life. Life is too important to spend years doing things you don’t like or that aren’t good for your psychological health. If you have problems with anxiety and depression then seek help and counselling. There are numerous ways of dealing with this.

Diet, nutrition and supplementation.
Exercise.
Developing a network of social supports.
Meditation.
Dark chocolate. (Now how many doctors recommend chocolate?).
Laughter.

For more information, see our happiness page.

We believe in this process wholeheartedly, and strongly recommend it to you.

Good luck!

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." [Theodore Roosevelt]