Posts Tagged ‘aging’

A sexually active life is tied to health. The life expectancy of your sex life can be estimated by your general overall condition. This means open arteries so the blood flow can reach all your organs. This includes your reproduction system.

The amount of energy and stamina also influences your sexual escapades. If we learned that at an early age we might make some concessions to conserve that function. Health affects just about every aspect of our lives. What we have done is replaced sexual expression with habitual eating. Eating is a necessity that has gone beyond a need to a pastime. There are other activities that are also pleasurable that we neglect. We eat to live; now we live to eat. The price is high for disregarding this.

The problem is that we have lost sight of the fact that sex is dependent on our overall health.

Study     

“If you want good sex, you better get down to the gym and tuck into your fruit and veg,” says the Daily Mirror, The newspaper reports. A link has been found between sexual activity and general health. This shouldn’t surprise anyone it seems obvious.

This is based on two US surveys that looked at more than 6,000 people aged 25 to 85. It found that a satisfactory sex life is positively associated with health in middle age and later life. It also noted that between the ages of 75 to 85, 39% of men were sexually active compared to just 17% of women. That again shouldn’t be a surprise.

The study introduces a new health measure, called “sexually active life expectancy”, which denotes the average remaining years of sexually active life. From the age of 55 men could expect another 15 years of sexual activity, women another 11 years.

Is This True ?

Without a doubt health contributes to the way we function. Having diabetes is known to change sexual functioning. Any chronic condition will impact our sexual lives.

What is surprising is the way we accept this as natural. A declining sex life seems so natural as if it should occur with age. In fact when we teach sex education this isn’t a topic that is discussed. To most people it is a mysterious occurrence, which is blamed on age, hormones, and stress.

Result of the Study

The result of the study is really not going to bring about change. Our lifestyle hasn’t changed even with the knowledge that our health is dependent on our waist size.

Men and women reported in very good or excellent health were about twice as likely to be sexually active compared with similarly aged people in poor or fair health. So in today’s world the corollary damage to our sex life can be due to the lack of a holistic whole food life style. The question is what price you are willing to pay for the chance to eat a load of junk food.

Type 2 Diabetes facts are quite different from the hype. The new term is “diabesity” and it is reaching epidemic proportions. It is seen in the aging population, young adults, and youngsters. It is a combination of obesity and diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes        

“Type 2 diabetes is a lifelong disease that develops when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or when the body’s tissues become resistant to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body’s cells use sugar (glucose) for energy. It also helps the body store extra sugar in muscle, fat, and liver cells.”  This is from MSM healthline.

Type 2 diabetes isn’t a disease; it’s the cumulative effect of lifestyle. This is how the body behaves under certain circumstances. If we call diabetes a disease, which it is not, we do untold damage by trying to put a bandage on it. Medication isn’t going to reverse the condition, it covers up the symptoms.

Lifestyle Factors

Type 2 diabetes isn’t a choice. The lifestyle that leads up to the condition is a choice. This is not something that people think about in that way. However, if obesity rates keep rising there will be more cases than ever before.

Drugs have not been successful in preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes. The clinical cause of diabetes isn’t going to be anything other than lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes is not an illness. The condition starts long before the actual diagnosis.

Studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be prevented. The fact is by preventing and reversing diabetes you will stave off heart disease and cancer while protecting your brain.

Halting Diabetes

Halting diabetes isn’t as difficult as one would assume. Alternative methods work very well. Most people aren’t well informed and continue to have numerous health problems that follow this condition.

Mainstream medicine doesn’t have a clue to what this condition is, and what it takes to turn it around. All the prescriptions in the world haven’t conquered diabetes. Yet, people who changed their diet were able to not only control the condition, but reverse it.

People assume that there body is a workhorse, which goes on under any conditions. Ultimately it boils down to be the lethal effects of sucrose, and excess calories. Diabetes has become an epidemic as our diets have incorporated more fast food, processed foods, and enormous amounts of food.

The higher the glycemic the diet, the more insulin is released, this leads to inflammation. When you elevate your blood sugar, high glycemic foods promote oxygen free radical processes, Free radicals are highly reactive molecules which damage DNA, and cause inflammation.

The standard American diet is a high glycemic one, with pro-inflammatory sugars and refined carbohydrates. High glycemic diets are directly linked to most chronic conditions. The way to halt diabetes is to watch the glycemic load values of your foods. By remembering that refined foods have high values and minimally processed foods such as vegetables have low values. A whole food diet is a way to halt all chronic conditions.

Glucose

Scientists have known that diabetics have a greater incident of heart attacks, strokes, and some types of cancers. In a study released by John Hopkins University scientist, even healthy people with higher normal blood glucose levels were shown to have more cardiac events.

Excess glucose contributes to arthrosclerosis and heart disease. The point here is the people with higher normal blood glucose levels aren’t completely healthy. Our medical experts wouldn’t know healthy if they fell over it. The medical establishment uses poor guidelines to judge health.

They are disease oriented, not health generating. Studies have documented the fact that higher glucose readings put you at risk for vascular disease. Conventional medicines flawed understanding that glucose metabolism affects the whole body.

Inflammation the Real Problem

Diabetes isn’t just a disease with one dimension it is an inflammation marker. There is research that points to inflammation as a cause of diabetes. It is now thought in some scientific circles that low-grade tissue inflammation related to obesity contributes to insulin resistance, the major cause to type 2 diabetes.

Increased body fat that is associated with obesity is not the direct cause. Obesity can cause inflammation and inflammation can cause obesity. Now if we view diabetes this way we realize we need a holistic healing model to follow.

People who are obese, many times suffer from chronic inflammation and are resistant to insulin, the hormone that removes sugar from the blood and stores it as energy. An interesting point is that rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disease, heightens the risk of developing insulin resistance.

So if inflammation is the cause of diabetes, this disease has to be looked at as a whole body disease. Now that changes the dynamics and the treatment plan.

Taking care of glucose levels with medication is a bandage at most, and at worst it can lead to a further decline in health. That is why people on a whole host of medications wind up with the lethal effects of diabetes anyway.

Inflammation is a major reason why people with diabetes get heart, kidney, eye disease, and cancer. Treat the inflammation with low inflammatory foods and watch the improvement.

Can Medication interfere with your cognitive abilities?  

It has been proven that medication causes cognitive impairment. Drugs taken for common medical conditions such as insomnia, allergies, or incontinence negatively affect the brain, and causes long term cognitive impairment. These drugs, called anticholinergics, block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, and are widely-used medications. They are sold over the counter. The offending drugs are Benadryl®. Dramamine®, Excedrin PM®k Nytol ®, Sominex®, Tylenol PM®, and Unisom®, there are others that are available by prescription.

Findings

This isn’t another bombshell; it is just another finding than adds to the pile of profit generating prescriptions that have terrible side effects.

Aging Expert Speaks out:

“Simply put, we have confirmed that anticholinergics, something as seemingly benign as a medication for inability to get a good night’s sleep or for motion sickness, can cause or worsen cognitive impairment, specifically long-term mild cognitive impairment which involves gradual memory loss. As a geriatrician I tell my Wishard Healthy Aging Brain Center patients not to take these drugs and I encourage all older adults to talk with their physicians about each and every one of the medications they take,” said Malaz Boustani, M.D., IU School of Medicine associate professor of medicine, Regenstrief Institute investigator and IU Center for Aging Research center scientist.

Seniors

Senior citizens are especially vulnerable to the side effects of anticholinergic medication. These medications cause acute confusion, poor attention, disorientation, and short-term memory problems. Any medicine that has a sedating effect can impair memory.

Many of the drugs typically taken by people over 50 can cause subtle thinking problems by themselves, but when several are taken at once, significant Alzheimer’s-like problems can appear. These problems may include memory loss, absentmindedness, confusion, disorientation, and emotional outbursts.

Pharmaceuticals

The customer-centric focus of pharmaceutical companies centers around consumer spending not health. The drug industry is not looking for a safe or environmental friendly dynamic advancement in medicine, they want to maintain value for their portfolio.

The mass appeal is to the millions of people who need it now, and want instant help. The consumer preference for quick fixes is what gives continuing relevance to this brand of medicine.

Marketing Matters

The major pharmaceutical houses know how to create sustainable campaigns. The audience for most products they produce is huge, and full of opportunities. Each chronic condition represents areas of untapped growth for the company.

A thinking consumer is the drug companies biggest fear.