Posts Tagged ‘health views’

Real healthcare is an inside job. Up to now, it has been thought of as something that you look for outside yourself.

Brave Thinkers

Health has been snatched back; people are now taking charge of their own health. We have been operating in a gray area, not in black and white. The standard American care has somehow failed, and now it must be returned to its right full owners, the public.

There is a forward thinking group that is not ready to accept the status quo of our healthcare system. We have built healthcare directives based on the flimsiest of scientific studies.

Now we have powerful and passionate people that are saying that western medicine got it wrong. These brave thinkers are shaping our future.

 The Challenge

The challenge is how we manage this new information. The conundrum is that the new views are diverse. Up to now medicine has given us a false sense of security.

We accepted the dogma without much solid evidence. The medical orthodoxy will argue to protect the status quo. Here is an example in 1989, only 15% of people over the age of 65 in the U.S. and Canada had taken a flu shot. Today, more than 65% get the flu shot. Yet, mortality among the elderly has increased rather than decreased.

In 2004 vaccines production failed causing a 40% drop in available vaccines. Yet, mortality rates did not go up. Also in 1968 and 1997 the vaccine produced was different than the flu that circulated. This means that nobody was vaccinated and again mortality from all causes held constant.

How do we get away from dogmatic medical proclamations? What the misleading information has done is create panic. When this happens no one can see clearly.

Keeping it Simple

Healthy people will remain healthy. The driving force of healthcare is illness driven. Prevention is personal responsibility. With the growing awareness that health is not chaotic, it consists of smoking cessation, weight loss, activity, stress reduction, and optimism.

Now a group of forward thinking health advocates are not waiting for science to catch up. They are our ally in the quest for straightforward health information. They left in the dust all the antiquated views and made health easy to understand.

Visionaries

These are the people that are starting the hottest debates. When the right forces combine you have solutions. These people aren’t about choice of treatments; they want to reform health beyond therapy.

These are the people that will engage you and get you ready to take the next step. Doctors supposed purpose is to get you better, that’s the impression held by the majority of Americans. But this is a fanciful myth; the medical profession is there to help you manage your condition.

The doctor sees a distinct cluster of symptoms; a holistic healer sees a person out of balance and attributes the illness to this. He addresses the fact that you played a role, and will look at your lifestyle.

Wake Up Call

If ever in history there was a health care wake up call it is now. There are a variety of opinions on the best way to proceed. Americans should not get blind sided by the numerous opinions. The road to travel is the one that is the most effective for you as an individual.  

All the holistic diets that may seem diverse have one thing in common they all reduce inflammation, and build a healthy immune system. There is an endless trickle of opinions, but we will show you the ones that have the ingredients for success.

If alternative practitioners are looking for validation that nutrition is the key to both preventing and turning around disease they can now find it. The role of both telomeres and nutrition in human aging is an exciting new area of research.

If allopathic medical practitioners are saying eat what you want it doesn’t make a difference in disease, this makes them ineffective as healers.

Proof Positive                                     

A recent review of evidence and two new studies from the Unites States and Canada / France looked at nutrients from food. The conclusions support the cancer protective role of antioxidants, whilst the US study results support the role of vitamin and mineral supplements in maintaining the health of DNA (telomere length within DNA may be a marker for biological ageing).

Antioxidant vitamins and minerals are known to play various crucial roles in modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, and this appears to be a key factor in the rate at which cells age. Vitamins and minerals are what lengthen telomeres.

Elisa Bandera and a team of researchers from the Cancer Institute on New Jersey in the US, have reviewed one recently completed ‘cohort’ study (tracking the same people over time) and 12 recent ‘case-control’ studies (comparing subjects with controls, to find cause and effect relationships) to investigate the association between antioxidant vitamins C, E and beta-carotene intake from food sources, and endometrial (womb) cancer. The results found that as dietary antioxidant intake increased, endometrial cancer risk decreased.

There is a recent US study that provides the first epidemiological evidence that multivitamin use is associated with longer telomere length among women. In the study, led by Qun Xu, Ph.D. of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina, multivitamin use and nutrient intakes were assessed in a cross-sectional analysis of data from 586 participants. The researchers found that multivitamin use was associated with longer (5.1%) telomeres. This was also the case for higher intakes of vitamins C and E from food. Also, intakes of vitamins C and E were associated with telomere length among those who did not take multivitamins.

Telomeres and Aging

Chromosomes are long strands of DNA with a telomere at the end. The telomere is something like the shoelace end or a bookend. They protect chromosomes from fusing or binding with other DNA.

When a cell divides and copies the DNA, the strands of DNA get snipped in the copying process. The part that is snipped is the telomeres. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become shorter.

When telomeres get too short, parts of the DNA get damaged. Cells stop replicating when this happens. In humans, a cell replicates around 50 times before this occurs.

The cell’s telomeres determine the cell’s age. This is the frontier of anti-aging research. When the cell stops replicating it is a period of decline called “cell senescence,” which is cell aging.

What This Means

The incidence of cancer is higher in the aging population. Telomere length determines the rate of aging. Antioxidants from fruits, vegetables, along with their supply of vitamins and minerals are responsible for the cells health and age. Telemeres and nutrition are both a factor in human aging.

The length of the telomeres seems to determine how fast aging occurs. If you already have a chronic condition, than the key to turning it around will be to lengthen the telomeres through a healthy lifestyle.

Alternative practitioners understand the crucial roll of nutrition and treat with that premise. While allopathic physician’s treatment usually deplete vitamins and minerals at a time they are crucial.  

The evidence that people cured conditions by diet is very strong. While science keeps doing more and more research this is proving to be the case. Waiting for more evidence isn’t necessary because a good diet is a safe investment in your future.

Longevity is tied to a youthful appearance. People who look younger then their years have a healthy advantage. Perceived age is recognized by doctors as a general indicator of a patient’s health.

Study

Research published online in the British medical journal backs this up.

In 2001, Danish researchers conducted physical and cognitive tests on more than 1,800 pairs of twins over aged 70, as well as taking photos of their faces. Three groups of people who didn’t know the twins’ real ages guessed how old they were. The researchers then tracked how long the twins survived over 7 years.

The experts found that people who looked younger than their actual age were far more likely to survive, even after they adjusted for other factors like gender and environment. The bigger the difference in perceived age the more accurate the forecast was.

Biological Explanation

They also found a possible biological explanation: people who looked younger also tended to have longer telomeres, a key DNA component that is linked to aging. People with shorter telomeres are thought to age faster. In the Danish study, the more fresh-faced people had longer telomeres.

The telomere is the tip of the DNA, something like the tip to a shoelace. People that are over 60 that had the shortest DNA tip were three times more likely to succome to heart disease, and eight times more likely not to be able to fight off infectious diseases. People with younger and longer telomeres do better.

Shorter-than-usual telomeres also have been found in many cancers, including those of the pancreas, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney and head and neck.

Good News

Telomeres are influenced by your everyday choices. Everyone knows unhealthy choices such as smoking ages you. These choices can add anywhere from five to ten years to your appearance. Which we now know can deduct years off your life, while adding years to your looks. 

In a San Francisco study, the men who changed their diets, got regular exercised and cut their stress with meditation increased levels of enzymes that lengthened their telomeres in the immune cells.

Getting off the diet roller-coaster and achieving a consistent lower weight. Eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruit, whole grains, good protein and healthy fats from fish, nuts and avocados are associated with longer telomeres.

Inactive people have shorter telomeres than active people. Smoking two packs a day aged participants in one telomere study by 7.4 years. Telomeres, in one study, were longest in those eating the most vitamin C-rich foods — including citrus fruit, strawberries and red bell peppers, and vitamin E-rich foods such as whole grains.  Also, salmon, trout, and olive oil are healthy choices.  Researchers in Hong Kong found the longest telomeres in men who drank three cups of green tea or sometimes black tea a day.

Action

Longevity is generated by your choices. Reducing risk factors means you have to take action. Scientific validation is playing a role in understanding the favorable modifications that change age-related disease processes. Additionally, prevention brings with it a youthful appearance.  

 What This Means To You

It means a longer healthier life, where you get to look and feel good. With longevity tied to a youthful appearance, it means that looking young has a purpose. The beneficial effect is that you avoid debilitating health conditions. You are afforded the perfect opportunity to take charge of your life. The picture emerging is empowering and offers everyone the opportunity to experience better health. Telomeres are for today and tomorrow, holding a veritable treasure trove of life giving properties