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FRIENDS THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK, "THINK AND GROW FIT". IF YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED, IT'S 194 PP OF FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH MATERIAL DESIGNED TO GET YOU YOUNG AND KEEP YOU THERE. HOPE YOU'LL TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND BE GOOD ENOUGH TO WRITE OR CALL, POST ON MY BLOG AND JUST DE-AGE LIKE THE COUNTRY WILL SOON START DOING.
Chapter 3
Is Turning Back the Clock Politically Incorrect?
No adult really wants to get older. Some may, if they think that clout comes with years, yet most dream of being younger or staying at the age we are at forever. That, with all of the wonders of modern science, just might really be possible. Of course, the younger we are, the more desirable this is.
Stopping the clock nowadays seems to be do-able; turning it back....well...... maybe by next year, who knows? It is best to work with what seems real. So, stop the clock and do it now…the earlier the better. This is where most of us are at, largely because of what's been done to arrest cancer, to slow down its progression.
Slowing down a dread disease like cancer is supposed to give you a few more good years. Of course, they may not be as good as they were before, but they will be better than the regression that maybe mom and dad experienced. Yet, that is what is supposed to happen when (not if) you get to the nursing home. This is where you go to die, which means losing all of your faculties one by one including your mind. Putting that whole sad inevitability off for ten years or so is what makes the nausea of chemo worth it.
Today, most people believe that you can slow down degeneration. In other words, you can get cancer with its death sentence, but know that with enough radiation and therapy, you can pretty much stop the whole deterioration process and resume a normal life, for a while longer at least. Sometimes you even get cured! Therefore, the same should probably go for staying 45 a whole lot longer, if only one did the right things before the cancer. That’s generally how the hopeful thinking goes.
But to have this occur, how does one stop the clock during middle age? Clearly, it's not with drugs, the same as you might for a cancer diagnosis in your later sixties. Instead, it's with lifestyle changes. Then, you get on a low-fat/carb diet along with a mandatory daily exercise routine fortified with some mega multi-vitamins and herbs. Everybody knows that will work, don't they?
“Well.... maybe everyone does, but it's pretty risky actually pulling this off,” thus sayith the “Normal Majority.” But, maybe not everyone is even a little bit sure. We know that there are an awful lot of folks who still say: “I didn't know that diet exercise and supplements really do their thing.” So, quite a bit of skepticism is always to be expected when it comes to working out, dieting, and taking supplements. The same goes for a skepticism about being in touch with yourself which makes you rely heavily on your doctor.
It's only natural today, it seems, before listening to anything we have to say, to first see if you're healthy enough to live healthily. So, it's only prudent to make that doctor appointment. That's the prevalent thinking, at least. Thus, you will go to him or her, and there's no two ways about it. We know. So, hurry up and get it over with. Nothing good will happen with you until you start doing something consistently with the same regularity as you brush your teeth; and you won't do anything until you get your good-to-go stamp. So, do what you must and have your doctor's receptionist get you on the calendar.
All we ask is that you think about how to ask the right questions before you get there. Here are a couple of suggestions:
v Dr (who presumably doesn't have a first name), is it okay if I do some preventative healthy living so that I don’t look the way my parents did when they got close to the end of their days?
v I was thinking about outdoing Jack LaLanne by the time I get to be 95, and was wondering if there was anything that you knew about me that might make this too dangerous.
Either of these may raise an eyebrow, but they most likely will get a helpful suggestion other than ‘better be careful at your age.’ They will also get you a permission slip to start acting in a health conscious manner, which is what you really wanted, isn't it?
How do we know about your MD? Because an increasing number of doctors are starting to care about preventative health, knowing that this goes hand in hand with diet, supplementation, and working out. That's common knowledge. They also know that their drug- based cures work better on those who are biologically younger (or not as worn out yet), meaning more healthy. So, if you do catch or get something, s/he has a far better chance of curing you. Besides, most every major ill nowadays is somehow linked to too much weight and this is most easily corrected by a regular training program.
In short, the MDs are to some degree on our side, and they ultimately care about you. That means, in spite of what the cynics think, they really do want more than to perform needless operations to pay for their summer house, or to get perky kick-backs from the drug companies. In other words, they are MDs in the end, i.e., they are doctors, who are truly doctors.
When we started the first health club back in the sixteenth century, things were not much different than they are today. Everybody back then wanted to live forever. Everybody also knew that that just couldn’t happen. They were all as smart as you in that regard. Just as your grade school teacher said: “People start to die the moment after they’re born.” They all believed the same. But, that progressing deterioration further translated into getting hopelessly worse-looking by the year, starting with your 30th birthday. That was believed to be no more than realistic. Only a child or “Health Nut” would expect otherwise. Accepting this without complaining was, as it still is, the essence of adulthood. It gets you a card-carrying membership in the “Normal Majority” association.
We, of course, have trouble with this dignified compliance (gracefully aging), and have been complaining about it for 500 years. Now there are others who are studying arduously to find ways of turning back the clock. So, we are all about keeping the dream of a fit forever USA alive. Hopefully, you’ll become part of our quest, using your head about health matters, instead of investing any more of your life in always agreeing with the “Normal Majority.”
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