How To Slow Down The Speed of Aging
November 17, 2008
Here’s my 74th Canyon Ranch Health Tip:
at your next physical, ask for a CRP test.
This stands for
C-reactive protein.
A CRP test measures the degree of INVISIBLE inflammation in your body, long before inflammation shows up on the more traditional tests that screen for things like cholesterol.
In bodily terms, think of inflammation as an insidious, smoldering fire that can secretly build up and run amok in your body, causing or worsening the start of most age-related diseases like heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. Let’s not forget arthritis, which begins with inflammation in the body, mainly the joints. Inflammation is also a culprit in autoimmune diseases like allergies and digestive disorders.
Any doctor will say that these diseases age us.
What they don’t usually tell us is that we can have control whether we get these diseases and therefore, how quickly we age. Our key to aging slower is to control our inflammation and therefore keep our immune system in balance.
Smart new science has shown that all age related diseases start with an overactive immune system.
So if you keep your immune system in balance you can age more slowly and avoid cancer, heart attack, diabetes and Alzheimer’s because studies have linked these age-related diseases with an overactive immune system.
You cannot die of cancer if it cannot make it past your immune system. You will not have a heart attack if the plague does not build up on your arterial walls. Arthritis will not cripple you if your immune system does not directly assault your joints.
Yes, genetics and family history play a small role but your lifestyle is much more predictive of aging better so the good news is that HOW QUICKLY WE AGE IS LARGELY WITHIN OUR CONTROL!
Maybe you are content with the speed of your aging. I don’t know, maybe you wake up feeling younger as you get older(!!) but if you are like me and would like to put the brakes on (or even reverse) the aging process there are things you can do to stay younger for longer.
One thing is to floss. Plague that builds up in your mouth can travel directly into you gut and contribute to inflammation which is directly correlated with plaque (get it? Tooth plaque/heart plaque?)build up in the arteries. People that have heart attacks more often than not have never flossed!
Another tool is exercise. Have you broken a sweat in the last 2 days? This helps keep your immune system in balance in a way that keeps you feeling young.
But the biggest key on your anti-aging keychain is diet and nutrition. Have you ever heard of NCR?
NCR stands for Nutrient-To-Calorie Ratio and refers to making sure that food is as high in nutrients and as low in calories as possible so that you get food that is as chock full of usuable energy with the least amount of calories as possible. So a McDonald’s Milkshake would have low NCR because it is high in calories and low in nutritional value, same with most candy and junk food.
Some examples of eating high NCR foods are eating a piece of whole fruit instead of drinking fruit-flavored beverages, eating green vegetables instead of potatoes, and snacking on nuts instead of chips.
But the grand daddy of all NCRs is (you knew I was getting to this) Acai juice. Two swallows of this fruit juice (which actually tastes good) has the antioxidant equivalent of 13-14 servings of fruits and veggies, plus heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and esterified fats as well as plant steryls. Plus it only has 30 calories per ounce. Talk about triple-coupons!
Now, fruits and vegetables are wonderful but I don’t think I could eat 14 servings in one day and it’s impossible to get that nutritive value in that small of a serving. This means the Acai juice NCR is off the charts as far as bang for your anti-aging buck.
That is why Oprah featured it on her show as the number one new superfood and why I felt a big improvement in my energy level and exercise performance and why I keep beating the Brazilian Rain Forest Drum of MonaVie.
There is tremendous value (and it will be improvements that you will actually be able to feel in your body in a week or two)in adding these small changes to help you slow down or even halt the speed of your own body’s aging process and
to decrease your chances of ever having to deal with the C–word.
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Thanks for your informative articles! I’m totally on board with everything you say about how important it is to keep inflammation in check- for a myriad of reasons. Keeping our immune systems strong (at any age!) is critical. I drink acai and blueberry jiuce every day – spiked with Omega 3 oils.
Have you heard about EpiCor? It’s a yeast based substance that’s been shown to boost the immune system and protect us from colds, flus and other nasty viral and bacterial infections. I do NOT benefit in any way from its sale or promotion – I just want others to know about it. google it.
Maggie Rose Crane – author of Amazing Grays – A Woman’s Guide to Making the Next 50 the BEST 50 (regardless of your hair color!)
http://www.maggiecrane.com