How To Look and Feel Younger

The truth is we begin the aging process just as soon as we pop out of the womb. Every day of our lives our bodies slough off and regenerate new cells. The speed at which that process takes place when we are children is vastly different as we get older.

For years explorers searched for the illusive "fountain of youth." Unfortunately, it does not exist or you wouldn't be reading this.

Every day you are bombarded daily with commercial messages that attempt to lure you into believing that the most recent miracle drug is just what you need to fight off the ravages of Mother Nature.

At times it seems as though there are more miracle methods than ever being flashed in front of your eyes each day. . .and there are. Ask any advertising executive and they will admit that there are more advertisements than ever touting everything designed to cash in on a huge market. What is that market? It's the aging Baby Boomers.

We are living longer as a whole. Singularly, that can be a curse or a blessing depending on your perspective. In this site we will explore all the methods you can use to help stall, stop or, in some cases, reverse the natural aging process.

Some of our material may be new and some of it may serve as reminders of things you may have forgotten. You may not have had much say in how you arrived on this earth, but you can certainly determine how you look and feel while you're here and to a large degree, when you'll depart. Just remember, YOU are in control.

LIFESTYLE

We have to discuss it. You've heard it before but it must be repeated. You ARE what you eat. There are over 14 million Americans alive today who have a history of heart attacks, angina or a combination of both. 50% of them are age 60 or older and 83% who die of heart attacks are 65 or more.

Today, many doctors rank fat intake right up there with smoking for leading cause of death. What can you do about? Plenty. 

FAT

Americans love fat. We love fat so much that we eat the equivalent of 1 ½ cups of butter every week! Yes, that's correct. Walk to your refrigerator and pull out 6 sticks of butter and imagine them placed at different points in and out of your body. Pretty scary, isn't it? Excess fat intake is directly attributable to:

• Elevated cholesterol
• Elevated triglycerides
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Excess weight.

Taking control of just this single area of your overall health will substantially reduce your chances of heart disease as well as reducing the risk of stroke. Stroke occurs when blood clots block arteries that supply blood to the brain.

French researchers examined 250 men and women age 60 to 70 and found that those who had fatty plaque narrowing the main artery out of the heart were 9 times more likely to have a stroke than those who did not have this buildup.

Cancer is another possible by-product of excess fat in the diet. In fact dietary fat is credited with playing a role in as much as 40% of cancers in men and 60% of cancers in women. Read meat is considered to be one of the biggest culprits, increasing the instance of colon, rectal and prostate cancer in men. For women the results are colon and possibly breast cancer. And, researchers are now beginning to believe it may play a role in lung cancer as well.

So why do we still eat it? Believe it or not, many of us just haven't gotten the word yet, especially those over 60. Even though the information about fat has been around for a long time, many people believe that fat is a necessary part of diet. Yes, it is true that dietary fat exists for a reason. It does provide us with the fatty acids we need to control our body temperature, give us healthy skin and hair and protect nerves and our vital organs.

The problem is that not all fats are created equal and many of us just don't understand the difference.

Monounsaturated fats such as olive and canola oils and polyunsaturated fats like corn and safflower oils are considered somewhat healthy when taken in moderation.

Saturated fats that we find predominantly in meat, eggs and dairy products are attributed with causing major health problems especially when consumed in large amounts.

Trans-fatty acids are another type of harmful fat. These are unsaturated fats that food manufacturers use to solidify certain foods like margarine and vegetable shortening. In addition to being harmful they have no dietary value at all.

It is unfortunate that a typical American meal does not consist of one type of fat or another but a combination of several so that when we eat we can consume a large amount of bad fat.

Switching to a low-fat style of eating mostly unsaturated fats you may very well quickly feel rejuvenated regardless of your age. No matter what your age or medical conditions might be, diabetes, high cholesterol, gout or heart disease a low-fat diet is the way to go.

Limit saturated fat to less than 10% of your daily calories and cut back on the fatty acids and the benefits will increase life expectancy.

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