Live Younger Now!

“Midlife fitness pays.  Researchers who studied date on more than 13,500 women le3arned that of those who survived to age 70 and beyond, the ones who exercised more when they were middle-aged were less likely to have one of 10 major chronic diseases, heart surgery, physical limitations, or cognitive impairment.  Even just walking made a difference in long-term health outcomes.  What’s more, the benefits showed up in both lean and overweight women.” Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, Jan 25, 2010

“The older you get, the harder it is to fall asleep and stay asleep.  But that’s completely normal, according to researchers in the United Kingdom.  They studied 110 people who had no sleep disorders and found that adults ages 66 to 83 slept 43 minutes less per night than 20 to 30 year olds.  How often participants woke up during the night increased and how much time the spent in deep sleep decreased, with age. despite getting less sleep, older adults were less likely to be drowsy during the day than the young participants.  According to the study’s authors, knowing daytime sleepiness isn’t normal in seniors could help doctors spot sleeping disorders.” Source: Sleep, Feb 1, 2010 – for information regarding natural sleep inducing herbs click here.

“Omega-3 fatty acids from fish may help keep cells young.  Scientists measured the blood levels of these healthy fats in study participants, all of whom had heart disease, as well the length of telomeres in their white blood cells.  Telomeres are pieces of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes and tend to shorten with age; recent findings suggest that longer telemeres mean healthier people.  Over five years, people who started out with the most omega-3s had the slowest rate of chromosome shrinkage.  More research is needed to confirm the link and explain how the fish fat can protect cells.” Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 20, 2010 – click here for more information about omega-3 fatty acids.

“Getting active may be good for your brain.  In a study of over 1,300 adults, researchers learned that those who exercised moderately in midlife were 39 percent less likely than others to have mild impairment, a state between dementia and the normal mental decline that happens with age.  And participants who did moderate exercise later in life, the odds of having the condition dropped by 32 percent.  Another study found that high-intensity exercise helped adults with mild cognitive impairment improve their condition more than a stretching program did.”  (Archives of Neurology, January 2010

Surf the Web.  Older people who began to spend time roaming around the Internet experienced improvements in mental activity in as little as a couple of days.  After seven days of doing Internet searches for an hour a day, the MRI brain scans of participants without prior Internet experience showed greater mental activity during Web browsing than they had at the study’s start. (Presentation at the Society for Neurosciences annual meeting)

“Resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, has received a lot of attention because of studies that suggest it could someday help treat diabetes and other diseases.  Yet scientists aren’t sure how resveratrol imparts its benefits.  Now a study has found that resveratrol’s anti-diabetic activity may come straight from the top: the brain.  Lab mice on an all-you-can eat diet tend to develop diabetes.  But when researchers delivered resveratrol directly into the brains of mice with diet-induced diabetes, their blood glucose levels dropped regardless of diet or weight.  The findings suggest that resveratrol may work by interacting with receptors in the brain that control insulin.” Source: Endocrinology, Dec. 2009 For more information on a revolutionary resveratrol supplement click here

“AGE is short for advanced glycation end products.  AGE proteins can age your arteries and cause big health trouble faster  than the kid at the counter can ask if you want fries with that.  What exactly are AGE’s?  In short they’re destructive “Franken Proteins” created by high-temperature cooking and also by the interaction of proteins and sugars in your bloodstream.  Diet is the biggest source of the AGEs raging through your bloodstream.  What’s good about that is that new research from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City reveals that you can lower your AGE levels by making a few smart food choices more often and tweaking the way you cook your food.”  You can also supplement your diet with a new product.  To find out more click here.

“A new independent  clinical study conducted by State University of New York at Buffalo has just been published regarding VIVIX a breakthrough product by Shaklee.  In this study a group of volunteers consume at 910 calorie breakfast from Burger King.  One half of the group took VIVIX immediately after breakfast and the other half took a placebo.  For the group consuming Vivix a key genetic regulator of longevity called Nrf2 increased dramatically within the first 3 hours after the meal. Nrf2 triggers our detoxification pathways so that we can get rid of all of the artificial food additives and preservatives in that happy meal.  Nrf2 triggers our anti-stress pathways.” (information taken from an article entitled “Breakfast of Champions” by Dr. Stephen Chaney)

Research being conducted by Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois have concluded that regular aerobic exrecise improves mental function and prevents cognitive decline.  He and his colleagues divided people who were 60 to 80 years old into two groups.  The first group did aerobic exercise – mostly brisk walking – for 45 minutes a day, three days a week.  The second group just did stretching and toning exercisees.  After 6 months they found a significant increase in the volume of brain cells in the prefrontal, temporal and parietal regions of the brain and hippocampus in the aerobic exercise group compared to the other group.  That’s just one more reason to include exercise in your holistic wellness program, along with diet and supplementation.  For a reliable source of supplementation products click here.

Why doesn’t the press pick up on the studies that paint a more positive picture for dietary supplements?  Three studies published in the Feb. 23, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine presents some positive results.  First, National Institutes of Health researchers following nearly half a million older adults found that increasing calcium consumption in women was associated with a lower risk of developing cancer.

Also, NIH researchers examined blood vitamin D levels in the US population to see if there was any relationship to frequency of colds.  Sure enough, the higher the blood level of viatimin D, the lower the frequency of reported upper respiratory tract infections.

The third study is an important clinical trial on the use of B vitamins for the prevention of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).  In this study, 5442 women, 40 years of age and older, who had some eveident of heart disease, were randomly assigned to tak a dietary supplement of folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12, or a placebo.  After an average of 7.3 years of taking the diatary supplements, those taking the supplemental B vitamins had a 34% lower risk of developing AMD than those taking the placedbo.