Healthy aging is the key to a rewarding life
In this blog, I would like to discuss the topic of healthy aging. I think many people fear aging unnecessarily, as they have been misled to believe that aging automatically comes with disease, disability, and dysfunction. That is certainly true in the case where aging with care through proper nutrition, dietary supplementation, exercise, sleep, and other behaviors is ignored.
While humans are mortal and we have no “cure” for the ultimate end to our physical existence, we can enjoy successful aging by taking care of ourselves through the best behaviors. Some components of healthful aging, such as hormone replacement therapy, stem cell treatments, and other aesthetic procedures, can be very important to aging gracefully as well, but those require the oversight and management of a physician or other healthcare professional.
At Dr Lewis Nutrition™, we focus on an approach that you can control, such as taking Daily Brain Care every day, and other nutrition and exercise habits that do not require you to rely on someone else to implement for you.
Cellular Function and Replication
One critical aspect of healthy aging relates to how our cells replicate themselves. Throughout our lives, our cells are programmed to live a certain amount of time, replace themselves, and then die (a process called apoptosis). Think of each cell as a manufacturing warehouse that needs maintenance in all of its features, i.e., its walls, ceiling, plumbing, electrical, and equipment. If that warehouse is maintained with new materials each time they are replaced, then the warehouse will continue functioning well and producing high-quality goods over a long time. However, if the warehouse is maintained with used, rusted, and worn out materials, then its ability to produce first-class goods will be compromised, if not completely impossible. Our cells are the same way. The cells utilize the materials that we provide them through what we eat, drink, and get exposed to in one way or another to both function and to prepare for their replication process. If we eat and drink for optimal nutrition and avoid chemical contamination as much as possible, then our cells can function and replicate themselves at a high level for most of our lives. If we eat poorly, do not exercise, use tobacco and alcohol, and consume other chemicals, then our cells cannot function well or replicate themselves in their exact previous copy and over time that results in poor and dysfunctional aging.
Nutrition and Exercise for Healthy Aging
Thus, aging care mostly comes down to how we treat ourselves. If we eat an optimal diet with sufficient vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients, and take key dietary compounds that are not common in the modern diet, such as the polysaccharides found in Daily Brain Care, then our chance of successful aging goes up dramatically. Without question, nutrition and diet are the most important factors related to aging gracefully due to the way our body is reliant on compounds that we get from our food and dietary supplements to function. Second, exercise and physical activity are profoundly important to healthful aging. We must continue to stress our bodies at the right intensity, frequency, and duration to ensure that we maintain our ability to function, not only physically, but mentally and intellectually as well. “Use it or lose it” is a maxim that has been applied to the importance of daily movement to ensure that we maintain our abilities throughout our lives.
The Model of Healthy Aging – Jack LaLanne
Jack LaLanne is the consummate model of healthy aging, as he lived well into his late 90s with an extremely high quality of life. He is considered one of, if not the, godfather of the modern fitness movement, who also incorporated the importance of nutrition into his messages to others. He has been inspirational in my life, and I admired him for “fighting the good fight” to help people learn how to be healthy. He was exercising daily up until the last couple of weeks of his life before succumbing to a lung infection. He lived with an amazing high quality of life for almost his entire life because he chose to focus on aging care, rather than settling for being treated with drugs and other medical treatments that are unfortunately so common today. He exemplifies what the human body is capable of achieving by aging gracefully through a comprehensive nutrition and exercise approach.
Conclusion
While most people will not attain Jack LaLanne’s achievements, we can still seek out a path to healthful aging. We have the benefit of knowing so much more about the technical and key aspects of nutrition and exercise than when LaLanne started his journey in the early 20th Century. Now, we have plenty of information to support us on our path to successful aging. Do not fret or fear aging. If you utilize the strategies that we advocate at Dr Lewis Nutrition, including taking Daily Brain Care every day, then I see no reason why you cannot also enjoy a healthy and rewarding life. And, regardless of your age right now, it is never too late to start making changes to improve your quality of life, as the body has an amazing capacity to respond based on how you treat it. I encourage you to embrace the concept of healthy aging, and do not assume that you are meant to be sick and decrepit as an inevitable part of the aging process.
Reference
Elmore S. Apoptosis: a review of programmed cell death. Toxicol Pathol. 2007 Jun;35(4):495-516. doi: 10.1080/01926230701320337. PMID: 17562483; PMCID: PMC2117903.
