Subject: Aging Is A Mistake
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Aging is a Mistake
by Raymond Francis
"Aging is a mistake," said Dr. Deepak Chopra. Actually, aging is
worse than a mistake, it is a catastrophe. Aging reduces quality of life and
causes so-called "diseases of aging" such as cancer, Alzheimer's, and
arthritis. Making yourself old and sick is not a sensible choice—it is a
mistake. Each disease, even a cold, accelerates aging, makes you sicker, and
causes more disease. Then our physicians manage these diseases with treatments
that create still more aging and disease. It's a vicious cycle, and we have to
learn how to break that cycle.
To live a long disease-free life, it is essential to learn how to
prevent and reverse aging and disease. Fortunately, this is not difficult to
learn. With just a little bit of effort, any of us can become healthier and
biologically younger. While we cannot control our chronological age, we do have
control over our biological age. Recently, I had my arteries measured. I
have the arteries of a thirty-year-old; I am sixty-six. The biological age of
my arteries is less than half my chronological age—anyone can do this. Aging is
a mistake you don't have to make.
Historically, people such as the Hu nz as
lived well into their hundreds in robust, vigorous health without suffering as
much as a cold, so we know this is possible. For you to accomplish something
similar you must learn how to prevent aging and disease, and to do this, you
must learn how to prevent and reverse inflammation . There is only one
disease, malfunctioning cells, and a malfunction common to all chronic
disease is a process called inflammation. No matter what so-called disease you
have, inflammation is a major part of your problem. By learning how to prevent
and reverse inflammation, you are learning how to stay young and never be
sick again .
Inflammation is a natural and healthy process. If you cut your
finger, the body begins an inflammatory process immediately. This process
neutralizes harmful microorganisms, helps to repair the wound, and cleans up
the debris resulting from the injury. Inflammation is beneficial when needed,
but it is disastrous when chronic . Chronic inflammation generates a
constant supply of free radicals that overwhelm our antioxidant defenses and
damage DNA , aging us and causing disease of
every description, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis,
arthritis, allergies, Alzheimer's, autoimmune disease, and infections.
Unfortunately, more than three out of four Americans suffer from
chronic inflammation. This is why we are aging so rapidly and why more than
three out of four of us have a diagnosable chronic disease. Even our children
are increasingly suffering from "diseases of aging" in epidemic
numbers. To put an end to this tragedy, as a society and as individuals, we must
learn how to prevent and reverse chronic inflammation.
What causes inflammation? The standard American diet causes
inflammation! Most of us suffer from chronic inflammation and disease
because the American diet is pro-inflammatory. Our diet lacks nutrients that
help to prevent and control inflammation, while being rich in pro-inflammatory
compounds.
How do you reverse inflammation? In my book Never Be Sick
Again , I advise people to avoid the Big Four: sugar, white flour, milk
products, and processed oils . These so-called "foods" are
pro-inflammatory—they cause rapid aging and disease. Indeed, I have had
numerous calls from people who have read my book, got off the Big Four, and
were cured of terrible, chronic diseases. All it took was to stop promoting the
inflammation in the first place. I have been off the Big Four for 17 years and
I have been taking lots of antioxidant supplements, thus controlling
inflammation and allowing my arteries and other tissues to repair and become
those of a much younger person.
Sugar and white flour are deadly poisons. They have an
inflammatory effect on the body. Unaware of this hazard, the average American
consumes more than 160 pounds of sugar and 200 pounds of white flour per year.
Tragically, we expose children to these deadly poisons, accelerating aging and
causing lifelong health problems. Both of these poisons in-crease blood sugar
levels. Even a modest increase in blood sugar generates free radicals that
cause inflammation, thereby causing disease of every description. Because most
people eat these poisons every day (in the form of bread, pasta, breakfast
cereal, cookies, cakes, soft drinks, c andy ,
etc.), disease is a growth industry.
Milk products also cause inflammation. Modern dairy cows eat
grain-containing diets that change the proportions of fatty acids in the milk,
leaving very little omega-3 fats and creating a pro-inflammatory imbalance. In
addition, a substantial percentage of our population (some estimate fifty
percent) is allergic to dairy, often unknowingly. Daily consumption causes
chronic allergic reactions, creating chronic inflammation.
The fats and oils in the American diet contain excessive omega-6
fatty acids, causing chronic inflammation. Omega-6 fatty acids promote
inflammation, while omega-3s are anti-inflammatory. Historically, humans
consumed roughly equal amounts of these oils, achieving a balance. Today, we
consume 20 to 30 times as much omega-6 as omega-3. The modern processed-food
industry fills our stores with pro-inflammatory oils, including safflower,
sunflower, peanut, and even most commercially available olive oils; all of
these contain excessive amounts of omega-6 and insufficient omega-3 fatty
acids. Grain-fed beef, poultry, and farmed fish also contain excessive omega-6.
These imbalances create a huge excess of pro-inflammatory compounds. Unable to
turn the inflammation off, chronic inflammation and disease are the result. It
is extremely important that only healthy fats and oils be consumed.
Hydrogenated oils are also pro-inflammatory. These oils find their way into a
myriad of products including c andy , baked
goods, margarine, breakfast cereal, and peanut butter. These deadly oils
disrupt body chemistry, causing many abnormalities-including inflammation. The
trans fatty acids contained in hydrogenated oils inhibit the activity of e nz ymes
that make anti-inflammatory compounds, but not those that create
pro-inflammatory ones, chronic inflammation is the result.
In addition to diet, infections also contribute to inflammation.
Avoiding infections by keeping your immune system strong pays off in many ways.
It is important to minimize the number of infections you suffer. Infections are
inflammatory, triggering powerful inflammatory processes to destroy invading
microorganisms. Unfortunately, the inflammation damages you as well as the
invaders. Having one cold after another will do lasting damage, shortening your
life and leaving you susceptible to every imaginable disease. Repeated
infections, as well as chronic infections, lead to chronic inflammation that
damages and ages the entire body. One way to help keep your immunity strong is
to avoid eating sugar, which is known to damage immunity as well as causing
inflammation.
Physical injuries also create inflammation. Nature intended
inflammation to subside once an injury is repaired. However, by consuming a
pro-inflammatory diet, injuries are seldom fully healed and often result in
chronic low-grade inflammation in the injured tissue. This is why athletes have
problems with old injuries as they age. These incompletely healed tissues, by
producing pro-inflammatory compounds, become sources of chronic inflammation
for the entire body.
Allergies and food sensitivities also create inflammatory
responses. Chronic allergic reactions create chronic inflammation. This is why
allergic reactions must be minimized by strengthening the immune system and
avoiding allergens. Unfortunately, allergies have become epidemic. Contributing
to this epidemic has been the irrational misuse of antibiotics, NSAIDS, and
hormones by our obsolete disease-care system. These dangerous drugs disrupt gut
tissue, causing leakage of undigested food molecules into the blood, thereby
promoting food allergies. A good idea for almost anyone is to stay away from
the most common allergens such as dairy and gluten (half the population may be
allergic to gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley).
Yet another promoter of chronic, systemic inflammation is fat
cells. Given that two out of three Americans are overweight, this is a huge
source of inflammation. Pure and simple, if you are more than five pounds
overweight, you have a serious chronic disease. The inflammatory process
unleashed by being overweight accelerates the aging process and leads to every
conceivable disease. Fat cells, especially those that form around the abdomen,
produce large amounts of inflammatory compounds that affect the entire body.
If you want to prevent disease, or if you are diseased and want
to get well, what should you do? First and foremost, stop promoting
inflammation. Get the Big Four out of your life—now! Eat a diet low in
pro-inflammatory foods and high in anti-inflammatory nutrients. Get rid of
those excess pounds (exercise and get off the Big Four to lose weight). Take
high quality anti-inflammatory supplements. If you take these principles to
heart, you will be well on your way to a longer, higher quality, disease-free
life.
Consume a diet low in refined carbohydrates and high in a variety
of fresh, organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Eat high quality organic
animal protein, such as eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, and grass-fed beef plus
olive, coconut and flaxseed oil. Supplementing with antioxidant nutrients is
critical to preventing and reversing inflammation. Supplement with omega-3 fish
oil, vitamins A, B complex (including folic acid, B6 and B12), C, D, and E,
plus quercitin, glucosamine, chrondroitin, beta-carotene, selenium, CoQ10,
N-acetylcysteine, and alpha-lipoic acid.
The health of the American people is in a catastrophic, long-term
downtrend. The result is pain, suffering, unnecessary loss of loved ones and an
economic threat that is projected within a few decades to bankrupt our country
and plunge it into third-world status. This is happening because, in a
relatively short period of time, we have completely changed our diet. We now
consume insufficient anti-inflammatory vitamins and minerals and an enormous
surplus of pro-inflammatory "foods" in the form of the Big Four:
sugar, white flour, dairy and processed oils (remember the oils we consume are
20 to 30 times more pro-inflammatory than our ancestor's).
Inflammation is a common element in virtually all disease. By
consuming the Big Four, the cumulative effect of the inflammation we are
creating is aging us prematurely, causing us to look old, feel tired, and
suffer every imaginable disease. By learning how to prevent and reverse
inflammation, we can achieve power over aging and disease. What a wonderful
goal—and so easy to do.
Raymond Francis is an M.I.T.-trained scientist, a registered
nutrition consultant, author of Never Be Sick Again and Never Be Fat Again,
host of the Beyond Health Show,
Chairman of the The Project to End Disease and an internationally recognized
leader in the field of optimal health maintenance.
Reprinted with permission from:
Beyond Health ® News
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