As we grow older, some of us find ourselves becoming more forgetful. We notice that we cannot remember names as easily, forget errands, or misplace keys or household items. Frequently what we notice is not a memory loss but a memory lapse. It simply takes us longer to retrieve names, addresses, and dates from our memories than it used to. When this happens in our older years we may see it as a sign of age and become flustered, frustrated, embarrassed, or angry with ourselves. We may even think this forgetfulness could be a sign of senility. The dictionary definition of senility is “a loss associated with old age, of mental faculties.” But the word has no real meaning, because it has become a catch-all term for any forgetfulness or mental disorder experienced by an older person. Until recently physicians assumed that senility was an inevitable part of old age. This assumption kept them from identifying and treating true memory disorders. [Read more...]
Health Losses Associated with Aging
Our senses sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch connect us to the world outside ourselves. There are substantial differences from one person to the next, but most of us can expect the acuity of our senses to dim somewhat as the years pass. Usually changes occur so slowly that we adapt without being aware of the differences in perception. Someone else may be the first to point out to us that we don’t seem to be hearing or seeing as well as we once did. Our sense of touch may become less dependable for such formerly rote tasks as fixing the clasp on a necklace, separating bills in a wallet, or turning pages. While all of the above may seriously interfere with our efficiency and enjoyment, the most serious effects of sensory losses have to do with health and safety. Loss of taste or smell can lead to loss of appetite, and even to serious malnutrition. Changes [Read more...]
Too Many Women Endure Old Age Rather than Enjoy
Determine early to “keep on keeping on.” Then explore the many ways to do that in accordance with your own talents, desires, and opportunities. Paid and unpaid work, personal and group advocacy, any project in which you feel passionate interest, whether it’s a garden or the government can be rewarding. For example, there was never a better time of life to get on boards and commissions, which regulate a great deal of the way things function. If one-to-one helping makes you feel more connected and involved, by all means become involved in personal service. [Read more...]
Ageism and the Elderly
Ageism is as much a part of the fabric of society as sexism and racism. Think of all the conscious and unconscious ways we disparage our aging. “You’re sixty-two? You certainly don’t look that old. You shouldn’t tell anyone because you could easily pass for forty-five.” Or, “That dress makes me feel old.” Or, “All those old people together. I find it depressing.” Just telling your age forthrightly can be an act of defiance and a blow against ageism. Remember Gloria Steinem’s rejoinder to a reporter who said she didn’t look forty: “This is what forty looks like. How would you know? We’ve been hiding our age so long.” When Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, was introduced by President Gerald Ford as a “young lady,” she stood up and said, “Mr. President, I am not a young lady. I’ve lived a long time. I’m an old lady.” [Read more...]
How to fight with Aging?
AGING
Aging is not a disease, although many people think It is. The good news is that premature aging doesn’t have to happen. While no magic elixir exists to reverse this process, research has shown that certain nutrients can help to slow the onset of visible signs of aging, can prevent many disorders, and can extend life expectancy.
General Recommendations
Our Standard American Diet (SAD) accounts for the five leading causes of disease in America. It also contributes to accelerated aging more than any other single factor. The SAD is high in refined carbohydrates, cholesterol, saturated fats, and processed foods. It is low in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts—all of which provide dietary fiber and most of our anti-aging vitamins and minerals. In addition to the SAD’s overload of foods that tax the body and insufficient quantities of foods that feed the body, this diet also harms us by increasing the number of substances that are known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced within our bodies, are obtained from the environment, and are ingested with our food. In our food supply, they come from pesticides; fried, barbecued, and charbroiled foods: alcohol: coffee; and additives. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that can damage cells. This cell-damaging process leads to many disorders and contributes to aging, as well. Free radicals need to be detoxified, and the anti-aging nutrients like Vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, and the mineral selenium are found primarily in fruits and vegetables—foods that are in scarce supply in the Standard American Diet.
Clearly, a different diet is needed. Leslie and Susannah Kenton, in their book Raw Energy, state that raw foods have an enormous potential for improving not only a person’s appearance but also the quality of his or her life. For example, they cite the fact that uncooked foods are one reason why many health spas attract so many people. Two weeks on a raw diet, they note, make a person look years younger, with firmer flesh: softer facial lines: and skin, eyes, and hair that glow with vibrant health. Two years on a diet high in raw foods can completely transform a person’s shape, and often can restore health, as well. If that’s not enough to get you excited about raw foods, we guess you probably just don’t get excited!
Dietary Modifications
1. Eat a diet that’s rich in raw fruits and vegetables and their juices. Ideally, 50 percent of the diet should be composed of raw foods.
2. Increase the amount of gel-forming fiber in your diet by boosting your intake of flax-seeds; oat and rice bran; and pectin’s, which are found in fruits and vegetables.
3. Try adding black currant juice to your diet. This juice, which is rich in bioflavonoid, has been shown to promote longevity.
4. Eat more cabbage, yogurt, and olive oil, all of which have been shown to increase longevity.
5. Try adding thyme and lavender to dishes. These herbs have been used traditionally to slow down the aging process.
6. Reduce your consumption of refined foods such as white flour and its products. Yes, there goes your favorite sourdough bread, the morning donuts, arid the white-flour pasta! But the rewards are plentiful for eating whole grain breads, rolls, and pastas.
7. Avoid refined sugar and its products. This includes chocolate chip cookies, frozen yogurt, and your favorite candy bars. But think about the lines you won’t get on your face because you said, “No”!
8. Reduce your intake of saturated fats, cholesterol, and animal proteins. And here’s a surprise: butter is better than margarine. There are substances in margarine that have been shown in studies to contribute to cancer. You can finally say that there is something that tastes better and is actually better for you. But don’t celebrate with too much butter. The general guideline is no more than about four tablespoons of saturated fat per day.
9. Make one or two days a week vegetarian. Try making your main courses on these days from beans, lentils, split peas, and soybean products like tofu. In addition, use more of these vegetable proteins in your daily diet.
10. Select only cold-processed or expelled-pressed vegetable oils, and increase your intake of fish oils.
11. Choose nutritious snacks such as nuts, seeds, nut or seed butters, raw vegetable sticks, whole grain crackers, popcorn without butter, and fresh fruit.
12. Reduce caffeine by eliminating or limiting your consumption of coffee, black tea, and chocolate.
13. Significantly reduce or avoid alcohol.
14. Avoid all processed foods as much as possible.
15. Incorporate a detoxification program into your lifestyle. Use the Juice Fast or another effective cleansing diet to eliminate the toxins from your body.
Nutrients That Help
Vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium are antioxidants that protect the cells from free-radical damage, thus preventing premature aging. In other words, antioxidants gobble up the bad guys before they get your cells.
Beta-carotene and other carotenoids (over 500 have been identified) are antioxidants that are converted by the body to vitamin A as needed. These are some of the most powerful interceptors known to protect the body from a particular free-radical bad guy called singlet oxygen. The carotenoids are also very helpful in preventing shrinkage of the thymus gland, and thus strengthening the immune system.
Bioflavonoid prevent free-radical damage. Like the carotenoids, these nutrients, which are found in plants, are considered antioxidants.
Methionine and cysteine are sulfur-containing amino acids that may promote longevity. Sulfur is abundant in beans, fish, liver, eggs, brewer’s yeast, cabbage, and nuts.
Beneficial Juices
Kale, parsley, green pepper, and broccoli—sources of vitamin C.
Spinach, asparagus, and carrot—sources of vitamin E.
Red Swiss chard, turnip, garlic, and orange—sources of selenium.
Carrot, kale, parsley, and spinach—sources of beta carotene and other carotenoids.
Apricot, black currant, blackberry, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, cherry, grape, grapefruit, lemon, orange, papaya,
parsley, plum, prune, sweet pepper, and tomato—sources of bioflavonoid.
Suggested Juicing Recipes
(1) Beauty Spa Express
-Small handful parsley, Handful spinach, 4-5 carrots, greens removed, ½ apple. Seeded
Bunch up parsley and spinach, and push through hopper with carrots and apple.
(2) Fresh Complexion Express
-2 slices pineapple, with skin, ½ cucumber, ½ apple, seeded
Push pineapple through hopper with cucumber and apple.
(3) High-Calcium Drink
-3 kale leaves Small handful parsley, 4-5 carrots, greens removed.
Bunch up kale and parsley, and push through hopper with carrots.
(4) Garden Salad Special
-3 broccoli flowerets, 1 garlic clove 4-5 carrots or 2 tomatoes, 2 stalks celery, ½ green pepper
Push broccoli and garlic through hopper with carrots or tomatoes. Follow with celery and green pepper.
(5) Cantaloupe Shake
-½ cantaloupes with skin.
Cut cantaloupe in strips, and push through hopper.
(6) Fruit Salad Cocktail
-1 medium bunch grapes, ½ apple, seeded, 1/4 lemon
Push grapes through hopper, followed by apples and lemon.
