You Don’t Have To Get Old The Way Your Parents Did

Lately, I’ve been reading stuff on aging that I think is WAY off the mark.

About 2 months ago, Frank Bruni wrote in the NY Times that aging was difficult but also brought some silver linings. In another Medium post, Jay Slacks wrote that getting old sucks.

Bruni’s in his 50s and Slacks is in his late 30s. GMAFB!

For those keeping track, that’s Give Me A Bloody Break! Yes, I do know that Bloody doesn’t start with an “F.”

In any event, I’m older than Bruni. Both articles talked about aches and pains (I’ve never really understood the difference between the two. If an ache hurts it’s a pain, right?), and impending death. Bruni also talked about having unexpected growths removed.

Almost everyone I talk to mentions the ravages of growing older. “You can’t fool a flight of stairs,” was a saying that was popular 10 or so years ago.

Yes you can.

There are a couple of things worth being aware of and they could make your aging process less painful, both physically and emotionally. On the other hand, maybe you like complaining and taking a lot of prescription medications and enjoy the side effects you get from them, or will after taking them for a few years.

First, how you eat will affect how you feel. I didn’t say “may affect;” I said “will.” Second, whether and what type of exercise you do — or if you’re like most Americans, don’t do — will have a direct relationship on how you feel.

I’m not saying food and exercise will determine if you’ll live longer. There are too many factors affecting mortality to make that statement, but we can say that if you take two groups of equal and sufficient size, and have one group eat the Standard American Diet (SAD, a meaningful acronym) and the other eat a Pritikin or Ornish type of diet and get some aerobic exercise, the second group will have more people live longer than the first.

If you’re in the first group and I’m in the second, you may live longer than I do, but that’s because of individual variants, such as heredity, high risk activity, etc.

But if we exclude life expectancy and just talk about life quality, we find out a few things, and much of this has come out recently in some studies that have been reported.

Women who don’t eat the SAD and have a fair amount of soy in their diets either suffer fewer or no symptoms related to menopause. If you’re a woman whose diet is high in soy and is primarily or exclusively plant-based (as contrasted with animal-flesh based), your menopause symptoms will be reduced or eliminated (particularly if you’re a vegetarian before y0u hit that age).

Because I’m male, menopause isn’t much of an issue, but memory is. I run a couple of businesses and I’m frequently up early and go to sleep somewhat (though never extremely) late. My energy is very high until right before I go to sleep at which point, I confess, I’m ready to drop. But that’s what a normal human body’s supposed to be like.

When I tell people my age, they find it hard to believe (though if they saw me right before bedtime, they’d find it easier). I’ve actually had people ask to see my driver’s license (and this doesn’t count the cops who think I’m a lousy driver).

A study recently came out that showed that people who feel and act younger than their age usually live longer and are less sick while they’re living.

So how can you stay or become younger?

Reduce or eliminate meat in your diet. Yes, that includes chicken, fish, and turkey. They’re better than red meat, but they’re still meat.

Get some air-using (aerobic) exercise. I admit that I’m far from perfect here. I almost always get into a gym once a week, but I’d be better of if I could triple that. Time gets in the way. But even once is better than none. If you’re overweight, you may want to approach exercise gently, after checking with your doc.

Take a multivitamin each day. They don’t offer much protection, but some items which provide traces of certain supplements will make sure you’re not entirely lacking anything.

Add Vitamin C. The studies which suggest vitamins don’t do you any good are bogus. We don’t have space to detail those, but Pauling was a scientist and his studies demonstrated that while the Vitamin C is in you, it’s doing some good.

If you’re overweight, one of the easiest ways to start losing weight is to not eat or drink anything with calories for the last 3–4 hours you’re awake. You’ll see some good results, if you do that, after a week.

Clearly we could go on (and I already have), but these are the things I do, and they work. Of course, as soon as I publish this, I could have a coronary. That doesn’t change anything, however. This is simple, logical, good advice. Don’t say that you couldn’t do it. Everything we eat or drink is a matter of habit.

In some parts of Africa, for example, humans eat termites, which is almost as disgusting to me as the idea of eating Brussels sprouts. But if you’ve ever had diet soft drinks, you’ll remember that the first time you tasted one, it was awful, but once you got used to it, then regular soft drinks tasted terrible. When it comes to food, you CAN change what you eat, if getting healthy and feeling younger as you age, is important to you.

By the way, as soon as I have time to format it, my book on being healthy and losing weight will be available on Amazon as an e-book. You can look at my other writing through: http://www.BushmanBooks.blogspot.com and you can hear my radio program at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jeff-bushman. I also write a monthly column for adults at Scottdale Health Magazine, the website for which (for the magazine) is: http://www.allyouneedforhappiness.com.

Here’s an experiment I’m trying. If this works, when you click on the following with your mouse, while holding the control (ctrl) key, you should be able to hear my program from 12/21/14. If I’m wrong, feel free to let me know. http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/7/172/show_7172365.mp3

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the radio.