I want you to meet Morgan

Morgan was one sick man when we first met.

At 49 years old, he had high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, an open sore on his leg that would not heal, a leaky heart valve, water buildup on his heart and kidney problems. He was in constant pain and took strong pain killers every four hours. He slept in his chair because lying down was too painful. His cardiologist wanted him to have a heart valve transplant, but he was too sick to endure it. His friends believed that he was near death.

When we met, he was working with three doctors who had him on 15 different drugs. Morgan and his wife, Cheryl, were looking for hope. They wanted to know more about the nutritional products they read about in the newspaper, so he called the phone number listed in the article. That’s how we connected and that’s how Morgan and Cheryl started taking nutritional supplements.

His friends were amazed by his turnaround. His blood pressure came down, His blood sugar came down. His open sore healed. The water on his heart drained. He reduced his drugs to only a few and eliminated his pain medication. And he could once again sleep in his bed. Several months after Morgan started on nutritional supplements, his cardiologist declared that he was healthy enough to endure a heart valve replacement, and Morgan and Cheryl agreed to the surgery.

Sadly, Morgan suffered a stroke in the hospital after the surgery, so now he has one more affliction to struggle with. I am so impressed with the positive attitude of both Morgan and Cheryl toward his situation.

Listen to them tell their story here.

What are the causes of aging?

In a previous blog, I've advocated that aging is the result of a growing population of malfunctioning cells, as illustrated in the graph below. Since the body is designed to heal itself, what are the reasons for this?

In the 12 years I’ve been researching natural health options, I’ve run across hundreds of products that claim to be anti-aging.

It may surprise you, but I suspect that many of those claims are probably valid. Why? Because so many factors can cause aging.

I believe that the causes can be grouped into the following categories:

Nutritional deficiencies

Starving your cells of any vitamin, mineral, essential fatty acid, and essential amino acid will cause malfunctioning cells, which in turn will result in one or more disorders. Additionally, certain carbohydrates are critical to an effective immune system.

There are three main causes for nutritional deficiencies:

• The Standard American Diet is deficient in nutrient-rich foods.
• Even nutrient-rich foods have reduced nutritional content.
• Almost every drug depletes one or more nutrients from the body.

An acidic body

An acidic body restricts oxygen  and water absorption by the cells. It also is an ideal environment for viruses, bad bacteria, fungus, and cancer. Vegetables are the primary foods that are non-acidic. Almost all other foods promote acidity in the body.

Accumulated free radical damage

When the body’s repair processes cannot keep up with the rate of cellular damage from free radicals, damaged cells begin to accumulate. Damaged cells perform at sub-optimal levels and the build-up in the number of damaged cells begins to have long-term negative effects that result in symptoms.

Accumulated exposure to toxins

A build-up of toxins in the body’s cells, liver, kidneys, and gut overwhelms the body’s ability to rid itself of the toxins, and symptoms appear.

Chronic stress

Stress depresses the immune system. Chronic stress exposes the body to disorders related to an underactive immune system—frequent and extended infections and cancer.

Decline in the body’s ability to heal itself

• Hormone production begins to decline about 2% per year about age 25. Hormones control all glandular functions.
• Stem cell production begins to decline about age 25. Stem cells are the basic building block for cellular repair throughout the body.
• The ability to buffer excess acidity is depleted about the age of 45, beginning a trend to a more acidic body. Infections and cancer thrive in an acidic body.

Spinal misalignment

Spinal misalignment impedes signals between the brain and the rest of the body. The brain is the control center for the whole body, so if spinal misalignment impedes the communication between the brain and a specific part of the body, that part is likely to malfunction.

A diet high in sugar content

Refined sugar depresses the immune system, which in turn leads to elevated rates of viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections and a higher risk of cancer.

The negative effects of all but the last two can be reduced with proper nutritional supplementation.

What is Aging?

Have you noticed?

Some 60-year-olds are old, yet some 80-year-olds are young.

What makes the 60-year-old old and the 80-year-old young? What is aging?

Aging embodies a wide range of physiological changes that limit our normal functions, render us more susceptible to a number of diseases, and raise our risk of death. 

(This is my condensation of comments from the following site: http://www.senescence.info/aging_definition.html)

So why have some people been successful at delaying the effects of aging?

Since only 15 percent of our health is related to genetics, the other 85 percent must explain why some people stay youthful into their senior years and others do not.

The key is maintaining healthy cells.

The body is comprised of about 70 trillion cells. Each of these cells has specific functions to perform. Cells that are defective will malfunction in some way, contributing to early aging. When too many cells malfunction, symptoms begin to appear.

Every second of your life, the body is making about one million new cells to replace cells that die. For those new cells to function perfectly, the amino acids, fatty acids and oils, vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates, oxygen, and water that make up a cell must be available when each cell is created. If those components are not available from the bloodstream at the time of the birth of the cell, the new cell will be defective for the life of the cell, and it will not function optimally.

Unfortunately, most of us are deficient in one or more nutrients and the new cells that our bodies create are defective. 

Nutritional deficiencies are just one of several factors that cause aging. I will address the causes of aging in subsequent blogs.

Squaring your curve

My goal is to live until I die. I mean, really live. Be physically active and mentally sharp.

So the question is “what do I need to do to accomplish my goal?”

If I do nothing, my health will deteriorate along the Traditional Decline curve in the graph below.

This is a hypothetical graph. There are no data available to support such a graph, so I’ve drawn the graph to represent what I perceive approximates reality. The “State of Health” ranges from perfect (100) to death (0).

Most people go through three health stages:

• An independent stage, during which the body is healing and repairing itself, as it was designed to do, without a prolonged period of drug use,
• A dependency stage, for which one or more drugs are needed every day to live with one or more disorders, and
• A disability stage, where limited physical mobility or mental capacity require additional assistance in addition to daily drugs.

Since the life expectancy of a baby boy born today is 76 years, I’ve drawn the “Traditional” curve to terminate at 76.

If I do nothing to prolong my health, my health will decline something similar to the “Traditional” curve. I will go through a stage where my doctor prescribes one or more daily medications to relieve the aches and pains and other symptoms that are commonly associated with aging. The side effects from the drugs will lead to other problems and my doctor will have another pill to deal with that.

The age at which I enter this stage will depend on my personal health conditions and my choice of health care professionals. If I choose a medical doctor, I most likely will be put on one or more drugs. If I choose a natural health practitioner, I most likely will not.

If I want to prolong my health, I have to make it happen. We call that “squaring the curve.” I first heard this term used by Clinton Howard, founder of RBC Life. Mr. Howard’s goal is to help people square their health curve. It’s also Dottie’s and mine. 

The most common things that people do to square their curves are 1) lose weight, 2) exercise, and 3) stop smoking. These are helpful, but if you are really serious about prolonging your health, you will do more.

I’ve created a list of guidelines for making healthy choices if you want to go the extra step. You can find them here.