Aging: What Am I Doing to Me? (draft)

Far too many people hate having another birthday. We all have acquaintances who won’t tell their age or, if they do, will fib about it. How often we hear, “Gee, I hate getting old.”

My father, when confronted with, “Isn’t it hell to grow old?”, would reply that he liked it better than the alternative. My thoughts today are an attempt to promote smiles and reduce groans in this connection.

From the moment of birth we all begin growing older. It is entirely unnecessary to think of ourselves as old. Everyone would like to recapture the strength and vitality of youth, but who would want to live again the insecurities and the lack of knowledge and understanding that go with childhood and youth?

Universally, the real fear is that an incapacitating illness will overtake us. Dwelling on things that may never happen produces negative reactions that can adversely affect our health and waste the best years of our lives. Besides, many of these incapacitating degenerative diseases can be avoided if only a few changes are made. I’m pleased to report that much is being done now to avoid or minimize the usual effects of old age.

Our daily eating habits are the place to start. Nutrition is not just for kids. It becomes more and more important with each passing year. Cells are continually being replaced. They need all the 40 essential nutrients to do their work and to keep us well. Almost everyone will admit that eating junk food will shorten one’s life. Why is it so hard to see that aging problems can be slowed down by cutting out poor dietary habits? Why do so many think that living to eat represents quality living, and do not see that life’s real quality is enjoyed when our bodies feel good, and have plenty of vitality for daily duties?

Dr. Richard Passwater, an exceptional scientist in this field, reported that the A. M. A.’s committee on aging spent over 10 years studying the problems of growing older, without finding any physical or mental conditions which were directly caused by time. Time does not age us, but destructive habits do. Any number of things can cause people to die, but age itself does not kill us.

The food habits that are most destructive are sugar, salt, caffeine products, refined grains, refined vegetable fats, alcohol, and smoking. On the positive side, Dr. Passwater, in his own research, increased the life span of mice 166% with an antioxidant cocktail of vitamins C and E, selenium, the sulphur amino acids, along with an excellent diet. Dr. Yudkin in England found that feeding sugar to rats considerably shortened their life spans.

Dr. Man Odeus, writing in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, showed how some rats on the nucleic acids RNA and DNA even doubled their life span. These substances in our cells and in our food are found in proteins, and are most plentiful in organ meats, brains, fish, and legumes.

U.S. government research has shown that regular exercise, stopping smoking, and maintaining of normal weight has added eleven years to life expectancy. This study was not on animals, but on humans in Alameda County, California.

One of the latest discoveries regarding aging is the relationship of the hormone produced by the thymus gland, called thymosin. Because this small gland, located in the lower part of the neck, becomes smaller after the teenage years, it was thought its function was not important. Now we know that the thymus affects our natural immune defense mechanisms, and its degeneration is the reason for the increased occurrence of disease among adults. Its “T” cells seem to protect against cancer, bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Calf and lamb thymus glands, properly prepared and cooked, are a delicacy known as sweetbreads.

The processing of our modern foods, and the depletion and erosion of our soils, have reduced the value of many of our foods. Vitamin supplements can replace some of this loss. Probably even more disastrous is the upsetting of our mineral balances such as calcium, copper, zinc, magnesium, etc. Optimum health can be achieved by improvement of dietary habits, basic supplementation with minerals, vitamins, glandular digestive enzymes when needed; regular exercise; and a positive state of mind. What I do to me should build me, not destroy me. And it is never too late to make a start in the right direction.

Even terminal illnesses have been reversed by this method–these are called “miracle cures”. And we all are capable of such spontaneous remissions, once we stop blaming “bad luck”, or germs, or Fate–and take a serious, thoughtful look at “What I am doing to ME”.