Can You Increase Your Lifespan By Eating Correctly, NotSmoking, Not Drinking Alcohol And Exercising?

@Roberta,

Quote:

I'm thinking that it can't hoit to do the "right" things. But I don't know how much it helps either.

it does seem that we are trying to decide how we live our life based on about a 2% knowledge of what makes for a good life. We humans are notoriously bad about knowing what will make us happy and fulfilled, and I often think that this obsession with trying to live long based upon what flimsy scientific knowledge we have on longevity is our way to calm ourselves.It helps to create the illusion of control over our destiny. There is no other explanation for why we put ourselves through so much effort on the lighly supported hope that it will give us some undefined number of more hours on this Earth.

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@hawkeye10,

Well, another explanation would be that one thinks there is good reason to believe the evidence presented thus far, and that one also wants to live longer.
Additionally, one may not find it to take a lot of effort. I enjoy exercise.

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@Huxley,

Have we improved on Great Grandma's advise to eat sensibly, eat a well rounded diet, and stay busy?

I dont think so, so far as I can see the "eat this, dont eat that" advise that clogs the dialog is noise. The medical situation is different, but I would rather have the old days where I had specialists who took care of that stuff, I am not happy that now I have to do a lot of it myself. That I have to try to figure out what is wrong with my body and figure out what to ask a doctor to do about it is a sign of a failed medical system.

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

If our lives were predetermined, I would simply give up. What good would living be if we had no real choices to make?

Equally, what good would dying do if you had no real choices to make?

You may as well just enjoy the ride.

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@hawkeye10,

I've been a lucky woman, by virtue of long acquaintance via working in a well regarded med center for years and years, to have had a lot of particularly good mds over time. I get how lucky I was, now that I am financially embarrassed, as they say, and clinic dependent. Still, one of my clinics has been superb, comparable to the care from those sharp types of my yesteryears. Most of those smart types always took time to go over pros and cons, diagramming stuff, with me - but they were advantaged there too, as I am pretty knowledgeable as patients go. I read up back then, too, before google, but from the biomed library, which is where I first read about RP. All of those mds were good listeners, or I'd have been out of there. But how do they do with the less knowing patient....

Interesting to me, at my present eye clinic, I've watched as people in the local incarceration population are in line to see my doc, always with at least one guard who enters the room. These guys get the same amount of time with him as I do, and he is a superb listener, explainer, and listener and explainer again. So, some good medicine is still happening.

The system as a whole - I agree with Robert on his take, last I read of it. No link right this minute. Anyway, I'm not enthused about present efforts at any kind of fix, though I'm more for them than for no change at all.

Oh, wait, this is a digression.

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@hawkeye10,

Well, we know approximately how much one should eat, and how much of what one should eat in a given day (on average, of course). We know of different kinds of exercises and which ones have less harm. We know that smoking causes cancer. We know that it is better to use unsaturated fats over saturated fats, as saturated fats are more likely to deposit inside your arteries.

I'm not going to deny that health columns and news have a lot of crock peddled around, and that fads are more predominant than actual gains. But that doesn't stop there from being actual gains.

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@Huxley,

Quote:

We know that it is better to use unsaturated fats over saturated fats, as saturated fats are more likely to deposit inside your arteries.

WE do????

Quote:

What if Bad Fat is Actually Good for You? For decades, Americans have been told that saturated fat clogs arteries and causes heart disease. But there's just one problem: No one's ever proved it

http://www.menshealth.com/men/health/heart-disease/saturated-fat/article/a03ddd2eaab85110VgnVCM10000013281eac

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@hawkeye10,

In a general, scientific sense, yes. Saturated fats "compact" together more easily (due to their structure), and because of this, have a lower melting point than unsaturated fats. Because of this, they're more likely to accumulate in your arteries, especially if you eat a lot of them (such as can be found in Pizza), and don't exercise to raise your body temperature (such as Americans often don't do).

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@Huxley,

Quote:

But the mice with high-fat breakfasts had “significantly lower body weights and body fat composition” than their counterparts who ate high-fat dinners, according to their study published this week in the International Journal of Obesity.

Those weren’t the only differences. The mice that began the day with more carbs developed insulin resistance, a condition that increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also wound up with more insulin, leptin and triglycerides circulating in their blood, which are also associated with diabetes and heart disease

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/04/high-fat-breakfast-is-good-for-you.html

this is after about twenty years of telling people that the old fashioned meat/eggs/toast breakfast will clog our arteries and kill us.....

The fact of the matter is that we know very little about what we should eat/not eat....we know very little about all of the interactions that go on between our body and the food that we put into it. The sensible person ignores all of the noise, and eats what they want in moderation and tries to eat a wide variety of things.

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@stevecook172001,

If I were predetermined to give up, I would be doing the correct thing. Come to think of it, anything I might do would be the correct thing to do. No that's too stupid. There is no real predetermination.

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@hawkeye10,

I'll be a surprise supporter, here, hawkeye. At one point I read plaque formation was related to both something about platelets and one of the amino acids. I haven't read about it so much lately, but the phenom is nothing so simple as blanket artery coating of bacon fat.

To elaborate my mis-memory, this all involved studies re inuits (?) who ate non cooked blubber, sans problemo, re arteries. Apparently, whatever amino acid I am remembering (thymine? don't remember) is decimated with cooking. The guy who wrote all this up for the Atlantic Monthly (no citation, whatever year) was drummed out, even though he was a Harvard person. Apparently, twenty x years later, he was deemed essentially correct, or at least not far off base.

I'm not saying that fellow was right, but I take it all as complicated metabolism.

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You can make sure it is not shortened, not extend it. Even then, it depends. For example, small amounts of wine can reduce stress levels, which reduces chance of heart attack or shingles. Smoking marijuana has been shown to do similar things, as well as act as an anti-depressant. Everything in moderation, I guess.

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@Sentience,

What I do, have done over the years, is pay attention to what foods leave me feeling well and the foods that leave me feeling uncomfortable, or miserable. I say, know your own body as we certainly are not the same, stop eating foods that don't work for your particular system.

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@Pemerson,

that would be a great idea if you included judging also by how much you enjoy the process of eating particular foods. For instance I love eating a good french fry tipped in ketchup, though I know also that it is not going to make me feel good after I eat it. It is still worth doing.

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@hawkeye10,

Maybe you are not old enough, or ill enough, yet. Sure, enjoy while you can.
What happens is you get high blood pressure from the salt (of all those enjoyable foods) so you get medication which gives you all kinds of side effects. It's easier to change the diet. It doesn't take long, either, to hate those enjoyable foods.

I go on ice cream binges, just a bit, because I enjoy it so. But, oh gosh, the cholesterol! I don't take any medication now and would like to keep it that way.

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@Pemerson,

Quote:

What happens is you get high blood pressure from the salt

from what I have seen only a small minority of people are sensitive to salt, as in their body does not automatically kick out all unneeded salt with no ill effects. Those people should watch how much salt they eat. We have food labels so that they can do this. The food Nazis however should leave us all the **** alone, their bullying is not needed nor appreciated by me.

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@hawkeye10,

Never mind bullying.

I am aware that not all with high blood pressure are salt reactive, and even less do I know how one lands on whatever the spectrum is.

Do you have data at hand? I don't. I may have to do a hunt for it.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

Weinberger noted that some Americans are more likely than others to be salt sensitive. These include older persons, African Americans, and those with a family member who is salt sensitive or who have a parent, sibling, or child with hypertension. Based on the researchers' earlier studies, he estimates that about 26% of Americans with normal blood pressure and about 58% of those with hypertension are salt sensitive.

this number is higher than I have seen, I dont know the right number

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

The Minnesota study measured blood pressure in people when they followed a high-salt diet and again when they went on a low-salt diet. The salt-sensitive people who developed high blood pressure on a high-salt diet were started on an exercise program. After six months, many of these people did not develop high blood pressure when they again ate a high-salt diet. This shows that regular exercise can control high blood pressure caused by a high-salt diet. Previous studies show that it is very bad advice to tell most exercisers to restrict their intake of salt. This new study shows that many people who develop high blood pressure from a high salt diet when they are sedentary, will not develop high blood pressure on the same diet when they exercise

http://www.drmirkin.com/heart/salt_sensitivity.html

How about we tell the food Nazi's to shove off with their salt scare tactics, but reiterate the multi-generational advise for people to get active??

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
The food Nazis however should leave us all the **** alone, their bullying is not needed nor appreciated by me.

Well, don't take these things personally, hawkeye. Didn't you say, in another thread, that bullies serve a good purpose?

1 Reply

Can You Increase Your Lifespan By Eating Correctly, NotSmoking, Not Drinking Alcohol And Exercising?

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