What is Normal Ageing?

Eating a Healthy Diet

Too often bad health is considered "normal" in our society. We accept being over weight. We accept declining strength, and we accept the loss of walking and running ability. If you were healthy, you wouldn't let yourself fade away with no resistance.

It's common for people to put on weight as they age. Common, but bad for us, and not normal. If you add just 1kg to your weight every year, from the age of 50, what will you'll weigh at 90? To do that all you need to do is eat one extra mouthful every day. You see what a fine line we tread. And also perhaps, that our weight issues are not usually very badly out of control.

I always thought that the gold standard for diet was a vegetarian diet. I'm wrong. Modern dietary science doesn't give any support for the vegetarian diet. You might have personal reason for wanting to be a vegetarian. It can be done, but it's hard work, and you might struggle to be healthy.

The mixed diet recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, might be considered a healthy diet. It's a easy diet to eat. However, over time, because our body adapts to the lifestyle we choose, most people in advanced societies develop an intolerance to carbohydrate. This diet can become a problem. Stronger than that, the Women's Health Initiative proves that this low-fat high-carbohydrate diet is NOT a healthy diet, that study published in 2006.

Low carbohydrate high-fat diets, are an alternative diet to help your body cope with developed carbohydrate intolerance.

Metabolic Syndrome is not Normal Ageing

Weight, Alcohol Use and Smoking

Your weight should not be very different as an older person than it was when you were a young adult. Our experience of weight loss diets is bad, so we think it's a problem we can't solve.
We all know that smoking both causes diseases and reduces your lifespan. Don't do it.
Alcohol use is widely accepted and ignored. Alcohol misuse, is ignored, but it is a great destroyer. Excess use of alcohol destroys marriages, destroys businesses and undermines health. Don't be a victim of alcohol or drug misuse.

The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome could apply to more than 60% of all adults. Metabolic syndrome might be common, but it's not necessary, and it's certainly not "normal." We now also know from Dr Suzanne de la Monte, that metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, are all progressive variations, of a poor diet, we all convince ourselves is "healthy."

You can't cheat the blood test the doctor does. If your triglycerides are high, if you are insulin resistant, if your HbA1c is high, or fasting glucose is high, if vitamin B12, or vitamin D, or iodine are low, OR if you are over-weight, then your DIET is your problem. If you have diabetes, type I or type II, or type III (Alzheimer's) your diet is the problem. (Type I diabetes, is a bit different. Most type I people are using far too much insulin because they were told that insulin use is OK.) The real problem with diabetes is excess insulin; which will make you insulin resistant, the rest is all bad news for your health. In every case the Banting Diet is the solution.

Fitness for Work and Play

Normal Ageing You should have energy to the ordinary things of life.

You should be able to walk long distances, and go up and down hills with ease.

You should be able to walk briskly. Can you stand upon one leg while putting a sock on the other?

When your walk slows, and especially when you begin to shuffle, your health is seriously impaired.

Exercise is important for your mind. Exercise increases the blood flow and 25% of that flows through the brain.

Exercise increases your strength and your confidence, and improves your quality of life.

An increasing number of falls is a bad sign. A serious fall resulting in a broken hip is often a signal of near term mortality. Keep dancing, it improves your strength and your balance.

Social Connection

You need to be with other people on a regular basis.
Many of our eating behaviors are socially mandated.
Drinking saturated tea or coffee, is always something you can do. (Add a spoonful of butter.)
If others are eating, are salads, meat, quiche, or nuts available?

Freedom from Chronic Illness

Typically, people who are 75 suffer from five or more "illnesses." That probably means almost all of them have metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a set of six "diseases" that can all be corrected by dietary change. If you have metabolic syndrome, you are a prime candidate for later Alzheimer's disease. Dr Dale Bredesen believes this is entirely avoidable. Read what Open Future Health says about Alzheimer's and then have a long talk to your doctor.

It's not normal to suffer from pain, although that is a very common experience.

Saturated fats and high cholesterol do NOT cause cardio-vascular disease. We still don't know why atherosclerosis begins in the arteries. The best current theory is that it's caused by "inflammation" which might be a lot of things, but it's something to do with our modern lifestyle. I suspect something that changed when all or food was purchased from shops, and much of it came in packages. People we consider primitive didn't have heart attacks. They were healthy and well, deep into old age.

Sleep is the opportunity you body takes each day to do extensive repairs and maintenance. You should sleep soundly, sleep long, and you should wake up wide eyed, clear headed, and refreshed.

Taking None or Very Few Medications

Taking multiple medications is bad for you. Nobody knows how the different medicines affect each other. The best medicine is good food, and the best time to eat it was 20 years, before "lifestyle" health problems occurred. That's not possible, but it remains possible to change your diet today.

Alzheimer's is a metabolic disease. Therefore, a sensible prevention strategy is in your lifestyle and diet. Research is currently being done, and Dr Dale Bredesen has developed a protocol that's been demonstrated to reverse Alzheimer's disease, at least in the early stages.