1.   Next Time You Are Asked "Soup or Salad?" Order the Salad
      +2 years

Italian researchers found that eating as little as 1 cup of raw vegetables daily can add 2 years to your life. Why raw? Cooking can deplete up to 30 percent of the antioxidants in vegetables.

To eat your quota, fill a Ziploc sandwich bag with chopped red and green peppers, broccoli, and carrots. Toss the bag into your briefcase, along with a packet of dressing-the fat will boost your body's absorption of certain nutrients.

2.  Learn the Law of Lard: The Fat You Carry Today Could Kill You Tomorrow
     +3 years

University of Alabama researchers discovered that maintaining a body-mass index of 25 to 35 could shorten your life by up to 3 years. (Excess body fat raises your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and colon cancer.)

If you are allergic to exercise, sweat with your significant other. A Duke University study shows that sedentary men are 50 percent more likely to work out three times a week if their partners participate.

3.  Crack Open a Fresh Can of Nuts and Extend Your Expiration Date
     +3 years

When Loma Linda University researchers tracked the lifestyle habits of 34,000 Seventh-Day Adventists-a population famous for its longevity-they discovered that those who munched nuts 5 days a week, earned an extra 2.9 years on the planet.

Pick up the Planters NUT-rition Heart Healthy Mix: It contains all five key nuts, including walnuts, which are usually left out of nut mixes. Aim to eat 2 ounces a day.

4.  Never Forget that Your Buddies Have Your Back-Even When It's Hunched Over from Osteoporosis
    +7 years

In a study of seventy-somethings, Australian researchers found that those with the largest network of friends had the longest lease on life. For the average person, this could add up to 7 additional years of existence.

Yes, some buddies may encourage risky behavior from time to time, but friendship ultimately provides more protection than peril. So try to learn a few new faces at work, trade lifting tips at the gym, or simply say "hey" to that neighbor you have never met. You can all thank each other later.

5.  Repeat After Us: "There is Life After Retirement"
    +7 1/2 years

Or at least that is what you had better believe if you want to live that long. In a Yale University study of older adults, people with a positive outlook on the aging process lived more than 7 years longer than those who felt doomed to deteriorating mental and physical health.

Already envisioning decades of decrepitude? Volunteer for a cause you are passionate about: Selfless actions can put a positive spin on life and distract from unhealthy obsessing, reports a study in Psychosomatic Medicine.

You can't stop aging but you can influence it dramatically. After you hit 30, 35, it's all downhill, right? Not true. Your physical health and your mental well-being determine your real age, not the date on your birth certificate.
Here are eight tips for feeling young no matter what your age. Plus, you can be boosting your life expectancy?

Getting older is inevitable. But aging is not. Here are my tips for staying young at any age.

1. Forget your chronologic age.
It's a fairly meaningless number after the age of 30. It's your biologic age that counts. People who understand how life energy works in the body often have biologic ages 20 or more years younger than their chronologic ages.

The opposite is also true. I routinely see 35-year-olds who look, act and talk like people much older. They tend to hang out with friends and family members who talk the same talk and walk the same slow walk. When I meet such a person, I know I'm seeing the aging process happening right before my eyes. Their words, thoughts and actions are all about deterioration.

2. Getting older is inevitable.
Aging is not. The process of getting older actually begins the moment our life begins. We can't stop it. However, we can influence it. Research is revealing more about aging each day. We are now treating aging as a health issue to be solved.

I have some theories that have stood the test of time based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Until age 30 or 35, the abundance of yang energy within each of us is so strong that our bodies are very forgiving and do a great job of repairing damage to the body. In other words, the average 18-year-old will be able to maintain a healthy weight and have lots of energy, even if he or she eats mostly junk food, doesn't exercise, doesn't take nutritional supplements, smokes, drinks alcohol, and is chronically pessimistic. However, the natural forgiveness in the young doesn't last forever. By about age 30, our lifestyles, including our thoughts and beliefs, catch up with us and have depleted some of the yang energy. Your body will be far less forgiving than it used to be. You won't be able to stay up all night, over comsume alcohol, then fuel yourself with several cups of coffee the next morning and still arrive at work the next day feeling alert. You won't be able to live on caffeine, cigarettes and junk food and still have your complexion look radiant. Your weight will become harder to maintain and in many your phycological health will suffer along with your physical health.

When health-robbing habits catch up with people at about the age of 30 or so, they say, "You see? It's my age. That's why this stuff is happening to me. It's natural." Nothing could be further from the truth. When we don't take care of our bodies (including our minds, emotions and spirits) our bodies are forced to send us louder and louder signals to get our attention.

3. Get conscious about ageism.
We live in a culture that is drenched with ageism. We automatically assume that someone is going to deteriorate as they get older. I often have patients refer to themselves as "old and fat." They are often in their mid-forties to mid-fifties! This is dangerous to our health and well-being.

It's important to catch yourself engaging in ageism. Do you ever say that you've just had a "senior" moment when you forget a name or a face? If you do, stop it. NOW. I've forgotten occasional names for my whole life. I'll bet you have, too. We all forget things. This needn't increase with age.

Many women, especially during perimenopause, complain of having a "cotton head." They can't seem to balance their checkbook. They're certain that they are experiencing the first stages of Alzheimer's. This simply isn't true. Most of the "fuzzy head" that women talk about at perimenopause isn't aging at all. It's your inner wisdom telling you it's time for you to tune in to yourself more consistently.

 

Catch yourself in the act of using your age as an excuse for not trying something. For example, "I think I'm doing pretty well, for my age." What does that mean? Though it's true that most 65-year-old men and women don't engage in as much risk-taking or thrill-seeking behavior as they did when they were younger (like driving too fast with a high blood alcohol level), this is because of a wonderful quality that comes with age: wisdom.

4. Clean up your diet.
You just can't build healthy new cells by eating devitalized junk food that has a shelf life longer than your life expectancy. We all need plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, adequate protein, lots of water, sunshine, and fresh air.

5. Take supplements.
Everyone needs at least a good daily multivitamin. Brands like Centrum aren't worth the money. You need a pharmaceutical-grade product with good antioxidant coverage. A great deal of physical deterioration is the result of free radical damage to tissues. Antioxidants gobble up those free radicals, and help tissue stay pliable, flexible and healthy.

 

6. Get up and boogey!
There's only one reason why someone automatically loses muscle mass or range of motion with age: They stop using their muscles and bodies fully. Period. Physical deterioration has very little to do with age. It has a lot to do with being sedentary. You wouldn't expect your car to start on the first try and run well if you left it sitting out in a field for five years, then tried to drive it - would you? Of course not. It's the same with our bodies. Those who exercise regularly can expect to add at least six to seven quality years to their lives. Walking isn't usually enough to build the kind of muscle mass you need to keep your weight normal. You also need weight training to build and maintain bone mass.

7. Engage in creative pursuits and schedule things to look forward to.
It's possible to keep your mind sharp and enjoy your life without becoming an exercise or food nut. I often meet very creative people whose minds are so engaged in their work and in what they're creating for the future that they're saturated with life force directly from source energy. This is one of the reasons why some people seem timeless. Their creative process is such that they're always touching the hand of God. Their work is divinely inspired. And that rubs off on the physical body.

You don't have to be a world-class anything to tap into source energy. We all can do it. Prayer or meditation will do it. So will dance or any other creative pursuit. The key is that you have to open yourself up to being a channel for something new.

 

8. Go to a Anti-Aging specialist
They can help you jump-start your new, younger life. They can help you with all the food, exercise, hormones and esthetic procedures to maintain the youth you can have if you choose.
Remember, youth is a state of mind. You can be young at 90, and old at 15. You get to choose. 

If you do choose to see an anti-aging specialist, we hope you will consider Saylor Medical Group, 727-938-9966. 

It is a fact - you can look, feel and act younger. The number of candles you have on your cake are just that, candles on a cake and nothing more. It is your choice. The possibilities await you. Take charge of your life and give us a call today.  

 

Sincerely,