Longevity is interesting to me. I read this article and I wonder how many of these things you do: The Link I'm 47, work out regularly (and, often, brutally). I eat a lot of fruit and olive oil but not as much dark green leafy vegetables. Meat once or twice week, usually in the form of chicken. I also take fish oil supplements as I'm convinced they are key.
A calorie restricted (CR) diet is pretty much the best way. Check out a recent NYT article on the subject.
I started by having parents with parents who live to eternity. Dad's dad: lived to be 101 and ate 3 eggs a day. Mom's dad: lived to be 90 and his favorite part of the steak was the fat. My dad is 85 and works 5 days a week. My mom is 75 and is falling apart, but didn't really take care of herself. I have a feeling that my brother and I will fly past 90 (although he has better medical attention than I do) and should probably pass 100 if we continue what we've been doing. I drink a bit, neither of us smokes or does any drugs. Neither of us has ever even tried coke (thus, no scarring of the heart)... We both exercise and have been aware of what we eat since we were little. I think he takes more vitamins than I do. I need to get on that. The thing is, that you don't want to live to be 100 if the last 20 years suck balls. It's much better to live well to 87 than to live to be 100 and be a worthless sack for the last 20 to 25 years.
Most of the literature goes on and on about diet and exercise, freedom from stress, and whatnot. But if you look at the locations, what the groups that demonstrate exceptional longevity have in common is this: they live high up in the mountains. Well, duh! Clean air, water that hasn't been pissed and shat in by twenty million people, food grown with that food... Hmmmm...
Live fast, die young. I'd rather eat a nice fat chunk of meat every day and live to be 60 then work my *** off and eat leaves to get an extra 20 years.
Great post. Hornius Emeritus, your scenario is almost identical to mine. Longevity research is fascinating to me and I am learning that we probably have far more control over this than we think. I turned 47 this summer, have been running regularly for 16 years, working out with weights pretty steady for about 2 years now, eating right (I take a big fruit salad to work every day) -- and I have never felt better or stronger in my life. A few months ago I began a meditation practice -- just about 20 minutes a day of quiet relaxation, and -- this is the important part -- getting the mind quiet. This is key, being able to shut down the incessant mental chatter and let the mind be still. I have found that this quiet time, along with exercise and a good diet, dramatically reduces stress. I sleep like a baby and there is almost nothing that makes me really angry or upset anymore. Life just flows better. I love what Michael Pollan says about diet: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Also see Aubrey Degray's TED Talk about aging research. He's doing some interesting work on this.
TX OU week is the most stressful time of the year. I always think my heart is going to go into ultra high frequency attack just before kickoff. Even if I quit work and nap daily, this stress will be the end of me.
Ever since I witnessed the Rose Bowl win and Vince scoring the winning touchdown from the 3rd row over in that corner... All sporting events seem a little less important than they used to. I've reached the top in "America" sports, so now I'm a bigger soccer fan. It's like I accomplished a goal and have moved on to a new one. I recommend not letting TX/OU getting to you.
Did 20 miles on my mountain bike this afternoon. Had a salad, some juice, and a couple of almond butter sandwiches for dinner. Feel awesome.
I on the otherhand woke up at noon, had some leftover chicago deep dish pepporoni/sausage pizza, polished off a wild cherry pepsi, had about 10 laffy taffys and half a box of hot tamales, ate out for dinner and had a pork tamale/chicken flauta and 4 glasses of pepsi, an apple and to finish off the evening a root beer float. I also watched the 1990 replay of the TX/OU game, which was the extent of my physical activity for the day, outside of walking to and from places.
No sarcasm. Straight honest truth. I'm 5'11'' 150 lbs and ate like that every day through college without gaining an ounce. Thank you metabolism, sorry heart. I should mention the extent of my physical activity was playing softball (so, none). I was extremely worried I would gain weight when I quit running after high school (60 miles a week) but no visible effects as of yet.
I saw the show on Oprah one day about the Blue Zones. If I remember correctly, eating meat all the time is a no-no. That was once tough to give up, but after living in Arizona for 12 years with the granola crowd influence, I only have steak occasionally. I am a Texan, after all. I'm more active than I have been since I was tennis playing teen and feel pretty darn good for a 40+ year old. Diet and exercise may be key to living a long life, but they are also key to living a quality life in the present.
Pray/meditate, have a hobby, be outside, don't smoke, laugh, help others, moderate working out, drink water, mostly a plant based diet.....treat this day as if it were your last.
You can banter back and forth all you want about flax seed and running so many miles and almond sandwiches but honestly, no one can really say how much these little things add to longevity. It's really about overall lifestyle and genetics. I almost want to favor genetics because I've seen plenty of people eat, exercise and work "normally" and live to be into their nineties. I disagree with the article about what percent of genetics factors into longevity. I don't think we know enough about genetics yet to see its effect on longevity. I've seen people with horrible genetic predisposition for diabetes, heart disease, etc. who have gone down hill fast despite doing a lot to prevent it. And I've seen people eat, drink and smoke themselves to death way before their time. I usually counsel to make healthy life style choices, cover your bases if you are predisposed to a certain disease state and enjoy the time you have.
