Senility

Senility--memory loss, forgetfulness, and an inability to reason properly--is a scary word.

Well, instead of being scared of senility, you should think about what you can do now (before old age) to keep your mental batteries fully charged.

The secret, say scientists, is to take good care of an organ you probably don't think much about: Your brain. If you keep it healthy now, it will have a better chance of going the distance without faltering.

Of course, there are no guarantees that you can prevent senility. In fact, medical researchers are still arguing about its cause. But while some scientists debate over how the brain breaks down, others have focused on maintenance. And perhaps the most important element they have found to keep your brain fine-tuned is diet.

Research shows, for instance, that the brain needs B-complex vitamins to preserve memory and clear thinking. Also it was found out that a zinc deficiency contributes to senility.

Exercise, continues the research findings, should be the central element of your anti-senility plan.

"What the scientific research on the influence of exercise on aging indicates is that when you do long-term aerobic exercise, your brain cells don't age as quickly. Exercise oxygenates the cells and keeps them healthier," says Dr. John Young of the Kentland Institute of Preventive Medicine in Indiana, USA.

Lastly, do not forget that getting seven to eight hours of sleep nightly will make your brain function at its optimum capacity.

Health-Giving Fruits

As Filipino health buffs, we can consider ourselves as blessed for having a variety of delicious and nutritious fruits all year round.

Consider the papaya, called the “melon that grows on a tree” by Americans. In an issue of Organic Consumer Report, a health publication, this nutritious fruit was featured and from the facts presented in the article, we should eat as much of papaya as we can. Here are the reasons:

Papaya is rich in vitamins and minerals and low in calories—truly the fruit of health. It is the source of an important digestive ferment called papain, an enzyme. This enzyme possesses the power of digesting protein materials such as meat, egg white, milk curd, etc.

And take note: Papaya has a higher vitamin C content than apples, pineapple, grapefruit, oranges and many other popular fruits; an excellent source of vitamin A, it has a higher content of this vitamin than carrots and an appreciable amount of vitamin B.

It is well-recognized that those consuming fresh, raw vegetable juices, and a large percent of their total food intake in the form of raw vegetables, especially green leaves and root vegetables, often experience relief from stiff joints and other miseries. Without identifying the exact nutritional factor to be credited—which is not necessary because nutrients work together—it appears that what is now called stigmasterol plays an important part.

Here’s something interesting from Organic Consumer. Your body is a six-million-year-old healer that has a lot of wisdom if you will listen to it: Headaches, the body’s warning that you are tired, over-worked, or hungry. Or they can signal something more serious such as stroke, concussion, brain disorder, constipation or glaucoma. Try to understand the cause and eliminate it. Backaches usually mean too little exercise or putting unnecessary strain on your back by poor posture or lifting things the wrong way, or a pinched nerve. Heartburn is often a symptom you’re eating or drinking something you shouldn’t—coffee, cola drinks, alcohol, can trigger it…the acid/alkaline balance is off. Sneezing indicates the body is trying to get rid of something it can’t tolerate. Earaches are frequently caused either by blowing the nose too hard or not enough. They can also signal meningitis, but this probably isn’t present if you can touch your chin to your chest without pain.

Can Arthritis Be Prevented?

The right kind of exercise may postpone or prevent osteoarthritis, the most common kind of arthritis, reports Prevention Magazine, a publication for better health.

By strengthening the muscles around the joint, exercise makes the joint work better. Stronger muscles mean less wear and tear on cartilage and bone—and the chance of the deterioration of osteoarthritis. Other investigators have proposed that exercise insures the health of the cartilage by keeping it well-nourished.

The kind of exercise you do probably matters less than how you do it. If you exercise improperly, you can hasten the development of the disease. In particular, avoid exercising without a thorough warm-up: when muscles are tight, the joints move unnaturally, producing damaging strains.

Whether you run, swim, play golf or play tennis, make sure you do it right. ‘Correct’ tennis and golf strokes—using your body in a natural way—not only means a better game: It means less strain.

How about running and jogging? Some experts take a dim view, noting that they tax the weight-bearing joints (hips and knees) where osteoarthritis often develops. However, as long as sensible precautions are taken—a smooth surface that “gives” good shoes, and scrupulous attention to stretching and warm-up exercises, there is nothing wrong with these activities.

Still on jogging...Researchers at Purdue University report that jogging may be good for your pocketbook as well as for your emotional stability. Professor A.H. Ismail and his two colleagues compared the physical and mental well-being of men who are regular exercisers with another group of similar men who remained inactive. Over a four-year period, the active men incurred fewer severe illnesses and accidents—they saved on average of $1000 each year in lower medical costs. Professor Ismail observed: “When people who are perpetual exercisers become ill, the illness is less and, consequently, less expensive.”

The researchers found that the active men were also more emotionally stable than their sedentary counterparts, and that the active ones tended to become “non-neurotic, non-psychotic, and non-depressive.

The Healthy Heart

A heart that is kept healthy through exercise maintains clear coronary arteries.

On the contrary, when the arteries become blocked through lack of exercise, the blood supply is reduced and a section of the heart muscle stops functioning, resulting in a heart attack or even in death.

And how does exercise help the heart? It does so through use. It also needs oxygen. Exercise enables the lungs to operate more efficiently, thereby delivering more oxygen through the coronary arteries to the heart.. The supply of oxygen enables the heart to function at a lower blood pressure without having to work as hard.

One of the more widely reported effects of physical activity on heart function is the development of extra circulation routes when the main coronary artery branches become blocked.

According to Dr. William B. Kannel of Harvard University, “Persons who have an important degree of blockage of the coronary artery, but continues being physically active, can reasonably be expected to develop more collateral circulation than those with comparable coronary involvement who remain inactive.”

It comes as no surprise that exercise may protect against heart disease by preventing the accumulation of excess weight. But how many people know about studies which indicate that exercise lowers blood levels of cholesterol, a fatty acid which is believed to lead to the formation of plaques which clog arteries in atherosclerosis? Atherosclerosis is the thickening of, and loss of elasticity in, the inner walls of arteries.

Do you know that the link between exercise and heart disease was first suspected in 1854? However, it was not until 1951 that English physician Dr. Percy Stocks reported that coronary heart disease accounted for 15 percent of the deaths among laborers and 40 percent of the deaths among sedentary workers. From all over the globe, unshakeable evidence suggests that exercise will prevent heart disease.

Health Facts At Your Fingertips

Your fingertips mirror what’s happening in your body --- a tip-off to disease:

• Brittleness indicates generally poor health, possibly vitamin A or calcium deficiency.

• Ridges may often mean a hereditary condition, also indicating an injury or vitamin B complex deficiency.

• Separation (or if the nail lifts off) may indicate a fungus infection, an allergy, thyroid disorder or lack of iron.

• White Spots are usually caused by a blow or light physical shock. They can also indicate illness, zinc deficiency, a nervous problem or extreme cold.

• Opaque White Bands indicate a minor injury, a lack of protein, vitamin A or calcium.

• Cracking indicates imbalanced diet or a shortage of vitamin B2 (riboflavin).

Tidbits. Every night, the average person has 3 to 4 dreams, each lasting 10 minutes or more; when you touch something, the impulse travels along our nerve network to the brain at the rate of 350 feet per second; the human skull is made up of 29 different bones; for reasons unknown to science, color blindness affects more men than women.

Hard to believe, but everyday, blinking causes the eye to close for 30 minutes; the iris of the eye can adjust to light intensities up to 1,000 times; the average human circulatory system is 60,000 to 100,000 miles long; the largest organ of the body is the skin; everyday the bone manufactures 1,000,000,000 (one billion) red blood cells; the largest blood vessels in your body are 1-inch wide; in an average lifetime, the hair on your head grows about 25 feet.

Exercise Shorts. Swedish heart specialist Dr. Per-Olaf Astrand reports that with proper half-hour, twice-weekly exercise stints a man can save his heart 30,000 beats per day.

Exercise has been effectively used to treat patients with angina pectoris (a condition marked by recurrent pain in the chest and left arm, caused by a sudden decrease of the blood supply to the heart muscle), according to Aerospace Medicine.

Food Additives Can Be Dangerous

Dr Richard Ronk, US Food & Drug Administrator, estimates that overall the number of chemicals used in food processing reaches 11,000 – 12,000.

The uncertain safety of food additives falls into three categories. The first concerns whether a chemical poisons you immediately. The second concerns slow poisoning on chronic exposure and the third concerns whether the substance causes cancer (carcinogenesis) 20 -30 years later.

Most food additives have been tested for category one safety only. The reason is that it is very expensive to test food additives up to a category three level.

The Canadian tests which led to the banning of saccharin (a sugar substitute), for example, required the time of several senior scientists over a four-year period and cost a million dollars.

Government laboratories, including the Food & Drug Administration, just don’t have the resources to test every chemical and industry, understandably, has shown a reluctance to invest in such tests. Why should they undertake tests on a similar and useful (to them) additive which might result in it being banned?

Many food additives can interact with the known vitamins of foods. Sulfite, a common additive in many foods (like in soft drinks, wines, vinegar, dried fruit, etc.), destroys thiamin and folic acid. Sodium carbonate or lime, another additive, also destroys thiamin while causing severe loss of several amino acids.

And, do you that iron added to fortify many processed foods, causes destruction of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (tocopherol)?

TIDBITS. Keep Cool and Live Longer! You’ll live 500 years, says scientists, if body temperature were just 8 degrees cooler.

That’s how much of an extent heat can affect a life span! So writes Otto Wolfgang in Strength & Health Magazine, a Bob Hoffman publication.

Your heart, for example, works harder at a given task during summer than in the cold months – 10 times as hard in 90 degrees as in 70. Doctors call it increase “cardiac output.”

Tests also show that the older a person gets, the harder it becomes for him to withstand heat.

Delaying The Aging Process

Although all vitamins and minerals play a part in delaying aging, vitamins C and E are probably most important. Both protect the tissues from the aging, destructive effects of oxygen.

You must have plenty of oxygen for the functions of life, but if there is a deficiency of vitamin C or vitamin E, the oxygen speeds the aging process. Vitamin E is essential for good circulation and a healthy heart.

The above is the gist of an article, How To Slow The Aging Process and Prolong Your Life, written by Dr. Samuel Homola in the fitness magazine, Strength & Health.

In the same article, Dr. Homola asserts that endurance-type exercises, such as swimming, jogging and bicycle-riding stimulate the circulation of the blood and strengthen the heart muscle, thus contributing to improved health and longer life.

Dr. Homola also advocates scientific weight-training or barbell exercises to preserve youthfulness. There is evidence, for example, to indicate that there might be a connection between lifting weights and the ability of the body to produce hormones that slow the aging process.

So be sure to include a few barbell exercises in your youth-building program!

For The Weight-Watcher. Do not eat between meals, but drink 1-2 glasses of pure water instead.

However, if you must take a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, drink fresh fruit or vegetable juice. Or munch bananas—any fruit of the season will do.

It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do, so long as you do it long enough to be effective. Fifteen minutes of running, studies show, is comparable to two hours of tennis.

Moderate exercise over extended period of time is best for fat metabolism. If you walk four hours a day, you can do yourself as much good as running for 30 minutes or exercising with weights for an hour.