Slow the Rate of Aging - by Dr. Ron Ross

Elderly Population Exploding

2011-06-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

The over-65 population has increased by 3.3 million or 10.6% since 1990 representing 12.7% of the U.S. population. The under-65 population increased at only 9.1% for the same period of time, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics.

Sex ratio favors women unless you’re an old guy on the hunt
If you’re a man over the age of 65 your chances of meeting an available woman is on the increase. In 1999, there were 20.2 million older women and 14.3 million older men, or a sex ratio of 141 women for every 100 men. The older you get the better it gets – as the sex ratio increases with age, ranging from 118 for the 65-69 group to a high of 237 for persons 85 and over.

Geezer power!
Since 1900, the percentage of Americans 65+ has more than tripled (4.1% in 1900 to 12.7% in 1999), and the number has increased more than 1,100% (from 3.1 million to 34.5 million).
The older population itself is getting older. In 1999 the 65-74 age group (18.2 million) was eight times larger than in 1900, but the 75-84 group (12.1 million) was 16 times larger and the 85+ group (4.2 million) was 34 times larger.

What does the future hold?
The older population will burgeon between the years 2010 and 2030 when the "baby boom" generation reaches age 65. By 2030, there will be about 70 million older persons, more than twice their number in 1999. People 65+ will represent almost 13% of the population in the year 2000 but are expected to grow to be 20% of the population by 2030.

Impact on health and health care.
This aging of society is a serious problem in light of the increasing cost of health care and the likelihood that that Medicare will go bankrupt soon. The only thing that you and I can do about this problem is to STAY HEALTHY.

So if you’ve been neglecting your health and depending on your insurance company to pay your medical bills, and if you think ObamaCare will be around to take care of you and make things better, you will one day be sitting in a crowded hospital emergency room waiting for some doctor to be imported from India so you can get treatment.

Get healthy and start today. Tomorrow may be too late.

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One way to stay healthy is to start taking PROTANDIM today.

Two good ways to deal with Obamacare and the only sure way

2011-05-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

You don’t want socialized medicine. I know. For seven years I lived in a country where the government owned and operated nearly all the hospitals and you don’t want that to happen here.

My wife gave birth to our third child in a government hospital in Zambia. She delivered our son in a bare room on a table with a mid-wife in attendance. I was the only other assistant around – doing the only thing I knew now to do – hold my wife’s hand and offer words of encouragement.

Once the baby was born they offered her a cup of tea and then moved her to a ward on the second floor. The next day I visited her and our new son. While there I spent most of my time killing cockroaches and comforting my very unhappy wife. She begged me to take her home.

“I can’t stay another night in this noisy, filthy place,” she pronounced. Later that day I told the nurse in charge we were leaving and the three of us went home.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain as they only charged me $10 to cover the hospital costs. But the experience made both of us appreciate the wonderful hospitals (one in Nebraska and the other in Kansas) where our other two children were born.

Now with Obamacare being implemented throughout the land, I predict our world-class health care system will “achieve” third-world mediocrity in less than five years.
So what to do about it?

Repeal it! The next congress and president might repeal it or the Supreme Court could find it unconstitutional (which it is). Unfortunately you cannot rely on any collection of politicians, either Republican or Democrat, to ever decrease the size of government. And the way the courts over the years have been stacked with Constitution-ignoring judges you cannot expect even the Supreme Court to make judgments in line with the mandates of the Constitution.

Get a waiver! To date the Obama administration has give over 1,300 waivers to their political allies. One in five waivers has been given to restaurants, night clubs and hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district. This means that only poor suckers like you and me will ever have to fully comply with the law. And the chances that we could apply to the government and get a waiver is about the same as it is that Obama’s BFFs at General Electric will ever pay taxes on their billions of dollars of profits: slim to none. So forget that option.

The third and best way to deal with Obamacare, or whatever healthcare system we’ll end up with for the next decade or two, can be summarized in two words: STAY HEALTHY.

“How to do that?” you ask.

I say, “Don’t get sick.”

But how do you “don’t get sick?”
Here’s how: Think healthy, live healthy, exercise healthy, drink healthy and take the only anti-aging supplement that has scientific proof of its efficacy – Protandim.

Protandim has been reported on by ABC, NBC and PBS. It has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and is described in Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s book, "Chasing Life, The Quest for Immortality."

You can watch Protandim’s creator and world-renowned scientist and pioneer in free-radical biology Dr. Joe McCord describe precisely what Protandim does. To see Dr. McCord, CLICK HERE.

For more information on Protandim and to view the ABC Primetime Live news report, CLICK HERE.

Here’s my point: there’s little you can do about the decreasing quality and availability of health care or its ever-increasing costs. But there are several things you can do that will increase the likelihood you will stay out of the health care system for as long as possible. Please - at least do that and start today.

SOME DOCTORS REFUSE

TO TREAT OVERWEIGHT PATIENTS!

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Fifteen obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 polled by the Sun Sentinel said they have set weight limits for new patients. Some of the doctors said the main reason was their exam tables or other equipment can't handle people over a certain weight, but at least six said heavy women run a higher risk of complications.
CLICK HERE for the full news report.

LOOMING DOCTOR SHORTAGE CAUSED BY OBAMACARE

FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

The healthcare reform bill enacted last year will significantly increase the number of Americans with health insurance and exacerbate an already looming doctor shortage.

The Association of American Medical Colleges reported in 2010 that the United States will need an additional 130,000 doctors — general-practice physicians and specialists — in 15 years, 20 percent more doctors than are currently practicing. But medical school enrollment has been essentially flat, and about a third of American physicians are over the age of 55 and likely to retire by 2020.

Making matters worse, Congress in 1996 capped the number of new doctors Medicare would pay to train. And President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform proposed cutting Medicare funding for training even further, by $60 billion through 2020. “If this cut is enacted, the doctor shortage would get far worse,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

At the same time, the number of patients is certain to increase. Baby boomers will be retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day, and they will require more medical care as they age. Plus, Obamacare will boost the number of Americans with health insurance or participating in Medicaid, which will mean greater demand for doctors’ services.

At present, physicians are reimbursed at roughly 78 percent of costs under Medicare, and just 70 percent under Medicaid, according to Michael Tanner, a Cato Institute senior fellow.
As a result, more and more physicians are choosing to opt out of the government programs altogether. Already, as many as a third of doctors will not participate in Medicaid, and 13 percent won’t accept Medicare patients.

With cuts in reimbursements on the horizon with Obamacare, “retirement in Florida may begin to look like a very good option” for many older doctors, observes Tanner, whose article appeared in the New York Post. “Are they really going to want to stick it out for a few more years if all they have to look forward to is more red tape for less money?”

A 2010 poll by IBD/TPP found that 45 percent of physicians would at least consider leaving their practice or taking early retirement as a result of Obamacare.

These various factors will combine to produce a shortfall of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
As a start in dealing with the problem, the Obama commission’s recommended cuts in training funds should be set aside, Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, writes in the Journal. “Secondly, the cap enacted in 1996 on training new doctors should finally be lifted. These two steps would go a long way to addressing our country’s medical needs.”

Tanner concludes, “Promising universal health coverage is easy. But what does universal coverage mean if you can’t actually see a doctor?”

Does Science Mean Anything When it Comes to Evaluating a Supplement?

2011-05-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Science is everything when it comes to evaluating a supplement. Here's why:

Testimonies are easy to get. "Cancer in Woman from Atlanta HEALED!" is not a scientific study; it is an unsubstantiated claim.

Corporate studies have some value but must be viewed with some skepticism. "Research studies show..." may sound good, but the question is, who paid for the research?

The best science is that which is done independent of the manufacturer and not paid for by the manufacturer.

Following is a press release from the manufacturers of Protandim. It refers to peer-reviewed independent scientific studies by Ohio State University, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, all reputable sources. The results of their studies are stunning.

PROTANDIM® prevents the proliferation of cells that can cause re-blockage of vessels following coronary artery bypass surgery, stenting, and carotid enarterectomy
A new peer-reviewed study involving Protandim, sponsored by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, was published in the scientific journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

The study, conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University, examined the biochemical mechanisms that underlie the ability of Protandim to suppress intimal hyperplasia (over-proliferation of cells that line the vessel wall), a common adverse event that limits the effectiveness of several types of vascular surgery.
Protandim has been shown in earlier studies to activate the transcription factor Nrf2, a signal to the cell's DNA to regulate a network of protective genes. This new study further investigates Protandim's ability to increase production of the body's Nrf2-regulated protective genes, sometimes referred to as "survival genes", which include most of the antioxidant enzymes.

The study, titled "Protandim attenuates intimal hyperplasia in human saphenous veins cultured ex vivo via a catalase-dependent pathway" by Binata Joddar, Rashmeet K. Reen, Michael S. Firstenberg, Saradhadevi Varadharaj, Joe M. McCord, Jay L. Zweier, and Keith J. Gooch is published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine and may be found at the following link.
To read the full report on the U.S. National Institutes of Health website, CLICK HERE.

A third study, done by LSU, shows Protandim reduces the incidence of cancer, stating that Protandim is chemo-prevention.

20+ universities around the world continue to fund their own studies on benefits of Protandim.

Green' Light Bulbs Linked to Cancer

2011-04-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

By Martin Gould

Spiral energy-saving light bulbs could cause cancer, German scientists have found.

They say the compact fluorescent lamp bulbs should not be left on for long as they send poison into the atmosphere when switched on, according to a report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

And in particular, the scientists warn, they should be kept away from people’s heads due to an “electrical smog” of phenol, naphthalene and styrene.

“For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment,” warned Peter Braun, who carried out research in Berlin.
Fellow researcher Andreas Kirchner added: “They should not be used in unventilated areas and definitely not in the proximity of the head.”

Earlier this year an Israeli report suggested CFL bulbs could trigger breast cancer and there have been fears about the environmental damage they could cause if dumped in landfills.

Despite those worries — and the fact they can cost up to six times as much as traditional incandescent bulbs — the CFL bulbs are in wide use worldwide. They are said to cut energy costs significantly and have a much longer lifespan.

Congress passed a measure in 2007 to phase out incandescent bulbs completely by 2014.

To read the entire Daily Telegraph report, Go Here Now.
Read more: 'Green' Light Bulbs Linked to Cancer

GIGO or HIHO - You Decide

2011-04-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

“Garbage in – garbage out” or GIGO is not one of Newton’s laws but a reliable axiom born in the computer age. In computer speak it refers to data – if you put bad data in, you are bound to have bad data come out.

When it comes to your personal health the same law applies: Put garbage into your mouth and the net result will be garbage health. The sad fact is most Americans don’t have a healthy diet. We eat things that hurt us and some of the stuff we consume slowly kills us.

The most common problem GIGO brings to your body is obesity.

According to the World Health Organization, obesity has many dangerous consequences including heart disease, stroke, blood pressure problems, cholesterol, insulin resistance which leads to type 2 diabetes, a whole variety of cancers, sleep apnea (when breathing is interrupted during sleep), joint problems, gallbladder disease, respiratory difficulties, skin problems and even infertility.

Montel Williams, in his book Living Well nails it when he writes, “…it all starts with what you put into your body.” It’s as simple as this: put nutritious food into your body and good health will return.

So let’s adopt a new, more positive axiom. Instead of GIGO let’s start talking about HIHO or “health in – health out.” Put healthy foods into your mouth while at the same time cease to consume unhealthy foods and guess what will happen to you?

You will begin to look and feel better – no matter what your age.

You already know what healthy food is and what junk food is. The problem is not with what you know, it’s with what you do.

So, is it GIGO or HIHO for you? It’s your mouth – it’s your body – only you can decide.

The World’s Oldest Man Dies at 114

2011-04-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Walter Bruening was the oldest man in the world. He lived to the ripe young age of 114 until April 15, 2011 when he died in Great Falls, Montana.

Bruening is my hero. According to an AP interview done several months ago, he worked his entire life – it was what he did to get through the hard times and what he used to keep his mind active. According to Bruening, one of the worst things a person can do is retire young.

Here is the world’s oldest man’s secret to a long life:

Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. (”Every change is good.”)
Eat two meals a day (”That’s all you need.”)
Work as long as you can (”That money’s going to come in handy.”)
Help others (”The more you do for others, the better shape you’re in.”)

Then there’s the hardest part. It’s a lesson Breuning said he learned from his grandfather: Accept death.

CLICK HERE to read the full story about Walter Bruening. You’ll be inspired.

Longevity Calculators – How Long Will YOU Live?

2011-04-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

A supercentenarian is someone who is 110-years old or older. I would love to be able to one day join that very elite club.

The problem is only one in 6,000 people ever reach the century mark and just one in 7 million lives to be a supercentenarian, so it is a very elite club indeed.

But how long am I likely to live? And what about you, is that something you would like to know?

There are a variety of longevity calculators available on the Internet and I found two that are quite interesting.

One of them is provided by Northwestern Mutual. It does not try to sell you anything and does not request your email address or other contact information so don’t be afraid to answer the 13 questions. It’s fun and fast to take.

To use their longevity calculator, CLICK HERE.

I took the test and it said I would live to be 93 - not the score I wanted or expected. I told my wife my score and then invited her to take the test. She came out better than I did. It told her that she would likely live to the ripe old age of 98.

She screamed with delight, “Finally I’ll get all your money!”

Honestly, I can’t imagine having much left over by age – well – by next week because of the price of gas here in California, but I digress.

Because I was disappointed by my longevity prediction of only 93, I looked for another perhaps more friendly longevity test. I found one on MoneyCentral.msn.com and it too does not try to sell you anything or request personal information so go ahead and try it.

It asks more questions than the first test which might mean it is more accurate. This one estimated I would live to age 99! (The full report of their estimates is below.)

“That’s more like it!” I said under my breath. “Now, I’ll get all of HER money.”

CLICK HERE link for this more thorough test.

Here is their full report about my estimated longevity with a few personal notes in parenthesis:

If you continue maintaining healthy habits, you’ll want to plan for a maximum life expectancy of 99-years or more.

Your “ideal” weight for maximum longevity is 170 lbs (I weigh 199 lbs. Probably would have scored over 100-years but for that fact)

The three biggest positive factors that you have going for you are:

Age (I’m 67-years young)
Age of parents (My dad died at age 87 and my mother turns 90 on April 10, 2011)
Age of grandparents (Three of my grandparents lived well into their 80s)

The three biggest negative factors you have going for you

Family health (My dad died of cancer but at age 87)
Gender (Now what in the world can I do about that?)
Cholesterol level (Slightly elevated)

So that was my report. Fortunately no test can give you the exact answer as to how long you will live – or to put it negatively – when you will die. They all use age, gender, family history and personal lifestyle issues to make an educated guess.

You can’t do much about your DNA or how your parents or grandparents lived and died. But you can do something about your lifestyle. Things like eating better foods, getting plenty of exercise and lowering your stress.

Or you can lie to the calculator. That’s another way to score higher but it won’t impact the ultimate outcome.

“Estate Sale Today”

2011-03-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

The signs lined Rosecrans Avenue - “Estate Sale Today.”

In Point Loma (San Diego) that can be very exciting because many properties here are large and interesting estates. We took a quick left turn off the Avenue and followed the signs.

It was a charming home just a few feet from the waters of San Diego Bay and we could tell right away that those who had lived there had very good taste. One of the first rooms we entered was a home-office. The memorabilia on the walls told us this was the estate of a retired military officer. Upon closer examination we saw that Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, Jr. used to spend time in this small but elegant room.

That knowledge changed our mind-set. It somehow personalized our entire wanderings through the kitchen, living and dining areas, the bedrooms and closets upstairs, and even the gardens and tool room off the back porch.

I don’t think we were the only ones to notice. There was a sense of quiet awe by all the shoppers that day. We whispered as if we were in a museum or library. It was no longer an anonymous estate sale – it was the personal belongings of an American military officer and his wife.

There were many interesting personal effects to look over - belongings accumulated over a long and distinguished military career. Possessions and paraphernalia from all around the world, some very rare and expensive, now scarred with the ignominy of a piece of masking tape and the rummage-sale price scribbled with a Sharpie.

We were emotionally moved as we wandered quietly and now respectfully through the home. We were especially touched when we walked into a closet and saw there for anyone to handle, the lady-like bedroom clothes of the gentlewoman whose recent death made necessary this pitiable sale. Said the sign on the wall, “All clothes $2 Each.”

“So this is it?” I asked my wife. “After a lifetime of hard work and marriage – this is what happens?”

Later that day I Googled Admiral Sharp. I wanted to know whose home several hundred people and I had invaded. I wanted to know whose personal prizes and possessions were so unceremoniously divided amongst the anonymous throng.

Admiral Sharp was a highly decorated military leader. He was born in Montana in 1906 and named for the Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, who had married his father’s aunt. He was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1927 and the Naval War College in 1950.

During World War II, he commanded the destroyer USS Boyd in the Pacific Theater, during the Korean War he was promoted to the commander of a destroyer squadron and assisted in the planning of the Inchon landing.

After receiving his fourth star, Sharp took command of the Pacific Fleet in 1963 . This promotion was significant because of the Tonkin Gulf incident that increased the U.S. military presence in Vietnam.

Sharp was an outspoken critic of President Johnson’s Vietnam strategy and was featured on the August 14, 1964 cover of TIME Magazine. In 1969 He wrote an article for Reader’s Digest titled We Could Have Won in Vietnam Long Ago and in 1978 he authored a book, “Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect.”

His first wife Patricia, whom he married in 1930, died in 1986. He married the former Nina Blake in 1987. The retired admiral spent his final days in Point Loma only a few blocks from where I now live. He died on December 12, 2001 at his home – the one we walked through - and was buried in the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery that overlooks the bay and the city of San Diego.

I wish I could have known Admiral Sharp.

Like Admiral Sharp – we all have stuff - some of it with dollar value but most of it with only a personal private preciousness that cannot be appraised. Like the love letters I wrote Amy when we were separated the months before our marriage or the little glass horse that now has a broken leg that a little friend gave me for my 4th birthday.

But it’s not the stuff we leave behind that makes a difference to anyone. Fact is, no one wants all the wonderful curios and art we have collected from our travels around the world. No one will ever again read my doctoral thesis and few will ever bother to look at the thousands of family pictures we took over the years.

Only the stuff we leave on the hearts of people we touch has any real lasting value.

Observations on Old Men Playing Basketball

2011-03-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

Old men playing basketball is not a pretty sight unless you can see past the bulges, baldness and bad knees. I know. I’m one of them.

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at a YMCA in San Diego I join 20 – 40 guys between the ages of 50 and 80+ for some hoops. We play half-court, three-on-three basketball using the rules established by the Senior Games*. Many of us have been to the Senior Games to compete and some of them have won medals.

After playing senior basketball in three states (Florida, Colorado and California) and in seven different cities for the last 13 years I have made some observations about and learned some lessons from my bold basketball buddies that are worthy of note:

Observation #1: None are obese. Some are as slim and trim as they were in college and a few have a potbelly but none of them are fat. It’s hard enough to play basketball in your senior years even if you are svelte but I reckon it’s nearly impossible if you’re a butterball.

Observation #2: They don’t smoke and probably never have. I don’t know this one for a fact, but I feel pretty safe in declaring it here. When I first started participating in team sports in the 7th grade our coach told us smoking will slow us down and would not be good for our health. I believed him and have never had the habit.

Observation #3: They have a healthy self-esteem. Most of the guys out there are able to laugh at themselves, which is important because we make several athletic gaffes in each game we play. These guys know who they are so they no longer have to prove anything to anybody and can look fondly upon their limited skills and still have a good time. Most have finally learned that life is too short to be a swaggering, egotistical hotdogger.

Observation #4: Age is an equalizer. Some of the guys I play with were big-time college players – places like USC, UCLA, University of Iowa, University of Nebraska, University of Michigan and other division one and division two schools. I was on a team once that went to the Senior Games and we had a guy on our team who was once a starter with the Chicago Bulls. To be honest, he didn’t provide much more for our team than any of the rest of us, despite his superior athletic résumé.

Let me say it again, age is an equalizer.

I often play with a guy who over 50 years ago was a center for USC – he’s 73-years-old. Today I can hold my own with him - not because I was better than he was 50 years ago – I was not, but because age has leveled the playing field for me. Now I can be on the same court with such a formerly great player and have the time of my life.

Once after finishing a game with this guy we were sitting on the bench trying to catch our breath. He looked over at me and said, “So, who did you play for?” It was as if he expected me to say, “Kansas State” or “Georgetown.” I found out later he was a scout for the Make a Wish Foundation.

Observation #5: They know when to take a rest. Several times others and I have stopped the game because we couldn’t go any farther. Either our legs or lungs or something else had been pressed to the limit and we need a rest. We know when to sit down and let someone else in the game after all there are no trophies for dead guys.

Observation #6: They don’t cheat. In three-on-three pick-up basketball we don’t have refs unless it’s an organized tournament. So we call our own fouls and admit it if we touched the ball last when it went out of bounds. This kind of honesty and integrity makes playing senior basketball a real joy.

Observation #7: They still want to win. Even though senior basketballers sag in the middle and most of us are no longer able to jump, we are still competitive. Here in California the teams are made up randomly from whomever shows up on the court and we award one point per basket – first team to seven wins.

No matter whom you’re teamed up with – guys better or worse than you – you still play to win – but not just to win - we’re out there for the exercise and the camaraderie. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that most of us, when we go home we still want to report to our beloved cheerleader, “We won!”

Observation #8: They play with pain – but they play. Many of the guys on the court hurt in dozens of places: knees, hips, backs, shoulders, etc., but they still play. And they do it without whining and complaining about growing old. We are old. We know it so why complain about it.

Observation #9: They don’t complain about growing old but they do brag about still being in the game. Aging results in a persistent diminishing of our skill levels. We can no longer run fast or jump high - we know that. Recently three of us were sitting on the sidelines watching a couple of teams play. After a few minutes of observing one of our buddies on the court we could not come to an agreement as to whether he was going forward, backward or side ways. We did agree however, that it didn’t really matter – he was still in the game.

Observation #10: Some reach their athletic peak later in life. There are several really tough competitors out there who are over 80-years-old and some of them are darn good players. Every time I have to guard one little 81-year-old guy he tells me, “Be careful, don’t hurt me. I have some cracked ribs and I’m sore.” Then he gets the ball, puts a couple of moves on me and shoots a 20-foot swisher making me look like a slug player.

Now I must admit that this observation is selfish – as it is the real reason I play basketball every week – I HOPE I can reach my athletic peak at 80 because so far I’ve been an athletic also-ran wannabe benchwarmer. I’m hoping that if I stick with it long enough that when I’m 80-years-old at the Senior Games championship round in front of thousands of screaming fans, someone is gong to say, “Do you see that Ron Ross out there? He is the best player on the court.”

Some of us are VERY late bloomers.

*They used to be called Senior Olympics until forced by higher powers to cease and desist using the word “Olympics”.

The ABCs of a Long and Healthy Life

2011-02-23T19:26:00.000-08:00

There are more than 100,000 centenarians (folks over 100-years-old) in the USA right now according to the US Census Bureau; and there may be as many as 214,000 centenarians by 2020.

Will you be one of them?

Most Americans don’t really want to live that long according to a variety of polls, but I’m pretty certain most healthy people don’t want to die. So the poll results probably have a lot to do with the expected declining quality of life that usually comes with age. Aging folks are also worried about how much it would cost for them to live another twenty or thirty years.

Scientists in laboratories look for internal physical clues to longevity but there may be a psychological trait that tells us more about living long and living well than all the DNA research and lab experiments put together.

Here it is: Most centenarians seem to have one common characteristic: RESILIANCY. According to an article in Fortune Magazine by David Stripp, a writer on aging science, “…many centenarians do share a trait that I suspect bears on the ageless question: They tend to be remarkably resilient, capable of shrugging off setbacks and losses that would leave many of us psychically scarred for life.”

So the lesson is, if you want to live long and healthy, learn to sluff-off the failures, losses and disappointments of life. Or to put it today’s lingo – chill out. Nothing is permanent, everything will pass and life goes on no matter how bad it gets.

To help me, and I hope you as well, chill out and be more resilient, I’ve written -

The ABCs of Living a Long and Healthy Life

Activate tranquility – Abolish confusion
Bask in the sunshine - Banish the clouds
Cherish integrity – Cast-off duplicity
Develop dignity – Deplore indulgence
Experience the majesty – Expel the petty
Focus on beauty - Forget the ugly
Generate joy – Guard against sorrow
Harbor faith – Hinder fear
Initiate forgiveness – Ignore criticism
Join the virtuous – Jettison the wicked
Kindle authenticity – Kill hypocrisy
And…
Live in love for a long and healthy life

By Ron Ross

BIG GOV About to go Into the Pharmaceutical Business With YOUR Money!

2011-02-10T09:24:00.006-08:00

Drug giants such as Merck and Pfizer have laid off thousands of scientists in the past year alone. Why? Because every year since 1965 the government has been approving fewer and fewer compounds so big pharmaceutical companies are forced to cut back on research spending.

Now the Obama administration has decided to fund a federal drug development center to research and create new medicines using your money. The original investment of your tax money is ONE BILLION DOLLARS, according to a Jan. 21, 2011 article in The New York Times.

One billion dollars sounds like a lot of money to most of us but when it comes to drug development it is not. How many new life-saving drugs do you suppose Big Gov can come up with by spending one billion of your hard-earned tax dollars?

Here’s the most likely answer: NOT EVEN ONE.

Here’s why: To bring a drug from discovery to commercialization the average cost is $1.3 billion, according to a report from Tufts University’s Center for the Study of Drug Development.

The cost of discovery, development and governmental approval is only part of the challenge of bringing a new drug to your medicine cabinet. Sometimes drug companies must spend twice as much on marketing as they do on research and development. That’s why you have all those drug ads on TV every night. The pharmaceutical companies have to recoup a billion bucks or two of R & D by getting you to buy their drugs – no matter how frightening the side effects may be.

If it costs Big Pharma $1.3 billion to bring one drug to the marketplace can you imagine what it will cost YOU the taxpayer when Big Gov hands out their (your) research money to all their cronies at several universities located in politically friendly congressional districts in 50 states?

Before you argue with me on this point remember every business Big Gov gets involved with seems to be fraught with fraud, waste, mismanagement and staggering financial losses. The federal government has lost multiplied billions trying to run a railroad (Amtrak) and the post office, to name two.

In the meantime the Wall Street bulls are chasing the high-earning FedEx and UPS companies and Warren Buffett is buying every single share of BNSF Railroad he can possibly find. And it’s not because they are government run entities, it’s because they are profitable, well-run private-sector businesses.

What evidence can anyone provide that Big Gov will be more likely to discover, develop, test and deliver to the consumer even one medical breakthrough better, faster and at a lower cost than Big Pharma? I’ll be glad to consider any proof if you have it.

The cheapest, easiest and best way to get healthy, have more energy and extend your life!

2011-01-28T09:30:00.003-08:00

There are thousands of supplements and creams for sale all promising better health, smoother skin, brighter eyes and longer life. Many of them are VERY expensive, some work and others are complete frauds. You probably have some of them crowded in your bathroom cabinet and others sitting in a row next to the kitchen sink; am I right? Me too.

Yet the cheapest, easiest and best way to get healthy and extend your life is often neglected or forgotten completely. I’m talking about water. Good, pure water – the finest health giving elixir ever invented.

Your body is a water machine and absolutely requires water to operate properly. It is made up of over 60% water, your brain is over 75% water and your liver is 90% water!

You nervous system needs water. You have a very elaborate system of tiny waterways running throughout your body called nerves. When the fluid inside your nerves thicken due to dehydration or when they are contaminated with heavy metals, the vital signals they are designed to send can get distorted and sickness and fatigue can be the result. For example, headaches can be a symptom of dehydration.

Your muscles, bones and joints need water. Chronic pain in joints and muscles can also be symptoms dehydration. Wouldn’t it be something if you could cure your lower back pain with a few more glasses of water each day?

Your digestive system needs an ample supply of water to process foods and efficiently absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. Constipation is a symptom of dehydration.

Your liver needs water to enable it to metabolize stored fat into useable energy. Chances are you have a year or more supply of “stored fat” on hand so, to increase energy, drink more water. More energy and less fat is what I call a winning combination. It has been proven that just a 5% drop in body fluids will cause a 25% to 30% loss of energy in the average person.

You’ve probably heard a lot about detoxification. It certainly is an important component for a healthy body as it is the only way your body can flush out toxins – a key to preventing disease. There may be no need for some kind of serious detox program IF you drink sufficient water and help your body do what it is designed to do – detox itself. The more water you drink the more you enable your body to purify itself.

So, the cheapest, easiest and best way to get healthy, have more energy and extend your life is to drink a sufficient amount of water.

But how much should you drink? Some suggest that you take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half. That gives you the number of ounces of water per day that you need to drink. CLICK HERE for a link to a water calculator that asks several pertinent questions and then tells you precisely how much water you need to drink each day.

Most of us simply need to drink more water more often during the day and much less of everything else. If your cheap, if you want to be healthy, have more energy and extend your life – drink more water.

Sources - WebMD:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/dehydration-adults

http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/wonders-of-water

7 Reasons You Should NOT Buy Bottled Water And The Main Reason You Do

2011-01-18T09:28:00.003-08:00

Water is life – your body’s system demands it. But does it need BOTTLED water?

Over the last two decades bottled water has become one of the most dubious fitness crazes since the hula hoop.

The assumption is if there’s water in a bottle with a label picturing a moutain stream, the water must be from a pristine deep-water well or some pure-water aquifer in a seldom-visited nature preserve far from the natural pollutants of civilization. Well, it isn’t.

I hope this doesn’t offend you, but your purchase of bottled water is, in most cases, a fraud and a complete waste of money. Here are seven reasons why you should never buy another bottle of water:

It’s probably just tap water anyway. Much of the bottled water sold is only tap water packaged in plastic bottles adorned with deceptive labels.
You can’t trust it. While most bottled water is safe, a 2008 investigation by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found some bottled water is sullied with untested industrial chemicals and may not necessarily be cleaner than tap water.
You can’t afford it. Bottled water costs THOUSANDS of times more than tap water. If I offered you a glass of perfectly safe water for one cent and another glass of perfectly safe water for two dollars, which one would you buy? Nevertheless, Americans spend billions of dollars every year on bottled water at an average cost of $1 per bottle.
You probably won’t recycle your bottle. Most water bottles are tossed in the trash and not recycled. Estimates are that Americans only recycle 20% of the plastic water bottles they use and the 80% that are dumped into landfills will take generations to break down.
You’ve always wondered about the possibility of nasty chemicals in those cheap plastic bottles. You should wonder about them. Cheap plastic bottles can leach chemicals into the water you drink and thus into your system. SAFETY HINT: never reuse a cheap plastic water bottle.
You’re paying extra for packaging and transportation. Have you ever noticed how much plastic is involved in the packaging of a case of bottled water? Add to that the cost and environmental impact of manufacturing and then transporting the product from the factory to your refrigerator where you already have reasonably good water only a few feet from your refrigerator.
You’re helping someone else get rich, often at the expense of public water sources. Bottled water companies draw water from public water sources, bottle it in cheap plastic containers and resell it to you at nearly 3,000 times the price of regular tap water. Only beer and soda outpace the sale of bottled water, and more gallons of bottled water are sold annually than milk, coffee and juice!

These are the seven reasons you should NOT buy bottled water. The main reason you probably buy bottled water is…it’s cool – and I’m not talking about the temperature – I’m referring to society’s view of those who tote around a bottle of water everywhere they go. There must be a better way to be cool than to waste money, pollute the environment and help someone else get rich.

Many Americans are catching on to the bottled water scam so they purchase a safe reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water. Others purchase home water filter systems or use a reverse osmosis or distillation process to remove impurities. Each system has advantages and disadvantages so if you’re concerned about the safety of the tap water in your kitchen I suggest you examine all the options before buying one more bottle of water.

Sources: www.AllAboutWater.org

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310/why-tap-water-is-better/

Doom and gloom or gilded future for you in 2011?

2011-01-10T08:45:00.003-08:00

While merchants of doom prophesy the end of America as we know it the pie-in-the-sky soothsayers foresee a gilded future. Which is it? The real answer is NO ONE KNOWS.

One talking head on TV asked, “What does 2011 hold for the US economy?” Trying hard to sound discerning, another asked in breathless voice, “What will 2011 bring for you? The answers after these messages.”

Well excuse me, the future does not “hold” or “bring” anything. In fact, the future never shows up. It’s always tomorrow or next week or next year. It never arrives. The only thing we have is today.

Life is lived one day at a time. Today is the only day of the year that you really ever have. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is only a thought. Jesus told us that we are not to worry about tomorrow “for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34). That’s why the Bible declares, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118.24

Entering a new year your challenge isn’t to foresee the future it is to live each day with courage, integrity and faith. You want to live each day of 2011 so that on December 31st you can look back and say that it was a very good year.

How to do you do that? Here are five suggestions that will help you reach the end of 2011 and be proud of your accomplishments:

First of all, take care of today because it’s all you have. TODAY - love your mate and family and tell them so. TODAY - treat with gentleness and respect your friends, acquaintances, clients, service people and everyone with whom you come into contact. TODAY - do what’s most important – not what’s urgent.

Second, don’t wait for the government to make things better. The government’s track record for improving the economy is dismal. If your finances are in trouble create your own personal stimulus plan and initiate your own bailout program. You are much more reliable than the government.

Third, work to improve your own personal economy and don’t worry about the world’s economy. Developments in the global marketplace may have some nominal or even significant impact on your daily life but you can’t do much about them. It’s likely that failing European economies or exploding technology use in Asia won’t make much difference in your neighborhood or with your customers or clients. However you can do something about your own marketplace about your own personal economy. So get to work and do it.

Fourth, may I suggest you cut down on the amount of news you watch and listen to. I think it’s important to be well informed, but I think I can make a case that it’s possible to be over-informed. For the last several years my wife and I have been news junkies. We’ve watched and listened to so many news and talk shows that we’re better informed than most of the talking heads we listen to. And what has it gotten us? Two words: NOT MUCH. I wonder how many more books I could have read (or written) if only I would have shut off the TV?

The last thing I suggest is that you stop whining. I know things are tough and jobs are hard to get and many people are having trouble surviving. But don’t spend your day talking about how bad things are; focus on how good things can be and then pursue the good.

Have you noticed that winners are never whiners? Champions don’t complain about the weather, the condition of the playing field or the bad calls by the refs. The losers do that.
Talk like a winner.

Make every day of 2011 a useful and delightful experience and on December 31st you’ll have fond memories of meaningful accomplishments.

For a Better, Safer, Healthier & More Prosperous Life

2010-12-27T15:57:00.002-08:00

“San Diego is my favorite place on earth!” is the kind of comment we hear when we tell folks that it is where we now live.

My wife and I spent several days previous to and all of Christmas week moving from Loveland, Colorado to Pt. Loma (San Diego), California. It was a lot of work and it also brought us into some serious traveling danger.

Packing up 47 years of marriage/family/home office into a U-Haul trailer demanded leaving behind many of our prized (read “old and tired”) possessions. Some of the stuff we gave away, some we left with family, and some we sold for a couple of bucks. The rest of it we left in storage for future attention.

Our original plan was to drive our fully loaded U-Haul and Dodge Dakota truck west on I-70 out of Denver but a monster snowstorm sent us on the southern route. As we journeyed through southern Colorado we encountered gale-force winds and drove passed four semis on their sides - overturned by strong crosswinds. We continued with caution but left behind approximately 30 big rigs parked along the roadside waiting for the winds to subside.

After 12 hours of driving we slept well in a Gallup, New Mexico motel and then arose early the next day for another 12 hours of driving. This time our challenge was both wind and rain. When we entered California we got into some real heavy rains and were sooooo happy to finally find our motel in Victorville at 7:30 pm.

The next day, Wednesday, December 22, we had a short 3-hour run to Pt. Loma (San Diego). It was short but also treacherous because of very heavy driving rains that soaked us all the way.

Our truck did a good job pulling the trailer and I must say the U-Haul followed right along without any complaint. The only complaints came from me every time we stopped for gas – which was often. The truck got only 12 miles-per-gallon and we never paid less than $3.20 per gallon with the high being $3.67 per gallon at a lonely stop in California.

But we’re here now – the danger is over the rains have ended and the sun is shining…and the frequent gasoline stops are in the past. The U-Haul is unpacked and returned. Amy, who will hardly stop for any reason, has already made our living space lovely. The extra bonus is that the property we live on is magnificent and the people we work for are very nice.

Changes like these are a challenge for folks our age. But we are confident that this move was the right thing to do and will provide for us a better, safer, healthier and more prosperous life.

Most Americans are only one serious illness away from complete financial disaster

2010-11-18T12:10:00.003-08:00

Even if you have the best health insurance on the market today, a serious, long-term illness could cost you everything you have. Lost wages and additional uninsured costs for a family member recovering from a serious illness could easily break your bank.

How do you protect your family from such a calamity?

One way is through Health Savings Accounts. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were created by the Medicare bill signed by President Bush on December 8, 2003. HSAs are designed to help individuals save for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis. Check with your accountant or a real expert on HSAs to see if they are for you. There are some restrictions that must be considered. For more info on HSAs CLICK HERE.

Another way – and the best way I can think of – is to stay healthy. If you don’t get sick, you don’t need to spend money on doctors, hospitals, expensive medicines and the other health paraphernalia you see advertised on TV every night.

I call this strategy HEALTH ASSURANCE. Health assurance cannot be bought – it is something you give yourself. It comes from taking charge of your own health, from being personally responsible for the care of your body.

Even If you have the world’s best health insurance, you still need health assurance. Start living younger, stronger and healthier today and do what you can do to avoid the physical and financial disaster of a serious illness.

You Want Me To Eat What?

2010-11-04T10:47:00.003-07:00

OK, I got it - my diet affects my health and is a determining factor on how I age. But some of the things the “experts” want me to eat are – well – strange, to say the least.

Here are three out of the five suggestions for a diet that I found on one of the ba-zillion websites on anti-aging: cooked Asian mushrooms, whole soy foods and whole cracked grains. Let’s take them one at a time.

Cooked Asian mushrooms. Here’s what the expert says, “…you can eat an unlimited amount of mushrooms such as shitaki, enoki, oyster and maitaki. It's important to cook them…because they are indigestible and you won't receive the benefits.”

Indigestible? Should we eat anything that is not digestible?

Can you imagine coming home after a long day at the office and your wife says, “Hey honey, tonight we’re going to eat shitaki for supper!” I can remember a time when my mother would have washed out my mouth with soap for talking like that.

Whole soy foods. Here they tell us to eat soy nuts, tofu, tempeh, soy milk and edamame. I have no idea what tempeh or edamame is and to my knowledge I’ve never eaten tofu or sipped on a bottle of soy milk. (BTW, how do you milk a soy?)

Whole cracked grains. At first blush this one doesn’t seem so bad as I know what whole grains are - foods like wild rice and barley. But the health nuts on this website suggest I eat 2 – 3 servings a day – A DAY? I just don’t know if life is worth living if I have to eat that much wild rice and barley every day.

Don’t get me wrong, I do eat healthy foods and I do watch my diet. Heck, I even like mushrooms, nuts and grains. What I don’t like is the idea that I must travel to Asia to get my mushrooms or spend extra money to buy expensive groceries I’ve never heard of, or ingest food that may or may not be digestible.

Besides that, what the heck is enoki or maitaki? One of them sounds like a disease to avoid and the other sounds like a new model sports car from Japan.

Why We Die

2010-10-22T12:59:00.004-07:00

Funerals are tough. Even when they are a relief from suffering for the deceased, they are still sad events. Over the years, I’ve attended and presided at many funerals. Two of the most memorable were also two of the saddest.

Our son and his wife called us one morning screaming with delight, “We’re having twins!” We called everyone, spreading the good news.

Later that afternoon we got another phone call, “the babies will not make it,” our son said. We all wept. A few days later we stood in the graveyard hand in hand as a tiny casket carrying the fetal remains of the twin grandchildren we would never know were placed into the ground.

Many years ago I was the pastor of Wildewood Christian Church in suburban Omaha. One Memorial Day afternoon my home phone rang. It was a church member who was weeping uncontrollably. Her aged parents had just placed wreathes on family gravestones and as their car exited the cemetery, they were struck by another car. All four passengers were pronounced dead on the cemetery road including her mother and father. The double funeral with two caskets at the front of the church was one of the most difficult I ever officiated at.

Both of those stories are very sad, but they are also very unusual. Most people don’t die in accidents of any kind and miscarriages are also not that common. Most people die in their later years of what used to be called “natural causes.”

My research on aging has shown that most of us die on the inside long before we die on the outside. Scientists tell us that we die inch by inch – or more correctly – cell by cell. One by one our cells lose their ability to fight off those pesky free radicals we’ve all been learning about and soon our body loses the battle for good health and thus the struggle for life.

There are now ways to slow the rate of aging by stimulating the natural healing powers within the human body. To see an ABC PrimeTime Live report on this natural healing process, CLICK HERE.

You Can Help Your Body Fight Disease and Aging

2010-09-10T13:55:00.004-07:00

Your body naturally creates antioxidant enzymes to battle the millions upon millions of free radicals that attack it daily – even hourly. According to Dr. Joe McCord, a world-renowned scientist and pioneer of Free Radical Biology and expert on cellular aging and antioxidants, your body produces 300 septillion free radicals each and every day. Unless your body naturally exterminates them, you are vulnerable to disease, viruses and ailments of all kinds.

As a small child, your body was very effective at free radical eradication. As you continue to age, those antioxidant-producing enzymes weaken and your natural body defenses weaken as well. That’s why older people are more vulnerable to disease than the young and why it takes them longer to heal.

What do you do to fight off disease? For instance, when you feel like you may be getting a cold, what do you do? You may do what millions of people do and I have done for decades: gulp down vitamin C by the handful, drink orange juice by the gallon and buy some blueberries and pomegranates. You may even buy and drink some of those expensive fruit drinks that have “fortified with antioxidants” blazoned on the label.

Why do you do that? Because you’ve heard all about their reputed antioxidant powers, right? Well, here is something you need to know that might not make you exactly happy: current science has discovered that direct antioxidant therapy is based upon a false premise.

“What?” I exclaimed when I first read that statement. “I’ve spent a small fortune on vitamins C and A, blueberries, red wine, dark chocolate, acai smoothies and mangosteen juice all because their purveyors told me they were ‘packed with antioxidants.’ Now you’re telling this?” I was mad.

You too have looked seriously at a myriad of foods, juices, supplements and diets that were said to contain incredible antioxidant free radical fighting properties. Now, according to Dr. McCord’s findings and those of many other world-class scientists, the power of a direct antioxidant is miniscule – almost irrelevant.

Dr. McCord likes to say, that when compared to the overwhelming number of free radicals your body contends with every day, using a direct antioxidant is like pouring a cup of water on a house fire. While the idea to help your body fight free radicals with antioxidant rich foods and supplements is a good idea, the problem is, the house is burning down and your Dixie Cup of antioxidants are of little or no consequence.

Instead of a cup of water, what you need is a couple of fire trucks and a squad of well-trained firefighters to go to work. You need something that will increase your body’s natural cellular production of catalase, SOD and glutathione – those are the naturally occurring antioxidant enzymes that will put out the fires before they burn down your house.

To date scientists have found only one product within either the nutriceutical or pharmaceutical realm that naturally stimulates those free-radical fighting antioxidant enzymes at the cellular level. It’s called Protandim.

Protandim was developed after 40 years of research by Dr Joe McCord. His research findings have stunned many nutriceutical and pharmaceutical researchers.

I’ve looked at well over a dozen independent studies on Protandim done by major medical colleges and universities around the world. The similarity of their findings is stunning. The universal conclusion is that Protandim is the world's only triple patented anti-aging supplement clinically proven to reduce oxidative stress between 40% and 70%.

Protandim regenerates the youth in your genes. “After Protandim we could no longer distinguish the 80 year old from the 20 year old,” according Dr. McCord.

How does Protandim work? It’s patented blend of herbs stimulates the natural free radical fighting enzymes within your cells so your body works like it was originally designed to, no matter your age.

It was only a few weeks ago that I heard about Protandim. I said to my wife, “I’m getting some of those pills for us to take.”

I did. We do.