The Four Horsemen of Aging, Part I

I've nicknamed the four dangerous processes that age our bodies as "The Four Horseman of Aging." Wherever something breaks down in the body-be it the brain, muscles, circulatory system or immune system, you name it - you don't have to dig too deeply to find the handiwork of one or more of the Four Horseman.

These Four Horseman together are probably responsible for the bulk of what happens to our bodies when they break down.

By now you're probably asking yourself, "what exactly are these horsemen" or more to the point, "why should I care?" Here's the answer -

Anything that happens to your body that you wish were not happening, from the beginning of disease to the breakdown of systems to the loss of functionality, is being driven by the engine of these four processes.

The name of these processes may not be familiar to you, but, guaranteed, they are behind the scenes of every disease of aging ever experienced by the human species.

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce them to you:

1) Oxidative damage
2) Inflammation
3) Glycation
4) Stress

Many of the strategies I talk about in my new book pertain to preventing or combating the damaging effects of these four processes. The four of them, collectively, can damage cells and DNA, wear down organs and systems, deeply damage the vascular pathways that deliver blood and oxygen to your entire body and even shrink the size of your brain.

They're involved in heart disease, cancer diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's, and cognitive decline, not to mention - a host of "less serious" diseases that can vastly diminish the quality of your well-being.

Even though these four processes often overlap and work together to cause serious damage to both your physical health and your mental well-being, let's break them down into manageable chunks and tackle them one by one.

In a short time, it will be apparent how each contributes to the damage the other does and how the same weapons-whole foods, nutrients, stress reduction, exercise, detoxification, relationship improvement and the many other things we'll be discussing in Part II of this series - actually do double duty, effectively battling more than one of the four processes that effectively shorten your life.

Watch for Part II, Free Radicals, in next week's newsletter.

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I'm Crazy About Longevity

We have a lot of flexibility as far as maintaining our bodies and how long we can actually live... and live well! I reveal much much more about this in my program:

The 7 Pillars of Longevity This learning system can help you: enhance memory and elevate mood prevent killers like diabetes and Alzheimers improve heart health and blood pressure increase energy and physical performance guard against internal and external aging create richer, more meaningful relationships

Cut Calories, Improve Memory!

There've been a ton of studies on "calorie restriction" as an anti-aging strategy. Cutting calories- even by 25%- 33%- has been shown to extend life of every life form tested so far, from fruit flies and yeast to monkeys. Now a new study (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) shows that in addition to extending life, calorie cutting may also improve your memory.

Researchers took 50 men and women ages 50-72 who ranged from normal weight to overweight. One group was told to cut calories by 30 percent, mainly by eating smaller portions. A second group was told to leave their calories the same but change the proportion coming from fat, and a third group was told to make no dietary changes.

After three months, the subjects took tests involving memorizing words.

The calorie-cutting group averaged a respectable 20% improvement in memory performance. (The second and the third group showed no change whatsoever.)

Lead researcher Agnes Floel of the University of Munster in Germany said that the memory improvement might be linked to a decrease in insulin and inflammation in the reduced- calorie group.

Changes in insulin levels have also been postulated as one of the reasons calorie restriction may extend life. One 1992 study investigated people who were both mentally and physically fit and were at least 100 years old. The three factors they all had in common were: high HDL cholesterol, low triglycerides and… wait for it… low levels of fasting insulin!

Dr. Floel also said that lower insulin levels might "increase the sensitivity of receptors" in the brain and improve insulin signaling, allowing memories to be maintained longer. The reduced calorie diet also seemed to improve inflammation, a known robber of brain function and a contributing factor to every major disease.

In my DVD program The 7 Pillars of Longevity I talk about hara hachi bu, a saying in Okinawa inspired by Confucious. Okinawas believe hara hachi bu is one of the secrets to a long healthy life.

Want to know what it means?

"Eat until you are 80% full".

Wise advice, not only if you want to live long, but also if you want to keep your brain sharp and your memory intact!

Living Longer + Living Better = Youngevity

Youngevity. I'm really crazy about that term. It's actually a great new word for anti-aging, which I always thought was kind of a dumb term because anti-aging makes it sound like you're "against" aging, and let's face it, you really can't fight aging. You can't make the clock not happen. But what you can do quite effectively is fight unhealthy aging. You know how you sometimes look at someone and say, 'gee, they haven't really aged well?" Well, we really do have the power to prevent that- we can do an awful lot to prevent that kind of "negative" aging, and conversely, we can really increase what I call optimal aging...

I'll give you an example. I just bought a car recently and one of the reasons I put off buying the new car for so long is I've had this great little Japanese Mazda Miata which is14 years old and never breaks. Literally. Nothing ever goes wrong with the darn thing, it just keeps chugging along, looks great, runs great. And sure, it's had a couple of repairs over the years, but they're really minor, and ultimately, all I ever really have to do is get the oil changed every 3,000 miles. And if the mechanic says it needs some small thing like a filter or something, I just do it. I never put it off. I just keep the basic maintenance up and the car just has this wonderful life.

Now, compare that car with a junker that you kind of run on the lease for the first couple of years, you never get the oil changed, you never do anything with it and a couple years later it's ready for the junk heap. Very different situation, right? Well it's kind of the same thing with our bodies and our lives. As long as we keep "changing the oil" you really have a lot of flexibility as far as maintaining your body which in turn has a lot to do with how long- and how well- we actually live. And sure, maybe with our bodies it's a little more than just "changing the oil", but when you think about it, if we just take care of seven basic areas of our life, we can extend our time on this planet, and not only our time, but the quality of time we spend here. No kidding. And that's exactly what I'm this program, "The 7 Pillars of Youngevity".

Many people in the United States say we have the longest lifespan, which isn't exactly true. Japan and a couple of the Caribbean islands are at the top of the lifespan heap with an 80 to an 82 year lifespan, but we're pretty up there- the average lifespan in the US is 78. But that lifespan number is very misleading. The way we got our lifespan up there is by doing two things. One is we kind of "fixed" the problem of infant mortality. We don't lose a lot of babies in childbirth like we did at the turn of the 20^th century. And at the other end of the spectrum we've gotten really good at keeping people breathing. Our old folks go into assisted living, we hook them up to machines, so yes, we can keep them alive longer, but those last three to five or more years is not necessarily the kind of life you and I want or that you and I could really have if we did everything right. The end of life for many people is a pretty dismal three to five years. We don't want that.

Add years to your life and life to your years with The 7 Pillars of Longevity

The Science of "Youngevity"

I recently finished recording a new course called "The Seven Pillars of Youngevity" which will be available later this year on DVD. I'm also scheduled to write a book on the subject of healthy aging for 2010. And I'm turning 62 this month, so I have more than a little interest in how to stay vital, healthy, sharp and happy no matter what the calendar says!

There's a ton of stuff to say about the subject of "youngevity" but here are two simple things that seem to work consistently to extend life, at least in every species studied so far:

1. Calorie restriction
2. Resveratrol

Scientists aren't 100 percent sure what the life-extending mechanism involved in calorie restriction is, but several are suspected. One has to do with insulin- when you eat less, you produce less insulin (low fasting insulin has been a feature of the blood tests of healthy centurians). A second theory has to do with oxidative stress (the damage to cells and DNA by rogue molecules known as free radicals).

The last theory got some backing recently when researchers tested two types of calorie-restricted diets on mice. Two groups of mice got a calorie-restricted diet, but one group's diet was high in compounds known as "AGEs" (advanced glycolated end products) which are known to be associated with oxidative stress, organ dysfunction and decreased life span.

If it was just the calorie restriction that works to extends life, both groups of mice should have done equally well, but that's not what happened. The mice fed the diet laced with AGEs developed insulin resistance, heart and kidney damage and died earlier. So the benefit of a calorie-restricted diet may be partly contingent on what's in those calories- you want them to come from good stuff, not junk! (You'd still probably be better off eating 1200-1800 calories of junk than 7,000 calories of junk, but better still if you ate 1200-1800 calories of actual real whole food!)

Resveratrol- found in red wine, the skins of dark grapes and to some extent peanuts- has also been found to extend life in the lab. It appears to give many of the same benefits of calorie restricted diets.

A recent study treated mice with three kinds of diets: high calorie, standard or calorie restricted. Each group of mice got their diet with or without resveratrol supplementation (creating six subgroups). Regardless of the diet, the mice given resveratrol supplementation for one year had significantly less symptoms of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cataracts, and decline in motor coordination. The resveratrol-treated mice also had liver and muscle tissues resembling much younger animals.

Researchers are still sorting out the mechanisms by which resveratrol works, but one theory has to do with its significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

While they're figuring it all out, I'm taking resveratrol every day and also eating less calories than the average American. (Some research shows that just reducing calories by 1/3 can be really beneficial. How hard can that be? Divide everything you eat into thirds, and put one of those thirds away for later).

As my grandmother used to say, "Couldn't hurt!"

How to Live to Be 100 Years Young...

Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest

Interview with "Blue Zones" Author Dan Buettner

Wouldn't it be great if you could actually talk to the people in the world who have lived the longest, healthiest lives? If you could find out where they actually live and then sit them down and ask, "How do you manage to stay healthy for 100 years?" Wouldn't that be something we could all learn from?

Well, guess what. Somebody did it.

That somebody is Dan Buettner, and he's an explorer. Dan took on an amazing project to locate the places on the planet where people live the longest. He sought out remote places where folks typically live to 100 or beyond. But don't misunderstand-- these folks aren't just being kept alive in assisted living homes.

Listen to this:

"It was only 7:30 AM but Panchita was ready for her midmorning break. She'd been up since four and had already knelt next to her bed to say her morning prayers, fetched two eggs from the chicken coop, ground corn by hand, brewed coffee from well water drawn from the limestone bedrock beneath her house, made herself a breakfast of beans, eggs and tortillas, split wood and, using a machete almost as tall as her five-foot frame, cleared the encroaching bush around her house. She asked if she could prepare breakfast for us."

Did you get that this was all by 7:30 AM? (Just checking.)

Panchita also fussed over her son Tommy because a few days earlier he had scraped his leg. "I'm fine mama!", he said! Tommy is 80. Panchita herself recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Did that get your attention? It did mine!

I recently had the opportunity and pleasure to interview Dan Buttener about his experiences and findings. I'd like to share that interview with you. It's free and my gift to you! Just go here and download it or stream it. I think you'll find it fascinating: Listen to the Interview

The people who live in the four "Blue Zones" Buttener discovered had a lot in common.

• Sardania, Italy


• Okinawa, Japan


• Loma Linda, California


• Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica

Buettner asked them about the secret of a long, healthy energetic life. Here are some of my favorite answers from the folks he interviewed:

• "Eat your vegetables, have a positive outlook, be kind to people and smile"


• "I never pray for a long life, but I just express my gratitude for another day. It reminds me that every day is important"


• Loma Linda, California


• "It's about loving and being loved"

You can read about these people in Buettner's book, The Blue Zones but I'll give you the executive summary. Here the biggest things we can learn from all these wonderful folks:

1. Eat a ton of plants and plant foods, (even those of us who also eat meat)


2. Push away from the table before you're full


3. Get enough sunlight to make plenty of vitamin D (all the Blue Zones are sunny areas)


4. Stay active every single day


5. Don't smoke. (No kidding.)


6. Develop, maintain and cherish strong connections to family and community

I hope you'll enjoy the interview did with Buettner and be inspired by it. In a world of plenty bad news, this is really a breath of fresh air.

As always, let me know what you think!