Most people fear the aging process. Getting older, sicker, and more forgetful is thought to be the “norm” of our golden years. Much of what we think about the years ticking by can end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. You think this “will” happen to you, so you aren’t surprised when it “does” happen to you. You can slow aging (yes, really) by changing how you look at it.
It’s a fact. It’s something that has been proven in repeated studies around the world.
It Isn’t the Years that Kill You
Let’s talk about what aging really is and why there’s so much confusion (and fear) surrounding it.
You don’t die of old age…you die of disease. The extremely aged don’t run out of life…they get sick. Most of the time, it is bronchopneumonia that claims them. They escape the heavy hitters like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer but ultimately fall victim to a common infection.
The biggest killers can be avoided with the right diet, lifestyle, and mental fortitude. That’s the truth, proven time and again, no matter what silliness you read on the internet.
One of the reasons we have so many people dying of diseases that should have long ago been beaten is due to two factors that almost always come into play…incompetence and/or greed.
The incompetence is most evident when doctors treat the symptoms rather than the whole patient. They have a strange tunnel-vision when dealing with the men and women who make appointments.
They see the symptoms – pain, sleeplessness, weight gain, high blood pressure, etc – and don’t dig deeper. A pill for pain (perhaps some physical therapy), a pill to sleep (no matter the side effects), horrible diet recommendations (that make the issue worse rather than better), a pill to lower blood pressure (and cholesterol which is definitely not the way to go), and on and on.
The greed is (of course) far more obvious. After all, those various pills you’re being given are amazing for profit margins. Make no mistake: sick people are far more profitable than healthy people!
Get Off the Hamster Wheel
For many patients who have suffered with chronic conditions for years, they’ve had doctors and specialists prescribe one drug after another who never get to the bottom of their problem.
They’re never “cured” because the actual cause is never identified and treated.
It becomes a vicious cycle of changing prescriptions, follow up appointments, more specialists, and ultimately, the “fault” lands on the patient themselves for either imagining their problems or not following the medical person’s horrible advice.
We need to go further upstream in the health cascade and deal with the true causes behind disease conditions! Trying to eliminate the disease once you have it is much harder to do.
It has been reported that eliminating the biggest killers – heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes – would raise average life expectancy to almost 100 years.
Skipping Routine Maintenance is Deadly
Now, it’s a sad truth that many of us (even most of us) wait until it’s far too late to slow aging processes. Just like stopping disease before you get it, slowing aging before you get there is a smarter plan. This doesn’t mean you can’t make the last decades of your life wonderful! You can still control your health outcomes, mental acuity, and more…but anti-aging is not as easy as everyone makes it sound.
Let me give you an example in terms of the aging of a motor car. Typically, a well-used car will last 10-20 years and then fall apart, becoming too unsafe to be repaired. The better the maintenance, the longer it takes to crumble. If you omit routine oil changes and other essential care, the car will mechanically fail sooner. Yet some of the classic cars, which are 80, 90 or even more than 100 years old, are in sweet running order and perform reliably. Why is that?
The answer is obvious: they’ve been properly looked after.
It’s exactly the same with the human body. Do you want to be a classic car a hunk of junk? I doubt many would choose the latter (purposely). And yet…that’s what most people do by default. They spend the first half of their life skipping oil changes, coasting on bald tires, and putting garbage fuel in the tank to save a few bucks…and then they find themselves on the side of the road with a perplexed expression.
We have one proven advantage over mechanical objects. Our bodies can regenerate to a considerable degree. It has been a long-standing medical hoax to tell people they have to put up with miserable health conditions simply because doctors don’t yet have the cure.
The fact is, almost all disease is reversible.
That’s right. I said that. Nature can fix things when given the chance and the right raw materials. To invoke the car comparison once more, think of old rusting hulks that have been salvaged and tenderly nursed back into fine running condition by devoted enthusiasts.
People can do the same thing with their bodies!
Nature is always a better source than pharmaceutical drugs. There are many exciting ways to gain back your health, even after many years of believing you were stuck with it. Maybe you’ve heard of people curing themselves of arthritis, cancer, heart disease, and so on, without resorting to drastic medical intervention. These results show the way for us all.
There is a widely held belief that being healthy means behaving like a freak and missing out on all the fun. This is just not true. Take a little care now, think ahead, and you can reap the harvest of goodness for many years to come.
It’s more about increasing the quality of life. It’s about feeling good, remaining active, keeping your mind alive and alert, staying free from pain and stiffness, and continuing with human feel-good activities that are critical to who we are.
It’s a great paradox of our lives that during the process of striving and achievement, that just as we reach the pinnacle of our careers, the top of the corporate ladder, and social life, biology begins to let us down. Just as we reach the dreams we aspired to, and have the time and the money to fulfill them, we find ourselves facing stroke, heart disease, and cancer.
Health and vitality are a choice. While many may think health is dished out to us at random, it’s not so. Health is earned like an investment – a little set aside each week or month will result in fruitful rewards in later years. Far too many squander their health resources and discover too late that by a certain age their bank account is empty!
We won’t live longer unless we are healthier. Adding years to your life is also a matter of adding life to your years! Do not fear aging. Fear disease but be elated that it is possible to slow aging processes that leave you feeling broken down and sick.
Right now, you need to read my book How To Live Beyond 100 Years for all the tips and tricks to boosting your health, turning back the clock, and living to a strong ten decades.
You can indeed slow aging and recover your health! All it takes is answering one simple question: do you want to be a classic car or an old clunker? It’s up to you!
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