Sound absurd? In a remote mountainous area of Russia
people routinely live well past 100 years. Their air and
water are pure. Due to the mineral composition of their
environment their foods and water are unusually high in chromium,
boron, selenium, and zinc. All of these contribute to the
destruction of free radicals.
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There are two parts of the aging process.
Understanding the difference could add many years to your life
because one of them can be controlled.
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What one can do nothing about is your biological clock which
is built into your genes. Changes like puberty, menopause,
and male pattern baldness are genetically programmed.
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Few people die from these genetically programmed changes.
They die from cancer, stroke and heart disease which is
mostly caused by free radical damage.
This is the part of the aging process that you can control.
A recent study at The University of Kentucky compared
the ability of old and young gerbils to run a complex maze.
The old gerbils made 2.5 times as many mistakes as the
youngsters. When the elderly gerbils were given a powerful
antioxidant, they were able to do almost as well as the young
gerbils.
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As animals age they have lower levels of key brain chemicals
called neurotransmitters. Their brain cells have been
damaged by free radicals. Upon taking powerful antioxidants,
the neurotransmitter levels rise dramatically and the
damaged brain cells return to almost normal.
Researchers find that our free radical damage is not
programmed. It’s rather random caused by high fat diets,
stress, unhappiness, lack of exercise, pollution, chemicals,
smoking, drugs, alcohol, and many other things.
If you can’t break the bad habits, you can neutralize the damage
to some extent with antioxidants.
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Until recently scientists had no idea why random cell
damage occurred. They believed we had "suicide genes or
hormones" which were set to go off. The bottom line was
that they thought the aging process was a "done deal" and
nothing could be done to materially add to our life span.
Now they believe much of the damage is done by free
radicals.
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You can live well past 100. These "bonus" years can be
good years, not spent in a hospital bed. It is true that
a healthy diet and frequent moderate exercise provide dramatic
benefits. There are many things one can do to add to the
length and quality of their life. The problem is, people refuse
to give up their bad habits. I rather fancy the idea of
fleeing from a bedroom window at age 110!
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In 1985 scientists discovered a strain of bacteria that could
survive the lethal environment of radioactive waste. One
of the ways radioactivity kills most forms of life, including
bacteria, is by releasing an avalanche of free radicals.
These bacterium generated high levels of antioxidants
(as much as 50 times more than other bacteria) and were able to
survive radiation.
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Heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
About two Americans die of this disease every minute.
This disease costs our nation over 100 billion dollars each year.
Your physician will tell you that high cholesterol causes
arteriosclerosis, but that’s only half the story.
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For years they believed all cholesterol was bad.
Now they realize that only one type - LDL - is bad.
Research has shown that clogging of the arteries is caused by
LDL which has gone rancid because it’s been attacked by free
radicals. When LDL goes bad it becomes a free radical
itself and attacks other cells. In time this chain reaction
affects all the arteries.
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According to The American Heart Association, "Recent research indicates that
so-called ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol undergoes oxidation,
similar to butter turning rancid, when exposed to certain toxic
particles called oxygen free radicals.
This ‘oxidized’ LDL seems to promote arteriosclerosis,
the buildup of fatty plaque in the walls of the arteries."
Within ten years mainstream medicine must come around to the
facts.
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OK, so you won’t change your diet, give up smoking, begin
exercising, etc., etc. While you cannot completely eliminate
the damage the above causes, you can darn sure ameliorate the
destruction. And the great thing about antioxidants are
they are risk free. It is a "Heads you win, tails you cannot lose"
proposition.
After an exam the Doc said, "Dan you must give up smoking, drinking and
sex immediately.". Dan winced and replied, "If I do will
I live to be 100?" "No", said the Doc,
"but it will seem that way!".
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