A Surefire Plan to Looking (and Feeling) Younger

While you can't prevent getting older, there are some steps you can take that will drastically affect the way you look and feel as you age.

There is a big correlation between how you look and how you feel--when most of us think of looking younger we picture someone with a glowing complexion, firm skin and a youthful energy, in other words we picture someone who looks healthy.

Well, looking healthy comes from the inside out, so the most important thing you can do is improve how you feel by fortifying your body with nutrients and rest. When you feel good on the inside, you will naturally look healthy on the outside too.

We've all seen those people who we know are "older" but yet they still "look great." Well, here is how you can become one of those people--and you don't need cosmetic surgery to do it. Plus, since you're addressing your health from the inside you will not only look great, but you'll feel great as well.

You Are What You Eat

There is a reason why the phrase "you are what you eat" became popular. I cannot stress enough how important diet is in the way you look and feel. If you choose to eat primarily junk food and processed food, not only are you not giving your body the nutrients it needs, but also you are consciously ingesting toxins that your body will have to work to remove.

On the other hand, if you eat a diet full of pure, whole foods, your body will be healthy and will have the nutrients to devote to things such as skin and hair. If you want the details of a diet that is truly anti-aging, check out my nutrition plan.

There are many factors that come into play in respect to diet and aging. Some scientists believe that cutting calories is an effective anti-aging strategy. I do believe that eating less is likely to be healthier for us in the long run. This is largely related to reductions in insulin levels, the major accelerant of aging. Insulin levels can be kept to a minimum by reducing or eliminating grains and sugar in your diet.

Consuming sugar and grains will increase your insulin level, and that is the equivalent of slamming your foot on the aging accelerator. There is simply no more potent way to accelerate aging than eating sugar and grains.

Along with the healthy diet described in my nutrition plan, there are certain foods that are particularly helpful to looking younger, such as blueberries.

Blueberries are rich in antioxidants that have anti-aging effects. Most fruits and especially vegetables contain antioxidants, but blueberries have been ranked #1 in antioxidant activity by the USDA when compared to 40 other fresh fruits and vegetables.

We now carry delicious and convenient Wild Blueberry IQ Softgel Capsules in our store that are made from whole fresh blueberries -- and contain 40mg of potent disease fighting anthocyanins per capsule -- more than any other available supplement!

Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, and this one is doubly beneficial because it can be eaten and applied directly to your skin. Coconut oil can be used in place of oils, margarine, butter or shortening and used for all your cooking needs. It can help you lose weight, or maintain your already good weight, reduce the risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol, among other things.

Plus, coconut oil can be used as a face and body lotion to reveal younger looking skin. Since it prevents destructive free-radical formation and provides protection against them, the coconut oil will not only bring temporary relief to the skin, but it will aid in healing and repairing. It can help to keep the skin from developing liver spots and other blemishes caused by aging and over exposure to sunlight, and it helps to prevent sagging and wrinkling by keeping connective tissues strong and supple.

In some cases it might even restore damaged or diseased skin.

If this sounds surprising, I encourage you to read "The Truth About Coconut Oil: Why it Got a Bad Rep When it's Actually Good." Also, be sure you only use a healthy and safe coconut oil, such as the premier virgin coconut oil we offer on this site.

Routine consumption of omega-3 fats through fish oil is another highly recommended method to feel and look younger. Fish oil contains high levels of the best omega-3 fats--those with the EPA and DHA fatty acids--and, as it is in pure form, does not pose the mercury risk of fresh fish.

Fish oil will help you to normalize your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. The Carlson brand of fish oil and cod liver oil, regularly tested by an independent FDA registered laboratory, is the most highly recommended for its potency and purity. I now offer the Carlson brand of fish oil and cod liver oil in my "Recommended Products" section, or you may be able to find this exceptional quality brand in your local health food store.

Also, make sure that you drink plenty of pure water throughout the day, as this will help to hydrate your skin and flush toxins from your body.

Smile During the Day and Get Your Beauty Sleep at Night

There is quite a bit of truth behind the term 'beauty sleep.' That's because when you sleep your body is able to repair cells and rest your heart and mind. It's imperative that your body has a chance to revitalize itself overnight.

Too many nights of missed sleep will show up on your face and will take a toll on your body too.

While you're awake make sure that you take some time to enjoy life. It's no illusion that stressful events seem to make wrinkles and gray hairs appear overnight.

Stress will wear you down both inside and out--it has been estimated that up to 90 percent of illness and disease is stress-related. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a type of psychological acupressure.

EFT is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page EFT manual for some guidelines on how to perform EFT.

By Dr. Joseph Mercola.com with Rachael Droege

Why Do Happy People & Optimists Live Longer?

By Paul J. Rosch, M.D.President, The American Institute of Stress Clinical Professor of Medicine and PsychiatryNew York Medical CollegeOriginally published in the Health and Stress, the newsletter (July 2005) of The American Institute of Stress

Numerous studies support the belief that people with an upbeat and positive perspective tend to be healthier and enjoy longer lives than those who are generally gloomy and cynical about the future.

Always expecting the worst was linked to a 25 percent higher risk of dying before age 65 in a very long-term California study of 1,500 healthy pre-adolescent boys who had been followed since 1921. (Seligman ME. Mayo Clin Proc. 2000;75:133-4)

In another report on senior citizens, researchers rated 1,000 Dutch men and women aged 65-85 with respect to their degree of optimism, health and longevity. Over the next 10 years, participants classified as being very optimistic had 55 percent fewer deaths from all causes and 23 percent less heart-related deaths than highly pessimistic controls. These benefits of optimism were stronger in men than women. (Giltay E. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2004; 61:1126-1135)

Stay Happy And Save Your Life

Harvard researchers also found cardioprotective effects when they followed 1,306 men who had been rated for optimism and pessimism based on responses to a questionnaire administered in 1986.

During the next 10 years, there were 31 deaths due to coronary disease, 243 instances of non-fatal myocardial infarction or documented evidence of coronary heart disease and 60 patients had complaints of angina. Men reporting high levels of optimism had almost half the risk of suffering any of these complications compared to peers classified as being very pessimistic.

In addition, a dose-response relationship was demonstrated between levels of optimism and each of the above adverse developments. (Kubzansky LD et al. Psychosomatic Medicine, 2001; 63:910-916)

It had previously been shown that highly optimistic patients had faster recovery rates following coronary artery bypass surgery and were half as likely to be rehospitalized over the next six months for complications or the need for a repeat corrective surgical procedure. (Scheier MF et al. J Pers Soc Psychol 1989; 57:1024–40, Scheier MF et al. Arch Intern Med 1999; 159:829–350)

Cheerful and optimistic heart disease patients were also more likely to live longer than others in a Duke report on 866 cardiac catheterization patients who were asked how much joy they typically felt and completed questionnaires to rate optimism and pessimism.

Over the next 11.5 years there were 415 deaths. It was found that cheerful patients with a positive outlook were 20 percent more likely to be alive than pessimists even after taking into account other factors like smoking and how ill the participants were at the time of catheterization. (Brummett BH et al. Int J Cardiol. 2005; 100:213-216)

Optimism Affects Your Stroke Risks

Optimists and happy people may be less likely to suffer a stroke according to a University of Texas study of 2,478 black and white senior citizens in North Carolina who completed a depression questionnaire consisting of yes or no answers to 20 items.

Sixteen of these were negative pronouncements such as "I felt that I could not shake off the blues, even with the help of my family and friends," "I thought that my life had been a failure" and "I felt fearful." The other four statements were positive: "I felt that I was just as good as other people" and "I felt hopeful about the future."

Baseline interviews conducted to gather information on sociodemographic, psychosocial and health status revealed no history of stroke. Similar studies were conducted annually for the following six years during which there were 340 strokes, 75 of which were fatal.

Researchers confirmed that increasing depression ratings were associated with a significantly higher incidence of stroke. But they also found that for each "yes" answer to a positive statement there was a 26 percent decrease in the risk of stroke.

Thus, "yes" answers to all four questions were associated with complete protection from stroke, which is the leading cause of long-term disability and the third most common cause of death in the elderly. This is one of the few studies to suggest that the benefits of optimism are not necessarily due to the absence of pessimism. (Oster GV et al. Psychosomatic Medicine 2001; 63:210-215)

Get Older, Be Happy

Similar rewards were reported in a study of 600 people over age 50 in a small Ohio town, who, in 1975, completed another questionnaire that included items dealing with attitudes about aging. They had been asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with such statements as "Things keep getting worse as I get older," "I have as much pep as I did last year" and "I am as happy now as I was when I was younger."

When researchers checked to see which participants were still alive in 1998, they found that optimists who viewed aging as a positive experience lived about 7.5 years longer than participants with a much darker perspective. One might argue that people in poorer health would be more apt to have negative responses and also more likely to die over the next 23 years.

However, even when self-reported health, socioeconomic status, overall morale, loneliness, race, sex, and other possible confounding factors were taken into account, a positive view of aging was still highly correlated with significantly increased longevity.

Indeed, this advantage was far greater than that afforded by lowering blood pressure or reducing cholesterol, each of which was found to lengthen life about four years. It was also superior to exercise, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight that increased longevity by only one to three years.

So why did the optimists live so much longer? The investigators suspected that it might be due to their greater will to live.

Previous studies have shown that people of all cultures are more likely to die in the days and weeks after holidays, anniversaries and other celebrations than they are in similar time periods leading up to them.

They checked back to see how the respondents had answered other questions in the original survey in which they had been asked to choose from three pairs of adjectives (empty-full, hopeless-hopeful and worthless-worthy) that best described their lives.

Those who answered "full," "hopeful" and "worthy" were classified as having a greater will to live.

Although this appeared to have some predictive value, it still did not completely explain why people with positive views lived so much longer so other factors must contribute to this. It was suggested that one likely candidate is how people respond to stress since older people with a negative view of aging exhibited higher stress levels. (Levy B et al. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 2002; 83:261-270)

Between 1962-1965, 839 Mayo Clinic patients completed the same questionnaire

Mercola.com

How to Enjoy What You Are Doing, No Matter What

In an ideal world, you would only have to do the things you loved to do, but reality is sometimes far from ideal, forcing you to deal with things that you’d rather leave for someone else.

Most successful people would agree that being able to do well on things you don’t like is essential for success, as consistent performance makes you stand out from your peers.

So, how do you motivate yourself to not only get through it, but actually find some enjoyment in the process? Because remember, you’re more likely to perform well if you enjoy what you’re doing.

This Lifehack article offers six great tips that can help you find your sweet spot, no matter what you’re doing.

• Look at the long-term benefit – Keep your eye on the future, and how this activity can benefit you later.
• Find what you can learn from it – There’s always something you can learn from any situation. If you really can’t think of anything, at least it can teach you to be persistent no matter what, which is a valuable lesson in and of itself.
• Think of doing it for someone you love
• Enjoy your interactions with other people
• Think and say something positive – Self-talk can make you or break you here. Focus on thinking and saying positive things, such as what a great learning experience this is, or how much you enjoy the people you’re working with, for example.
• Gather with passionate people – Although you might hate the activity, others may be quite passionate about it. Whenever you can, choose to be infected by others’ positive energy.

Having a positive attitude is equally important when it comes to optimizing and maintaining your good health. Choosing to be happy is very easy to say but may be difficult to put into practice in the real world. Nevertheless, the benefits to your health -- both mental and physical -- are very real, but it will take some effort to get there.

If you're struggling with a negative attitude, one of the best and most effective natural treatments at your disposal -- the Emotional Freedom Technique -- has nothing to do with a one-pill-cure and everything to do with removing the cause or reason why you may be self sabotaging yourself with limiting beliefs.

You tend to manifest what you believe, and most of us have some pretty wacky beliefs that ruin our happiness on a regular basis. If you haven't yet taken advantage of EFT I would strongly encourage you to do so.

Mercola.com

13 Tips to Actually Enjoy Exercising

A lot of people complain about not having enough time to stay in shape.

Are you one of them?

Does exercise always get bumped to the bottom of your list of things to do?

The problem may have nothing to do with time – it might just be that you hate exercise...

If that’s the case, some of these tips may be just what you need to change your attitude, and in return, exercise might just change your whole life.

For the full list of all 13 tips, see the Lifehack link below, but here are a few good ones:

• Tune Your Challenge Level – Don’t start out by running until you’re winded and dry-heaving into a ditch, and don’t just mess around in the gym without doing anything strenuous at all. Instead, make it your goal to set a workout routine that is challenging, but not overwhelming. Challenge is key to enjoyment.
• Set Goals – Don't just set weight-loss or muscle gain goals, set fitness goals. Set goals to beat your past records in distance, push-ups, or chin-ups you can do, weight you can lift, or degree you can stretch. Make it a game where you strive to beat your previous high-score.
• Music – This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but music can enhance a workout, making it far more enjoyable and less like “work.”
• Short Workouts – Don’t have time or enthusiasm to last an hour? Just go for twenty or thirty minutes. Shorter, but higher-intensity workouts can be better than longer ones and you can become more focused as a result.
• Make Exercise Your Stress Relief – Many swear by using the gym to relieve stress. Exercising can be cathartic and release negative feelings if you get used to using it that way. Then instead of avoiding the gym because of a stressful day, it will be your reason to go.
  Sources:
  Lifehack.org October 19, 2007
  
  Dr. Mercola.com

12 Steps to Aging Younger

Michael Roizen, M.D., and cofounder of RealAge.com, reviewed more than 35,000 medical and scientific studies about aging in search of answers to the questions of how and why we age.

In his new book, “YOU: staying young,” which is to be released on October 30, 2007, he includes these 12 steps that he believes can make your “real age” younger than what the calendar says.

For the full list, please see the Press of Atlantic City link, but here is a sampling of his tip sheet:

• Take one aspirin a day after the age of 40 to reduce your real age by 1.9 years
• Floss your teeth to gain 6.4 years
• Reduce your blood pressure to gain as much as 25 “real age” years
• Reduce your stress level to erase as much as 30 years from your real age
• Take your vitamins (C, E, calcium, D, folate, and B6) to gain 6 years
• Be active, as even small amounts of exercise can make your real age nearly 5 years younger

Sources:
Press of Atlantic City October 15, 2007

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

One of the primary reasons I am posting this article is to help you learn how to interpret some of the health news you see in the media from so called “experts” who really have no clue what they are talking about.

In many cases you will have far more insights about the subject than what they’re revealing.

As much as I agree with some of Dr. Roizen’s anti-aging-dozen, there are a few I would not recommend in their current form. I fully believe he would learn quite a bit in this area if he had some discussion with Dr. Ron Rosedale, who I view as one of the leading MD’s in the world on aging. He is one of the few MD’s who actually attends the anti-aging biology conferences that the leading scientists like Aubrey de Grey attend.

While Dr. Roizen’s leaves out the absolutely most important issue of controlling your insulin and leptin levels, he does have some good common sense, age-defying tips, such as:

• Laughter, to reduce stress and strengthen your immune system
• Becoming a lifelong learner, to keep your brain performing optimally
• Wearing your seat belt, for obvious life-extending reasons
• Quitting smoking -- ditto
• Exercising, for overall optimal health and longevity

However, some of his other recommendations need to be tweaked in order to truly be considered anti-aging, and some could use further guidance.

An aspirin a day does NOT keep the doctor away -- The fact that Dr. Roizen includes taking aspirin, which has absolutely no business being on this list is a strong indication that that he is relatively unaware of the true causes of aging. Using aspirin for heart disease has been controversial for years because aspirin is ineffective for heart disease prevention, and fraught with side effects.

A more natural and safer option is to consume natto. Natto (fermented soybeans) is a traditional Japanese food with a thousand year-old history. I have personally started to consume a serving of natto every other day. It contains nattokinase -- a powerful enzyme -- and is very high in vitamin K2, which is essential for building strong bones and promoting heart health.

One serving of natto is actually equivalent to taking eight capsules of the vitamin K2 that we sell, and it’s a fraction of the price, with far more benefits than isolated K2. Ancient Samurai consumed natto on a daily basis to increase their speed and strength.

To this day, the people of Japan consume natto regularly, and live longer. That is one of the reasons I started it. It is loaded with a bacteria called bacillus subtilus that may also preclude the need to take a probiotic. I think we all should regularly consume fermented foods and natto is the one that I have chosen to eat.

Remember, even though they are soy beans they are FERMENTED so virtually every negative element associated with soy is neutralized by the fermentation process.

Learn how to control your blood pressure NATURALLY – Part of his recommendation includes tracking your blood pressure, seeking quality medical care, and managing your chronic conditions.

Unfortunately, most allopathic “health” care includes putting you on pharmaceutical drugs if you have high blood pressure, which is anything but good for your long-term health. Some of the main causes for high blood pressure include eating a high-grain, high-sugar diet; not exercising; and dealing with excessive stress. Following a healthy nutrition plan, along with exercising and emotional rebalancing, will normalize blood pressure in most people.

Learn the quick and easy way to reduce your stress level, anywhere, anytime – Reducing your stress level is important for longevity. The problem is how and when to get it done.

Learning energy psychology tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique can be an invaluable addition to your stress-busting arsenal. It’s easy to learn, can be done quickly wherever you are, and is fully portable – as long as you have at least a couple of fingers on each hand.

Get your vitamins from whole foods! – If you’re taking vitamin supplements, you may or may not get what your body needs, as the majority of the supplements on the market are synthetic versions that are not bioavailable, meaning your body cannot absorb them. Your best bet is to focus on eating plenty of whole, organic foods grown locally.

With the proper diet, you won’t need to add many supplements.

I recently wrote an extensive article about life extension and the secrets to longevity, which included my list of age-defying lifestyle modifications.

If you missed Could You Live Longer Than 140 Years? I recommend reviewing it now for the complete list of my no-nonsense, all-natural recommendations that can help you live healthier and longer, while looking and feeling younger.

Dr. De Gray is one of the most well respected and authentic leading experts in the world on the topic of aging.

Mercola.com