Wellness News

New Aging Medicine
Angelena Craig

Each of us has a desire to enjoy a high level of health, vitality and well being.  Until recently most of us counted on the conventional or allopathic medicine model taught in most Western medical schools. Ancient methods coming from the past of from the East, such as naturopathic or homeopathic or herbal medicine or massage,  yoga, tai chi, chi gung were largely dismissed as unacceptable or unproved.

All that is rapidly changing.  Medical schools and even traditional doctors are now, finally,  paying attention to the prevention of disease. Many old school doctors are much more open to integrating holistic health methods into their practices.

As an example, we now know that taking vitamin supplements is essential because we do not get the basic nutrients we need in our foods.  Only recently have we learned the importance of taking vitamin D supplements. Normally we would get enough D through the sun, but for those of us who live in climates lacking daily sun or are using sun blocks to immediately cover sun exposed skin, we need supplements in order to protect bones, preserve muscle strength and to give some protection against MS, diabetes and even cancer. Adults, depending on their age require from 200-600 IU of the vitamin each day. All this information has been researched and the evidence may be found in medical journals, and published on the Internet.

Medical research also is supporting evidence of how to stay healthy. The Mayo Clinic recently tested 30,000 women aged over 55 to see how many had healthy life style habits, the ones recommended by The American Institute for Cancer Research. They found that older women who followed these prescriptions showed a reduced risk of dying from cancer to almost half by:

• Maintaining normal weight and gaining no more than eleven  pounds since age of eighteen. 
• Engaging in moderate exercise daily and vigorous physical act at least once a week.
• Eating five or more servings of vegetables and fruit daily.
• Limiting red meat to fewer than three ounces per day, limiting the daily           consumption of fats and salt, limiting alcohol to no more than one drink per day.
• Not smoking cigarettes.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and author of several books, is someone I highly respect because he refines medicine to the lowest common denominator so that we can all understand how to take care of ourselves. He has explained that the most important way to slow down the aging process and an early death is to normalize blood pressure. High blood pressure leads to heart disease and stroke which kills more of us than cancer.

So how do we bring blood pressure down? We can take the drugs which of course have may have some serious side effects OR we can choose to reduce the stress in our lives. Through exercise, eliminating the stressers where we can, changing our attitudes so that we do not react strongly with emotions, and practicing relaxation techniques.

You may respond by saying, “Easier said than done”, but if we do not take control of how we manage our health and well being, who will?

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