In the 13th Century, the philosopher Roger Bacon (c.1214-1294)believed that the secret to a long and healthy life was depending on the following: exercise, good hygiene, inhaling the breath of a young virgin, a healthy diet, and proper rest. To be able to live to the age of eighty in the 13th century was quite an impressive achievement, when you consider that there was poor sanitation, there were no antibiotics, and no medical care.

Going up in time to the year 2004, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a large study that showed healthy seventy- to ninety year old people who adopted the Mediterranean diet, used alcohol in moderation , took physical activity, and a nonsmoking lifestyle had a 50% decrease in the rate of death. These results are not far off from what Roger Bacon stated more than seven hundred years earlier, with the exception, of course, of inhaling the breath of a young virgin.
These days, research has included some more factors that showed to increase your changes of living a long live. These include: Good genetics. People who’s parents lived to an old age should have more change of also living a long life. The specific genes involved in the human aging process are still unknown.

Increased lipoprotein size and increased HDL cholesterol levels in your blood.
There is some evidence that components of your cholesterol may be protective factors for heart disease and stroke, usually seen by people who live to be one hundred . Being lucky! Not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We all know of people who have been in a bad car accident or were the victim of a violent crime. Others have rare and unexplained illnesses.

Proper preventive medical care.
What is preventive medicine? Taking proper steps to avoid the development of illnesses is important, also the early diagnosis of illnesses .That’s why prevention can take several forms. It can involve removing one or more risk factors that can lead to the development of a disease. To quite smoking, for example, may help in preventing a heart attack or stroke.

Trying to identify a disease at an early stage before it gets to a serious illness or death. For example, a colonoscopy attempt to identify and remove small polyps in the colon before they turn into colon cancer. Keeping a close watch on people who have already an illness. Women who have had breast cancer in the past have a much higher risk to develop further breast cancer and will need closer monitoring.

Does proper preventive screening for an elderly patient exist? There are no clear guidelines for the proper screening of an elderly person. Part of the confusion is that there are so many variables among the elderly. Many of the medical specialty societies don’t agree as to which tests are suitable to order for elderly patients. This is another problem.

Is a yearly physical exam useful? We are used to the idea that a physical exam every year is an essential factor to assure that we stay healthy. There are different ideas of what should be included in this exam. Most doctors believe that it should involve a full discussion of all health care issues, a full head to-toe examination, and lab work. The truth is that it has not been proven that this standard format has any benefit for detecting new, potentially life- threatening diseases. It is however an opportunity to discuss exercises and to make sure the patient is up to date on his or her immunizations and cancer screening.

Research has shown that yearly ordered test in otherwise healthy seniors are often not beneficial. These tests include: chest x-ray complete blood cell count (CBC) blood chemistry panel electrocardiogram (EKG)
On the surface, these tests seems to be useful. But in practice, ordering these tests as a routine each year will rarely identify any new diseases.

Celery belongs tot the parsley family, and contain compounds that could help lower your blood pressure and perhaps help prevent cancer. Celery also contains some essential nutrients, like potassium, vitamin C and calcium, and is also a good source of insoluble fiber.
According to laboratory tests with animals, it showed that celery has the ability to lower cholesterol. In a study conducted at the National University of Singapore, laboratory animals were fed a high-fat diet,plumping them up for 8 weeks and raising their cholesterol. Then they gave some of the animals celery juice. The animals that drank the celery juice had significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol than the animals that didn’t received any celery juice.

Lower Blood Pressure
Celery has been used in Asia as a remedy for people with high blood pressure. In the United States, a man named Mr. Le with mild high blood pressure, persuaded researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Instead of cutting back on salt as his doctor advised, he began eating four stalks of celery per day. Within a week, his blood pressure had dropped from 158/96 to 118/82.
An assistant professor of medicine and pharmacological and physiological science at the University of Chicago, W. J. Elliott, MD, PhD, decided to put celery at the test. Test animals were injected with a small amount of 3-n-phthalide, a chemical compound celery that is found in celery. Within a week, the blood pressure of the animals dropped an average of 12 to 14 percent.

“Phthalide was found to relax the muscles of the arteries that regulate blood pressure, allowing the vessels to dilate.” according to Dr. Elliott. In addition, the chemical reduced the number of “stress hormones” called catecholamines in the blood. This may be helpful because stress hormones typically raise blood pressure by causing blood vessels to constrict.

If you have high blood pressure and would like to give celery a try, use this strategy recommended by Asian practisioners. Eat four to five stalks of celery every day for a week, then stop for three weeks. Then start over and eat celery for another week. But don’t overdo it and eat celery by the pound, warns Dr. Elliott. Each celery stalk contains 35 milligrams of sodium, and for some people, this can cause blood pressure to go up instead of going down. “Eating a ton of celery can be dangerous if you have salt-sensitive hypertension.” says Dr. Elliott.

Cancer Prevention
Celery contains compounds called acetylenics, which proved to stop the growth of tumor cells. Celery also contains compounds called phenolic acids, which block the action of hormone like substances called prostaglandins. Some prostaglandins are thought to encourage the growth of tumor cells. Thirdly, celery contains compounds called coumarins, which help prevent free radicals from damaging cells. That gives celery a one-two-three punch against cancer.

Skin problems
As celery is such a sweet, succulent stalk, it has to produce its own pesticides to protect it from hungry fungi. These compounds protect the celery, however, they could do humans some harm. For some people, getting these compounds in the diet, or even through the skin, can make their skin very sensitive to sunlight. So much so that they can get sunburns after they have spent even a short period of time in the sun.
If you begin having skin problems after eating celery, stop eating it. You have to wash celery thoroughly before you eat it . That way you remove any fungi that may have formed on the plant, which sometimes causes the production of those compounds.
Keep the flavonoids
Don’t be tempted to cut up celery to eat later. It’s best to eat the celery soon after you cut it. After only 24 hours in the fridge, the flavonoids are consider ably decreased, according to researchers in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Save the leaves
While celery stalks are certainly a healthy snack, however, the leaves contain the most potassium, vitamin C and calcium.

Eat it any way you like it.
In contrast to many other foods, that lose nutrients during cooking, most of the compounds in celery will be preserved during cooking. Eating a cup of celery raw or cooked, provides about 9 milligrams of vitamin C, which is 15% of the Daily Value; 426 milligrams of potassium of 12% of the Daily Value, and 60 milligrams of calcium, or 6% of the Daily Value.

Cantaloupe is an unusual word for a fruit, but when we learn that cantaloupe was first cultivated in the Italian village Cantalupo, around AD 1200, it makes more sense.
This brightly colored fruit belongs to the same family as the cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and gourd. It is filled with strong compounds with many health benefits. It helps to protect your sight, controls your blood pressure, lowers your cholesterol level, keep your blood running smoothly, and protect you against cancer.

“Cantaloupe belongs to one of the rare fruits or vegetables which are a rich source of two potent antioxidants: vitamin C and beta-carotene,” says John Erdman, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Both of these antioxidant compounds have been shown to protect against cancer, heart disease and other age-related health problems, such as cataracts.

Cantaloupes are charged with carotenoids, the pigments that give fruits and vegetables their bright colors and offer powerful health protection. According to a study in the Netherlands, eating carotenoid-rich fruits results in a 35% lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in developed countries.

Cantaloupe protect you also for another sight problem: catarcats. Another study found that women who received the most vitamin A through their diet, reduced their risk of developing cataracts by 39%. When beta-carotene comes inside the body, it is converted to vitamin A. Still another study found that people whose diets included the most vitamin A, halved their risk of cataract surgery.

As I wrote before, antioxidants are compounds that neutralize free radicals, which can cause cellular changes that can lead to heart disease, cancer and cataracts.

Vitamin C, Like potassium, helps to keep your arteries clear and a smooth blood flow by preventing bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing and clogging the artery walls. Another use of vitamin C by our body is the production of collagen, a protein that makes up skin and connective tissue.

Cantaloupe is an excellent source of vitamin C and beta-carotene. One cup contains 68 mg vitamin C, which is 113% of the Daily Value for this vitamin. Half a cantaloupe provides 5 mg beta-carotene, which is about half of the daily amount recommended by most experts.

Important Tips
Cut cantaloupe under water to keep it longer fresh. Scientists from the USDA found that, when you slice cantaloupe under water, it short-circuits the signals that plant cells send to each other when they detect an injury, like being sliced.

Buy them ripe.
Cantaloupe contains more beta-carotene when it is ripe. The challenge is that melons are often picked while they are still unripe so that they can make it through the shipping process undamaged. To check for ripeness, tap the melon and listen for a hollow sound. Then lift the fruit to make sure that it’s heavy for its size. Finally, smell the fruit to make sure that it exudes a sweet, musky parfume. (The smell shouldn’t be too strong; an excessively strong smell indicates an overripe fruit.) If there is no smell, don’t buy it and try another one.

Check the stem.
There shouldn’t be one. Mature cantaloupes will only have a smooth, symmetrical basin where the stem once was and flesh that yields slightly to pressure.

Set it out.
Leave a firm cantaloupe at room temperature for several days to allow it to become softer and juicier. Once’s it’s ripe, put it in the fridge.

Eat it quickly.
Vitamin C degrades quickly when exposed to air, so it’s important to eat cantaloupe fairly soon after cutting, says Dr. Erdman. This is in particularly necessary when the fruit is cut into small pieces, which significantly increases the amount of air to which it’s exposed. Research found that cantaloupe cubes lost 25% of their vitamin C content and 10-15% of their carotenoids after being exposed to air for 6 days.

Research has shown that when people are missing certain nutrients, their mental performance drops. When people meet their nutritional needs, they are okay. But even if they are not getting enough water their mind can get fuzzy. The thirst mechanism slows down when we age. The result is, that we’re not always aware immediately that we need water. However, your diet is not responsible for all memory problems, but when everything else is okay, it may be what you eat that cause you to slow down.

Your brain needs vitamin B
The most essential nutrients to keep your mind sharp are probably the vitamin B complex. Your body needs the B vitamins for the transformation of food into mental energy and for the manufacturing and repairing of brain tissue. “Thiamin, niacin and vitamin B6 and B12 deficiencies can all cause mal function of the brain”, says Vernon Mark, MD, author of Reversing Memory Loss. In fact, pellagra, a niacin deficiency, used to be the main cause of admissions into mental hospitals,” he explains. Research has shown that when children are given 5 mg thiamin instead of the Daily Value of 1.5 mg, they achieve remarkable higher scores when they are given tests of mental functioning, Dr. Mark adds.

Nowadays many cereals, breads and pastas are enriched with thiamin and niacin, so that most people are getting enough of these vitamins. Niacin deficiencies have become extremely rare, especially in this country. But in older people or those who frequently drink alcohol, levels of thiamin can drop low enough to cause memory problems, says Dr. Mark.

The best way to make sure you get enough brain-boosting B vitamins is to eat foods that contain enriched grains. One cup of enriched spaghetti, for example, has 0.3 mg of thiamin, or 20% of the Daily Value (DV), and 2 mg of niacin, or 10% of the DV. Meat is also a good source for getting these nutrients. Three ounces of pork tenderloin, for example, provide 0.8 mg of thiamin, 53% of the DV, while 3 ounces of chicken breast deliver 12 mg or 60% of the DV for niacin.

It’s not so easy when we get older, to get extra amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, because it’s harder for the body to absorb them. After the age of 55, it’s common to be low in these vitamins, because the lining of the stomach is changing. When you get older, it’s a good idea to get more than the DV of both of these nutrients. Vitamin B6 is abundant in baked potatoes, bananas, chickpeas, and turkey. One baked potato provides 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, 20% of the DV. and one banana provide 0.7 mg or 35% of the DV. For vitamin B12, meat and shellfish are good choices.

Maintaining blood flow to the brain
There should be sufficient blood flow to the brain in order to avoid memory problems. When adequate blood flow is not maintained, the brain and memory begin to perform poorly. The lack of blood to the brain is often caused by a buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries, the same problem that leads to heart disease and stroke. This condition is not only preventable through diet, it is even at least partially reversible. The primary cause of cardiovascular disease – clogged arteries in the heart and the brain – is too much saturated fat in the diet. Keep your intake of saturated fat low by cooking with small amounts of liquid oils, such as olive or canola oil. instead of margarine or butter and by minimizing your intake of fatty foods, such as full-fat mayonnaise, rich desserts and fatty meats.

It’s also important to get plenty of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, compounds that block the effects of harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals.This is important because when free radicals damage the harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, it becomes stickier and more likely to stick to artery walls.

Studies have proved that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, researchers studied nearly 5,500 people and found that those who ate diets rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and E, lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.Citrus fruits, kiwifruit, sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage are packed with vitamin C. While whole grains, nuts, milk and egg yolks contain vitamin E.

The combination of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and reducing fat in your diet will help to keep your arteries clear, including those leading to your brain. Actually, it can help restore blood flow through your arteries that have already started to close up.

Coffee can Improve Memory Function It’s not without reason that millions of Americans jump start their day with steaming cups of coffee. The caffeine in coffee has been shown to improve mental functioning, including memory.

In one study, Dutch researchers used a chemical to block short-term memory in 16 healthy people. They found that giving these people 250 milligrams of caffeine – about the amount of 3 cups of coffee – quickly restored their powers of recall. However,too much coffee can be bad, if only the java buzz wears off within 6 to 8 hrs. For some people, at least, the after-coffee slump can result in mental fogginess.

Everyone has different reactions to caffeine. For people who rarely drink coffee, having a cup or two can definitely improve performance and memory. But if you drink coffee throughout the day, you quickly build up tolerance and you won’t get the same benefits. In fact, too much caffeine can make you nervous and reduce your concentration.

Don’t kill your brain cells “Killing brain cells is not the best way to get a high score in the memory department. Yet that’s exactly what many of us do to our grey matter. Drinking too much alcohol can cause a significant decrease in memory function.” In fact, even small amounts of alcohol can damage cells in the brain responsible for memory.

Many doctors recommend to stop drinking alcohol all together to keep your mind at its sharpest. At the very least, it’s a good idea to limit yourself to one or two drinks – meaning 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 11/2 ounces of liquor – a day. When you do drink, choose red wine. It contains resveratrol, a compound that may keep your brain young.

Optimal Diet for your Brain
You can’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia altogether, but you can keep them at bay longer with a heart-healthy diet that focuses on the nutrients that have been found to be critical for brain function and aging.

Aim for a body mass index of 23 to 25
Being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension, which leads to vascular disease and brain damage.

Choose Dairy
Eat one serving of low-fat, low-sugar dairy once a day, such as milk, plain yogurt, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese. Epideemiologie studies show that people who drink milk are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Toast to a young brain
Drink one glass of red wine or 4 ounces of purple grape juice or pomegranate juice a day. They contain resveratrol, a compound that doctors believe activates a gene that is associated with longevity.

Eat berries
When you eat one cup of berries a day, it gives your brain resveratrol, and other flavonoids, that strengthens your resistance against the development of chronic diseases associated with aging.

Drink some juice
Drink 8 ounces of fruit juice high in vitamin C daily. Three times a week, substitute a glass of vegetable juice that you buy or make on your own for the fruit juice. Antioxidants and other compounds in those juices help protect the brain from dementia.

Include fish oil in your diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids are powerful agents for a healthy heart and arteries. When you eat oily cold water fish such as sardines or mackerel you will ensure that you get enough omega-3. You can also substitute with 2,000 to 3,000 mg of fish oil or flaxseed oil per day.Walnuts are also rich in omega-3. Eating 8 to 10 walnuts per day or using walnut oil in your salads of dark green vegetables will help protect your brain.

Drink green tea every day.
Green tea is rich in antioxidants and has proved to reduce the risk of dementia. Experts recommend drinking one to two cups a day.

Use Multivitamins
To include those in your diet is particularly important for older, inactive adults who’s calorie intake doesn’t supply the micro nutrients that they need. Choose a multivitamin without iron or reduced iron if yo ‘re not anemic or menstruating.

Consider vitamin D supplements
Vitamin D is a new shining start in the role of brain development and function and many people are deficient without knowing it. We get about 95% of our vitamin D from sunlight, but young people who work long hours and elderly adults who are home bound often don’t get enough sunlight to fill their vitamin D requirements.

Avoid omega-6 fats The omega-6 fatty acids in corn- safflower- and sesame oils aren’t as healthy as omega-3’s found in olive and canola oil. So use those oils sparingly.

Nourish Your Brain
An overall brain-healthy diet is low in refined carbohydrates, (Found in sugars, baked food, candy, and other sweets, for example), red meats and trans fats. It’s high in fatty fish, poultry, soy protein, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

We can get easily motivated and get started with some form of exercise, when we realize the large number of health benefits which we can get from physical fitness.

One excellent study was conducted by well known exercise expert Dr Kennith Cooper who followed 13,344 men and women for 15 years. This meticulous research, taking into account all major variables, like age, family history, personal health history, smoking, blood pressure, cardiovascular condition, and insulin metabolism, showed that, at the fifteen year follow-up, reduced risk of death was closely correlated with physical fitness. This included death from cardiovascular diseases, a variety of cancers, and even accidents.

Physical activity strengthen your heart & lungs.
Many studies prove that with exercise your body’s vital capacity will be maintained, and as a result adequate oxygenation of tissues will also maintained. The health benefits of restoring vital capacity are superior to any drug or medical treatment.

Exercise protects blood pressure
In a typical study, sedentary hypertension patients, aged 55 to 78 years were followed. They all had elevated blood pressure. After they participated in an exercise program, systolic blood pressure went down by a whopping 20 mmHg.
Regular exercise will lower blood pressure in almost everybody.

Physical activity lowers cholesterol
Cholesterol is essential to every function of your body. It forms part of all organs, including your heart and your brain. Recent research showed that average cholesterol levels in runners and bodybuilders ranged between 158 mg/dl and 183 mg/dl. It proves that exercise makes the healthy difference.

Exercise and Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular diseases are far out our biggest health problem. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. Almost 50% of all deaths each year from heart disease and cancer combined, account for and affects nearly 14 million.More than twice as many Americans are killed as all cancers, 9 times as many as all other lung and liver diseases together, and 28 times more than all forms of diabetes. There are good reasons to tell everybody who want to begin with an exercise program to have a thorough medical examination and physicians approval before they start.

Cancer prevention
Dr Kenneth Cooper’s study showed that incidence of all forms of cancer was closely related with lack of physical activity. Unfit men and women where 300% more likely to develop cancer. But the best findings from this study is that you have to move only a smidgen out of couch potato land to prevent cancer big time.

Exercise against all diseases
The right exercise maintains your heart, lungs, your muscles, your bones, a healthy level of body fat, even your intestinal function. In healthy people the right exercise completely protects glucose tolerance against the degenerative changes in insulin metabolism that lead to adult-onset diabetes.

Research has revealed the mayor way in which physical exercise protect you against all diseases. It started with evidence that physical activity increases overall white blood cells. Then came more precise findings that moderate exercise increases bodily production of disease fighting components of the immune system. There is no longer doubt that the right exercise strengthen your immunity.

Exercise is a medicine to create a positive change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states.
When we have health, we have hope, and when we have hope, we have everything.

If you like all of the above, I can recommend one of the best exercise programs on the internet to improve and maintain your overall health!

We were told by our parents to eat carrots, because they are good for our eyes. When my mother was scrubbing carrots, I always liked to eat one raw.

But researchers discovered that the nutritional value of carrots goes far beyond supporting our eyes. They contain a range of compounds that can help prevent certain cancers, heart attacks and lower cholesterol.

A substance that gives carrots their orange color, called beta-carotene, contains many health benefits. Carrots are one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, an antioxidant compound that fight free radicals. Just one cup of carrots provide more than 250% of the daily amount recommended by experts.

At Women’s Hospital in Boston, researchers found that women who ate just five servings of four raw carrot sticks a week had 54% lower risk of getting ovarian cancer, due to the carotene in carrots.

And another research in Sweden, involving 61,000 women, found that those who ate four to six servings of antioxidant-rich carrots a week cut their risk of the most common form of kidney cancer by 54%.

Other studies, involving large populations, showed that low levels of beta-carotene gives people a higher risk of developing certain cancers, especially lungs and stomach cancers.

Carrots are not only good for your body cells, but they are very good for your heart as well. It has been proved, that eating large amounts of carrots rich in beta-carotene and related compounds may reduce the risk of heart disease. “A half-cup serving of cooked carrots contains 12 milligrams of beta-carotene, about twice the amount you need to get the benefits,” says Paul Lachance, PhD, executive director of the Nutraceuticals Institute at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

According to a research in Germany, eating carotene-rich foods can reduce your blood levels from a substance that can cause cardiovascular disease called c-reactive protein (also known as CRP). In the study men who ate eight servings of fruits and vegetables containing beta-carotene reduced their CRP levels by 42% in just four weeks.

Carrots not only contain beta-carotene, but also alpha-carotene, which appears also to fight cancer. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that lung cancer appeared more often in men with low intake of alpha-carotene then in men who ate more.

Better Vision
The beta-carotene in carrots works in two ways: by converting the vitamin A in the body and helping to improve vision.
This better vision effect is a well known fact. Researchers in World War II cultivated carrots with high beta-carotene content to help pilots to see better at night.

Vitamin A helps vision by forming a purple pigment that is needed by the eyes in order to be able to see in dim light.
This pigment, called rhodopsin, is located in the light-sensitive area of the retina. The more vitamin A you get, the more rhodopsin your body is able to produce. Consequently, people with low levels of vitamin A may suffer from night blindness, which make it difficult to drive after dark.

Apart from giving you better vision, carrots also help to protect your vision. A study in Boston at Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that eating carotenoid-rich food was linked to a 36% lower risk of the leading cause of severe vision loss in the elderly – age related macular degeneration.

How to get the most out of carrots
Look for new-colored carrots with more powerful pigments at your supermarket: lycopene-rich red and lutein-laden yellow in addition to the usual orange. When buying carrots with the green still on it, cut it off before storing them. Otherwise, those pretty leafy tops will act like nutrient vampires, sucking out the vitamins and moisture before you can eat the carrots. Eat them cooked. In general, raw vegetables are more nutritious than cooked, but carrots can benefit from a little cooking. This is because carrots contain a lot of dietary fiber – more than 2 grams in one carrot – which traps the beta-carotene, says John Erdman, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois. Cooking carrots can help free beta-carotene from the fiber cells, making it easier for your body to absorb. But when you cook carrots, you will lose some of the nutrients in the cooking water. You can save them by using the cooking water to make soup or in a sauce. Another way to release more of the beta-carotene from carrots is to make a carrot cocktail. Processing carrots in a blender breaks apart the fibers, allowing the beta-carotene to escape.

When you roast carrots, it brings out their flavors. Toss 1 1/4- inch pieces of carrot with salt, pepper, and a little extra-virgin olive oil. Bake, covered for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes longer. It’s important to add some olive oil. Beta-carotene needs a small amount of fat to get through your intestinal wall and into your body, says John Erdman, PhD, of the University of Illinois. So the next time you’re serving carrot sticks, you may add a small amount of a dip, such as a ranch dressing..

Related Articles – eyesight, beta-carotene, cancer protection, carotenoid, lycopene,