With a little more sleep and movement, a little less food and worry about trifles, you can delay and even prevent heart failure, strokes, obesity, diabetes, dementia and cancer. Famous American oncologist David Agus talks about how to live longer and maintain good health until old age.
The best treatment is prevention. It would seem that we are well aware of this. However, many continue, in the words of David Agus, to borrow from their own future. And sooner or later the debt has to be repaid. “Most of my patients could have avoided the disease if they had lived differently before meeting me,” he states with regret. Written by Agus, The Rules for a Healthy and Long Life* is a concise guide designed to make us feel as vibrant at 70 as we did at 20. The book consists of a list of practical recommendations that each of us can easily follow. Below are some of them.
About drinks
Red wine reduces the likelihood of heart disease. It is useful for women to drink no more than a glass, for men – no more than two a day. But it is better not to get carried away with juices. Think your body really needs ten carrots at a time? Or a pound of radishes? Juice is not a whole product, because healthy dietary fiber has been removed from it. When people say that juice made them feel better, what they are really saying is that juice has prevented them from eating fast food.
Read more:
- life and sugar
About food
A product that does not have a label or ingredient information is most likely “normal”. So stay away from shelves full of beautifully packaged bottles and boxes. The exception is vegetables and fruits of shock freezing. Also be aware of promotional tricks. If you have to listen to why it is to be eaten, then it is not to be eaten.
About the mode
Our body loves predictability. He needs a clear schedule of sleep and nutrition, as well as physical activity and medication. Volatility leads to a surge in cortisol, the stress hormone that gives the command to conserve fat and energy. In other words, if you don’t get enough sleep or don’t eat when you’re hungry, then your body will sabotage any attempt to slim down.
About movement
Physical activity, even regular walks several times a week, protects the white matter of the brain from shrinking at any age. But prolonged sitting, on the contrary, changes the metabolism for the worse, affecting parameters such as blood pressure, levels of the appetite hormone leptin, as well as glucose and cholesterol. You can exercise for two hours a day, but if you spend the other 22 hours still, it won’t improve the picture. So if you want to live longer, get up and move!
* D. Agus “A short guide to a long life” (Eksmo, 2014).