Anti-Ageing, or Healthy Ageing?
I could not tell you how many times I get an invite to a webinar, online summit, or to review the latest and most fantastic products about anti-ageing. However, I've turned them all down - so far. Let me explain why.
Anti-Ageing is usually code for hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and even things like injecting the plasma extracted from young people! It sounds like vampirism: Wealthy elite sucking on healthy but poor young people selling their blood for $50 a bag. I understand this is increasingly popular in places like Silicon Valley. However, I find both of these morally objectionable and unhealthy over the long term, if used for vain people who are otherwise in good health.
HRT may be necessary for a minority of medical conditions but not for an otherwise healthy person who feels the ravages of time and neglect, plus a dash of ageing. For this second group, HRT is a deal with the Devil, which means there is payback later on, usually in the form of the symbolic pound of flesh. Sure, one's hormones and neurotransmitters may be struggling due to lifestyle, nutrition and toxin factors, but this does not mean that one must immediately resort to replacement therapy by an external source, even if the replacement is bioidentical. When you replace something manufactured from within with an external supply, the already struggling internal systems become more dysfunctional. There is no credence to the claim that any hormone replacement gives the failing organs a rest. In practice, the opposite is true: the organs further weaken and may shut down completely, creating a progressive state of dependency, better known as addiction. This may be good for Big Pharma and the Anti-Ageing specialists, but bad for you!
Anti-Ageing Therapies: Younger today - Much older tomorrow!
I prefer to promote the concept of Healthy Ageing. Healthy Ageing consists of several strategies, which I list as follows, beginning during childhood and never letting up until it is time to meet your Maker, in no particular order:
A diverse and nutrient-dense diet whole foods diet.
Identify and avoid the ever-increasing number of environmental toxins such as chemicals, lead and arsenic.
Simple but effective methods to aid detoxification of metabolic and environmental toxins.
Regular, whole-body exercise.
Time out from modern living for rest and recovery and being one with Nature.
Identify and support one's organ systems that decline with age.
Identify emerging health risks and be at least 20 years ahead of the diseases.
There's a lot to cover here, so I'll touch on only the last two here.