I hear it every day - "I must be just getting older."  It is the most popular reason I hear for why my patients hurt.  I am not talking about just my 70 and 80 year old patients, I hear this from my 30 and 40 year old patients.  We seem to assume that getting older means getting weaker and more diseased.  Wouldn't it be good if we had a way to fight this decline?  Well we do.  For many years now it has been known that if you greatly reduce the number of calories consumed to almost a starvation level that health and longevity go way up.  This has been shown true in hundreds of studies on every type of creature you can think of.  Uniformly, when you cut back the calories, you increase the life span and health.

Exactly why this is true has not been understood until recently.  Research has now found that the key players in this fountain of youth are the genes that control our insulin levels.  As we reduce our insulin levels a gene gets turned on that has been called the "sweet sixteen" gene because returns test subjects to their youthful selves.  The original research was done on roundworms.  Drastically reducing calories turned down the gene for insulin production which in turn then turned on the "sweet sixteen" gene and caused the round worms to live 6 times as long and stay young and vigorous.  As they reproduce this testing on rats and monkeys they are finding the same results.  We have these same genes.

Significantly, introducing just a tiny amount of sugar to the diets of these worms completely reversed the beneficial results.  All carbohydrates turn into sugar in your digestive tract and sugar stimulates huge releases of insulin.  Insulin causes you to age more rapidly.  Insulin switches off the youth gene.   The well known benefits to very low calorie diets for longevity come down to reducing insulin levels.  In simple terms - to live longer and be healthier, stop eating carbohydrates that cause a rise in your insulin levels.  The simpler the carbohydrate is the more it raises your insulin levels.  Sugars are the simplest carbohydrates.  Flours and starches that are refined also quickly raise your insulin levels.

I find it fascinating that the basic message of health and diet practitioners in the alternative fields for the last 70 years has always included "don't eat sugar or refined flours".  Now 70 years later science is finally discovering how and why they were right.  The message has been getting gradually more "scientific" with the development of the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load concepts.  But the basic message is still the same - eat fresh vegetables, fresh meats, limited fruits, and stay away from the grain products and sugars.  This is the Elixir of Youth.  This turns on the genes for a long and health life.

The other half of the Fountain of Youth story is pretty obvious - don't poison the fountain with poisonous foods and chemicals.  Stay away from rancid seed oils, excess fructose, and poisonous additives and chemicals that are designed to kill or stop the natural decay of our foods.  If the natural bacteria, molds, and yeasts, can't live on our food than neither can we.  Nobody likes spoiled food, but what we do to prevent it from spoiling makes it inedible.  The answer is fresh food only.  If it can sit on a shelf, it probably is no longer a good food for us to eat.

Much greater detail on this subject can be found here.

In a related study I read this week, scientists have found that the brain actually forms its own insulin.  Just as our modern stressed out bodies are forming resistance to insulin, they are finding that it is this same insulin resistance that may ultimately be the cause of Alzheimers and cognitive decline.  Brain cells literally starve to death because they can not process the sugars for energy.  The article looked into letting patients brains use an alternative energy source called ketones which come from the breakdown of fat.  This is the natural energy the body uses when we live a low carbohydrate lifestyle.  It was particularly noted how easily the body uses coconut oil to form ketones for energy and suggested that this would form an ideal source of brain energy for older patients.

This idea has been used since the 1920's for treating epilepsy and schizophrenia.  Now they are finding it may be the answer for many brain disorders.  To make this work however, the patient has to avoid almost all carbohydrates.  This idea keeps coming around over and over.  We generally hate this idea because we are so terribly addicted to our sweets and breads.  It was this addiction in myself that motivated me to invent my Miracle Protein Bread.  I knew I needed a low carbohydrate lifestyle to get healthy, but I still wanted breads and sweets.  So I invented low carbohydrate versions of my favorite foods.  It is working for me.

Seriously consider moving up to a low carb lifestyle for 2011... especially now that we have the official proof that it is the Fountain of Youth to keep us healthy and young.        

Good Journey,

David

 

 

david@fairoakshealth.com

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

Somatic Therapies

 

Lorena Morales